Daily AncestorAlien
In U.S. records an alien is a person living in or entering the country who is not a U.S. citizen; it is the plain legal word for a foreign national.
The word carried no insult in old records. The National Archives defines naturalization as the process by which an alien becomes a citizen, and forms from passenger lists to the 1940 registration use it throughout.
A person could live here for decades and stay an alien if he never finished naturalizing; the 1940 registration found many who had arrived as early as the 1880s. Some census years mark such people Al. In wartime, law set apart a narrower group, the enemy alien.
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Alien." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/immigration/alien. Last checked 2026-10-03.