Nicknames for Alice
28 ideas for Alice — the short forms people actually use, plus cute, funny and gamer versions. Copy any of them in one click.
- Ali the standard clip
- Allie the affectionate spelling
- Al the blunt one-syllable version
- Ally the y spelling
- Lissy the back clip, old and warm
- Lisi the German short form
- Alta the shortened Yiddish form
- Alicia the Spanish elaborated form
- Alicja the Polish form
- Alix the French medieval form
- Adelheid the German name Alice descends from
- Alisa the Russian form
- Alisia the Italian-flavoured spelling
- Elise the near-cousin friends reach for
- Aliz the Hungarian form
- Ali-Bear the usual affectionate pattern
- Alice-Rose the standard compound
- Alice-Mae the Southern double name
- Alley Cat the rhyme, and it sticks
- Wonderland the joke every Alice has fielded
- Malice the one-letter tease, said fondly
- A initial only, in group chats
- Lissa the softened back clip
- Ali-Bug family pet name
- Alis the Welsh spelling
- Atomic Alice Shares the "A" sound with Alice.
- Elsie A short form people genuinely use for Alice.
- Lisa A short form people genuinely use for Alice.
About the name Alice.
Follow this one backwards and it shortens at every step. The Germanic Adalheidis, noble sort, becomes Adelheid in German, contracts to Adaliz in Old French, and arrives in English after the Norman conquest as Aalis, then Alis, then Alice. Four syllables down to two. It was a top ten English name for centuries, and Lewis Carroll's 1865 book, written for a real Alice Liddell, kept it in circulation when other medieval names dropped away. American numbers fell steadily from the 1920s but never reached zero, which distinguishes it from the harder revivals in its cohort. The climb back began around 2000 and has been unhurried.
Plain in the best sense, with a clean s at the end that keeps it from softening. It sounds intelligent and a little reserved. The nickname situation is thin and always has been, because two syllables ending in a sibilant do not cut well. Ali and Allie are the ones that work.
Most popular around 2020. Based on US birth records.
- Origin
- Germanic
- Meaning
- of a noble kind
- Syllables
- Al·ice
- Used as
- a girls’ name
Alice around the world.
These are the real forms Alice takes in other languages, which often make excellent nicknames in their own right.
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Alix
French
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Adelheid
German
-
Alice
Italian
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Alicja
Polish
Famous people called Alice.
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Alice Walker
wrote The Color Purple
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Alice Munro
Canadian Nobel laureate, short stories
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Alice Coltrane
jazz harpist and pianist
Questions about the name Alice
What does Alice mean? +
Of a noble kind, from the Germanic elements adal, noble, and heid, sort or type. The full original is Adalheidis, which also survives separately as Adelaide. Alice is what happened to that word after several centuries of French and English speakers wearing it down.
Are there nicknames for Alice? +
Not many. Ali and Allie are the usual choices, though both are shared with Alison and Alexandra. Al is used by a few. Lissy and Lissie come off the back end and are rare. Most Alices simply answer to Alice.
How are Alice, Alison and Alicia related? +
Alison is a medieval French diminutive of Alice, formed with the same ending that gives Madison its shape. Alicia is a Latinised respelling that arrived much later. Adelaide is the same original word taken through a different route, so all four are cousins.
Is Alice back in fashion? +
In Britain it never really left, holding a top fifty place for most of the last thirty years. In America it dipped further and has been recovering since about 2000. It is now the sort of name that sounds neither old nor trendy, which is rare.