Alexander
Feminine · “Greek "defender of men”
Alexander is given to boys far more often — 736,123 boys against 4,545 girls since 1880. See Alexander as a boy name
Alexander may be the oldest personal name still in ordinary use. It appears on Bronze Age Linear B tablets from Mycenaean Greece as a-re-ka-sa-da-ra, and a king called Alaksandu of Wilusa turns up in Hittite diplomatic records — both around 1300 BC, a thousand years before Alexander the Great.
How old is the name Alexander?
Alexander first appears in US birth records in 1909 — 116 years ago. The typical Alexander alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 4,300 people named Alexander are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alexander most popular?
Alexander peaked in 1988, reaching #602 nationally. Today it ranks #7491, 6,889 places below that high. See the whole 1988 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a-re-ka-sa-da-ra to Alexander
The story of Alexander
Very few personal names can be traced to a specific millennium, and fewer still to written records outside the tradition that carries them. Alexander has both: Linear B, the syllabic script of Mycenaean Greek deciphered in 1952, records the name on clay tablets from Pylos and Mycenae, and Hittite archives from Hattusa record diplomatic contact with Alaksandu, king of Wilusa, in a treaty of about 1280 BC. That gives the name a continuous documented life of roughly 3,300 years. As a girls' name in America it appears in small but real numbers, unchanged rather than feminised, peaking in 1988.
Meaning
Greek "defender of men"
From alexein, to defend or ward off, plus anēr, andros, a man. The Mycenaean tablets give the feminine form, and the Hittite records name a ruler of Wilusa — generally identified with Troy — whose name matches. In the Iliad, Paris of Troy carries Alexandros as a second name, which may preserve a genuine memory of the Bronze Age. The female use of Alexander in America is unchanged from the masculine form; Alexandra is the usual feminine.
How the name formed
- a-re-ka-sa-da-ra
- Alexandros
- Alexander
Related forms: Αλέξανδρος · Aleksandr · Alejandro · Alessandro
Pronouncing Alexander
al-ig-ZAN-der
Four syllables, stress on the third. Greek stresses the second, a-LEX-an-dros. The x is said as gz between vowels in English, which is why the second syllable sounds like ig rather than ex.
Nicknames for Alexander
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
- 1909
- Most girls named
- 1988331 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #602reached in 1988
- Change vs 2023
- +27.3%14 in 2025, from 11
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.
Alexander in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Αλέξανδρος in Greek — related form
- Aleksandr in Russian — same name
- Alejandro in Spanish — same name
- Alessandro in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York.
Alexanders among us
people named Alexander are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was named Alexander
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 Norene test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Alexander's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Norene climbed just as high around 1931, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Norene's path sketches the road Alexander is walking now.
Alexander sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Alexander beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alexander in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has a documented history of over three thousand years.
- Alex and Sasha are immediate short forms for either sex.
- It is recognized in nearly every European language.
- In America it reads as a male name in almost every context.
- Alexandra is the established feminine and will be assumed.
- Four syllables means it is almost always shortened in daily use.
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What they receive
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Alexander
Feminine · #7491 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Alexanders are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,300 people named Alexander are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Alexander in 2025?
- Alexander ranks #7491 among US girl names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alexander?
- About 1 in every 114,805 US girls born in 2025 was named Alexander — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alexander with classmates?
- Alexander will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alexander
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christie#7491 · Carmelita#7491 · Jetta#7491 · Hildegard#7491 · Rickie#7491 · Billy#7491 · Angelyn#7491 · Jewell#7491
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alexander? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Alexander and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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