Alexandra
Masculine · “Defender of men”
Alexandra is given to girls far more often — 245,451 girls against 869 boys since 1880. See Alexandra as a girl name
Alexandra is older than Alexander. A version of the name turns up in Bronze Age Hittite diplomatic correspondence, four hundred years before the Trojan War and nearly a thousand before the conqueror everybody assumes it comes from.
How old is the name Alexandra?
Alexandra first appears in US birth records in 1921 — 104 years ago. The typical Alexandra alive today was born around 1991, making them about 34 years old. About 800 people named Alexandra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alexandra most popular?
Alexandra peaked in 1989, reaching #1037 nationally. See the whole 1989 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Alexandros to Alexandra
The story of Alexandra
A Hittite treaty names a king of Wilusa called Alaksandu — a Greek-sounding name on the western edge of Anatolia, in a city most scholars now identify with Troy, several centuries before Homer. Whether that man has anything to do with the Alexandros who appears in the Iliad as another name for Paris is one of the better arguments in Bronze Age history and is not settled. What is certain is that the name is very old and was in use around the Aegean long before Macedon. The feminine has its own modern history: the last Russian empress was a German princess called Alix who took Alexandra when she converted, and the name went with the dynasty into the twentieth century and out the other side.
Meaning
Defender of men
The Greek elements are a verb about defending and the word for men. The reading is not disputed. What is disputed is how old the name is, because a form of it appears in records from a civilization that predates classical Greece.
How the name formed
- Alexandros
- Alexandra
Related forms: Alejandra · Alessandra · Aleksandra · Aleksandra
Pronouncing Alexandra
al-ig-ZAN-druh
Four syllables with the stress on the third. Every European language stresses it in the same place.
Nicknames for Alexandra
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
- 1921
- Most boys named
- 198999 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1037reached in 1989
- Change vs 2020
- 0.0%5 in 2021, from 5
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.
Alexandra in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alejandra in Spanish — same name
- Alessandra in Italian — same name
- Aleksandra in Russian — same name
- Aleksandra in Polish — same name
Alexandras among us
people named Alexandra are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Alexandra sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is understood in every European language with almost no change of spelling.
- It carries an unusually large set of short forms with very different registers.
- The meaning is settled and strong.
- It is long, and a short form will do most of the work.
- The spelling is recorded for boys as well, though it belongs overwhelmingly to the girls.
- It has been well used for a long time, so she may not be the only one.
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What they receive
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Alexandra
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Alexandras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Alexandra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Alexandra in 2025?
- Alexandra is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Alexandra with classmates?
- Alexandra will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
Anthony#46 · Andrew#73 · Alexander#30 · Aaron#80 · Adam#101 · Arthur#87 · Albert#614 · Austin#113
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alexandra? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Alexandra and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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