Girl · Germanic (via Old French) · International
Allison
AllisonSay it AL-i-sun
- Meaning
- Pet form of Alice, 'of noble kind' Bosworth-Toller, entry 940
- Say it
- AL-i-sun
- Other spellings
- Alison, Allyson, Alyson
Allison
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Allison meaning
Allison is an international girl's name of Germanic origin (via Old French).
Pet form of Alice, 'of noble kind'
Allison began as a medieval nickname for Alis or Alys, the old spelling of Alice, made with the French diminutive ending -on, so it is "little Alice". Alice itself goes back to the Germanic name Adalhaid, from adal, "noble", and heit, "rank" or "kind", which is why lists give Allison as "noble". Etymonline notes that it was popular in England and Scotland from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century. In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales the Wife of Bath names herself both Alys and Alisoun. Today it is used as a first name in its own right, often shortened to Ally.
Source: Bosworth-Toller, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (1898), entry 940 · entry æðele · See the entry · checked 25 Oct 2026
References: Online Etymology Dictionary, Allison · Bosworth-Toller, æðele · Wikipedia, Alisoun
Famous namesakes
- Alisoun, Chaucer's Wife of Bath
Popularity abroad
- #103 United States, girls 2025 (down 4 from 99 in 2024)
US Social Security Administration
Official birth registrations. India publishes no national name statistics.
Spellings
Allison · Alison · Allyson · Alyson