Alger

Where Alger comes from

* As an English surname, when pronounced with a soft g, from the Middle English personal name Alger, borrowed from Old French Aug(i)er, of Germanic origin, from *Adalgari, composed of *aþal (“noble”) + *gaiʀ (“spear”). Compare Auger. * When pronounced with a hard g it is a variant of Algar. As a Scottish and English surname, it may be a variant of Algeo.
— Wiktionary's entry for Alger
  • Germanic
Along the way
  1. 1886
    First appearance
    #959 among boys, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1898
    Peak, #663
    11 babies named Alger — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1899
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from the Germanic languages, variant of Elgar.
Namesakes

No widely known Alger turns up in the encyclopedias yet — the name is still all theirs to make famous.

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.