Alejandro
Masculine · “Defender of men”
Alejandro is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 146,624 boys against 846 girls since 1880. See Alejandro as a girl name
Alejandro is the Spanish form of a name that has been carried by conquerors, popes and about a million ordinary men, and one of the popes drew a line across a map and gave away half the world with it.
How old is the name Alejandro?
Alejandro first appears in US birth records in 1885 — 140 years ago. The typical Alejandro alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 140,000 people named Alejandro are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alejandro most popular?
Alejandro peaked in 1999, reaching #88 nationally. Today it ranks #195, 107 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Where it comes from
From Alexandros to Alejandro
The story of Alejandro
A pope of this name, elected after a conclave that nobody has ever described as clean, had several acknowledged children, promoted them energetically, and in the year after Columbus returned issued the bulls that divided the newly encountered world between Spain and Portugal along a line drawn in the Atlantic. Portugal negotiated the line further west the following year, which is the reason Brazil speaks Portuguese. A decision taken in Rome by a man who never crossed an ocean determined the languages of two continents, and it was signed with this name.
Meaning
Defender of men
The Greek elements are a verb about defending and the word for men, and the reading is not disputed. Spanish arrived at its form by a regular sound change and the meaning traveled unchanged.
Cultural footprint
Alejandro González Iñárritu (b. 1963) — Won back-to-back Best Director Oscars
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Alexandros
- Alexander
- Alejandro
Related forms: Alessandro · Alexandre · Aleksandr · Alexandros
Pronouncing Alejandro
ah-leh-HAN-droh
Four syllables with the stress on the third. The j is said in the throat, closer to an h than to anything English writes with a j.
Nicknames for Alejandro
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1885
- Most boys named
- 20044,451 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #88reached in 1999
- Change vs 2022
- −6.3%1,842 in 2025, from 1,966
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Alejandro in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alessandro in Italian — same name
- Alexandre in Portuguese — same name
- Aleksandr in Russian — same name
- Alexandros in Greek — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Alejandros among us
people named Alejandro are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 927 born in 2025 was named Alejandro
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Arnold test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Alejandro's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Arnold climbed just as high around 1916, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Arnold's path sketches the road Alejandro is walking now.
Alejandro peaked long ago yet still holds steady — names that survive their own wave usually settle into quiet, durable classics.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Alejandro is headed
Alejandro should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Alejandro beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alejandro in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, strong and understood across the world.
- It has native forms in every European language.
- It carries several short forms with very different registers.
- English speakers will say the j as an English j, which is not how it is said.
- It is long, and a short form will do most of the work.
- The spelling is recorded for both sexes, though the boys hold nearly all of it.
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What they receive
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Alejandro
Masculine · #195 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Alejandros are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 140,000 people named Alejandro are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Alejandro in 2025?
- Alejandro ranks #195 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,842 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alejandro?
- About 1 in every 927 US boys born in 2025 was named Alejandro — 1,842 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alejandro with classmates?
- Alejandro will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alejandro
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Knox#196 · Legend#193 · Ashton#197 · Tate#193 · Jaziel#198 · Chase#192 · Rory#199 · Alan#191
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alejandro? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Alejandro and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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