Allison is a Norman French diminutive of Alice and means "noble" or "of noble kind", from the Germanic Adalheidis. It became a girls' name in Scotland in the Middle Ages and found its biggest audience in the United States in the late 20th century. Allison ranked number 44 in 2000 and number 30 in 2009, stayed in the top 100 through 2021 and sits at number 103 in 2025.