Alt
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in English: Of a voice or instrument, high pitch; especially, the octave above the top line of the treble stave
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ɔlt/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Alt is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- DEGermany≈1 in 8.6K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 56K
- EEEstonia≈1 in 9.9K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 355 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 8.6K (inferred from the name graph)
≈26,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Germany, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
from ahd. alt, as. ald, nnd. oll 'old'; also 'the old man'
Sources 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Attested across 13 languages in the etymology graph.
How Alt is read(measured from records)
Alt is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English62%
Of a voice or instrument, high pitch; especially, the octave above the top line of the treble stave.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- German19%
from ahd. alt, as. ald, nnd. oll 'old'; also 'the old man'
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Personenname nach persönlichem Merkmal: 'alt'; aus mhd. alt, mnd. olt/alt. Bearer count: 4,879 tokens.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
Wohnstätten- oder Herkunftsname zu alt(en) Hof(en); 5831 Belege. Zeigt die a-Variante gegenüber O-Varianten (Olt) und Nebenformen mit Ald-.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
Familienname nach persönlichem Merkmal: „alt“; bezeichnete ursprünglich einen älteren Menschen. Bearer count: 4.879.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
Familienname aus einem persönlichen Merkmal: Beiname für einen alten, betagten Menschen.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Alt counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈26,000 est. | ≈1 in 54K | — | Alt | 6 |
| DE Germany | #751 | ≈9,300 est. | ≈1 in 8.6K | — | Alt | 150 |
| US United States | — | 5,906 | 1 in 56K | 5.9K | Alt | 355 |
| IT Italy | — | ≈890 est. | ≈1 in 70K | — | Alt | 9 |
| BR Brazil | — | 747 | 1 in 283K | 747 | — | 2 |
| CH Switzerland | — | 472 | 1 in 18K | 472 | Alt | 35 |
| AT Austria | — | ≈290 est. | ≈1 in 31K | — | Alt | 35 |
| FI Finland | — | 197 | 1 in 28K | 197 | — | 2 |
| EE Estonia | — | ≈120 est. | ≈1 in 9.9K | 113 | Alt | 9 |
| AG Antigua & Barbuda | #462 | — | — | — | Alt | 1 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup); the ee-stat-nimed register. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Jakob Altb. 1789DEGerman painter (1789-1872)
- Rudolf von Altb. 1812ATAustrian landscape and architectural painter (1812-1905)
- Franz Altb. 1824ATAustrian painter
- Albrecht Altb. 1883DEGerman Lutheran theologian (1883–1956)
- Franz Altb. 1910ATmathematician (1910–2011)
- Robert Altb. 1927CHSwiss bobsledder (1927-2017)
- Franz Altb. 1938DEGerman journalist
- Carol Altb. 1960USAmerican top model and actress
- Peter-André Altb. 1960DEGerman research fellow
- Emmanuelle Altb. 1967FRFrench fashion editor
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 39 sources across 20 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 5.9K | #5,850 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 5.6K | #5,693 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 5.5K | #6,032 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 747 | #11,925 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 472 | #2,758 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 197 | #7,552 |
| EE Estonia | Statistics Estonia — per-name Population Register counts (nimed) | — | 113 | #665 |
| EE Estonia | Statistics Estonia — per-name Population Register counts (nimed) | — | 110 | #651 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Sukunimitilasto (Finnish surnames register) | — | 63 | — |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 7
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Hoffman, Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings (2nd ed., 2012)
- Cognomix.it (Nomix s.r.l.) — Italian surname origin dictionary
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the name Alt come from?
- from ahd. alt, as. ald, nnd. oll 'old'; also 'the old man' Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- How do you pronounce Alt?
- A machine transcription gives /ɔlt/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Alt mean?
- In English, Of a voice or instrument, high pitch; especially, the octave above the top line of the treble stave.
- What are other forms of the name Alt?
- In the etymology graph, Alter, Lieber and Toll are forms of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Alt have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 26 thousand people named Alt in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled alt.
- How common is the name Alt?
- In the United States, the national register counted 5,906 people named Alt in 2010, about 1 in 56 thousand residents.
- How common is Alt compared with other names?
- In Antigua & Barbuda, Alt is the 462nd most common surname of 30,187 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Alt?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/altThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Alt” — the 462nd most common surname in Antigua & Barbuda. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.