Meaning and background
The story behind Alice
Alice comes through Old French Aalis and Adelais from the older Germanic Adalheidis, making it a relative of Adelaide rather than of Alex. Its literary associations include the heroine of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but the name long predates that book. English speakers usually pronounce it AL-iss. The straightforward sound and well-documented lineage give it more substance than an invented modern meaning.
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About Alice
Recorded as a dog’s name
Alice appears in 35 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/æləs/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the first syllable in the recorded US readings.
Other dictionary readings and notation
/æləs/ · primary stress on syllable 1AE1 L AH0 S
/ælɪs/ · primary stress on syllable 1AE1 L IH0 S
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
Gender association: NYC licence-period records. Any dog can use this name.
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.