A female name. from Old French Aliz>Aaliz> Adaliz>Old German Adalheidis (see Adelaide). By the 12th C it was being latinized as Alesia, Alicia, and was a very common name in England as well as France, its popularity being partly due to the influence of the literary type of 'Bele Aaliz' in contemporary romances. It is still used in France in the form Alix. The Curia Regis Rolls of 1219-20 give a good example of the development of the name; one woman appears there in different places as Athelesia, Aelesia, Aeleis le Neweman. In England it was usually Alys, and was in time contracted to Alse (Lyford 1655 'Alice or Alse, abridged from Ade-liz'). By the middle of the 17th C it was regarded as an old-fashioned, country name and fell into general disuse, until its revival in the middle of the 19th C by the romance writers, often in the latinized form Alicia. Charlotte Mary Yonge, History of ChristianNames, 2 vols. 1863. Revised ed. 1884 says of it (1863) ‘now with Constantia and Edith a favourite fancy name’. The publication of Alice in Wonderland in 1865 no doubt contributed to its further popularity. It is sometimes abbreviated to Ally, cf. Brome’s A Mad Couple Well Match’d (1653). See also Alison.

Alicia Curia Regis Rolls 1189-1215, Feudal Aids 13o3. Alesia Curia Regis Rolls 1200. Aeleis, Aelesia, Athelesia Curia Regis Rolls 1219-20. Alice, Alise, Hundred Rolls 1273. Alys 15th-C Brut.