Allison

Where the name comes from

• Old French, then Middle English
  A pet form of Alice. The name works like 'little Alice.'
  Old French Alison, from Alis (Alice) plus a diminutive ending
  Allison began as an affectionate form of Alice. It was popular in England and Scotland from the 1200s to the 1600s. That is roughly 400 to 800 years ago. Even though it ends in '-son,' the girl's name does not mean 'son of.' Alison and Allison are spellings of the same name.
• Germanic (through the parent name Alice)
  Nobility, of noble kind (this is the meaning of Alice)
  Old High German Adalhaid, through Old French Aliz
  Allison itself does not mean 'noble.' That meaning belongs to Alice, the name it grew from. Name books often give Allison the popular meaning 'noble' or 'noble one' because of that link. The underlying elements are adal 'noble' and haid 'rank, worth.'
• English and Scottish (surname)
  As a family name: 'Alice's son.' In some families, 'Alan's son.'
  Middle English Alis or Alice + -son; also the pet form Alison
  The surname Allison comes from more than one source. It can mean 'Alice's son.' It can come straight from the woman's name Alison. In some Scottish families it is a late form of Allanson ('Alan's son'). In America, Allison was used now and then as a boy's name taken from the surname. That use faded by the mid-1940s.

Allison across traditions

• Medieval English literature. Alison is the young wife of a carpenter in Geoffrey Chaucer's 'The Miller's Tale.' Chaucer wrote it about 630 years ago. The story shows how ordinary the name was in medieval England.
• United States. Allison was almost unknown as a girl's name in the US before 1946. It then rose quickly. Peak decade: 1990s, when it ranked #41 for girls (SSA). In 2025 it ranked #103.
• Puerto Rico and Latin American families in the US. Allison is used in its English spelling in Spanish-speaking communities. SSA lists Allison among popular girls' names for 2019 births in Puerto Rico. There is no separate traditional Spanish form of Allison. The Spanish name in this family is Alicia, which comes from Alice.

Who carried it

• Alison (character in Chaucer's 'The Miller's Tale') (Late 1300s (about 630 years ago)): A literary character, not a real person. She is the young carpenter's wife in one of the best-known Canterbury Tales.

Forms in other languages

Alison, Allyson, Alyson, Allie, Ally

Allison in letter-number systems

Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.