Alois

Alois is the Central European form of Aloysius, a Latinized reshaping of the old Germanic Alwis—"all wise." Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, a young Jesuit who died tending plague victims, gave the name its devotional warmth; in Bohemia and Austria it became a perennial of the baptismal register. Alzheimer, Jirásek, Hába—Alois has belonged to the careful chronicler, the neurologist, the composer of microtonal music. Pronounced AH-loh-ees in German, it moves across three soft syllables, none of them hurried. It's a Habsburg-era name with the patina of coffeehouse marble, studious and courtly, recognizable without being common. A name that reads.