Alexandru
Masculine · “Greek alexein and aner”
Romanian is a Romance language that spent a thousand years surrounded by Slavic ones, and it kept things the others lost. It still has the Latin nominative ending on Alexandru. It puts its definite article on the end of the word instead of the front. And it shares that last feature with Albanian and Bulgarian, which are not Romance languages at all.
How old is the name Alexandru?
Alexandru first appears in US birth records in 1981 — 44 years ago. The typical Alexandru alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 600 people named Alexandru are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alexandru most popular?
Alexandru peaked in 2006, reaching #3153 nationally. Today it ranks #8243, 5,090 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Where it comes from
From Alexandros to Alexandru
The story of Alexandru
Romanian sits inside what linguists call the Balkan sprachbund, a group of unrelated languages that have converged through long contact. Romanian, Albanian, Bulgarian, Macedonian and Greek share features none of them inherited from their own families: a postposed definite article in the first three, the loss of the infinitive, a merged genitive and dative. Romanian is Romance, Albanian is its own branch, Bulgarian is Slavic, and yet the man in Romanian is omul and in Albanian burri, both with the article stuck on the end. That is contact, not inheritance. What Romanian kept from Latin is equally striking: the final -u on masculine nouns, a neuter gender that behaves like the Latin one, and a vocabulary core that is recognizably Latin under a heavy Slavic overlay. The name is a small window on all of it.
Meaning
Greek alexein and aner, defending men
From Greek alexein, to ward off or defend, and the stem andr-, man. Alexandru is the Romanian form, retaining the -u that descends from the Latin masculine nominative ending -us, which Italian, Spanish and French all dropped. The name reached Romania through Byzantine Greek and Old Church Slavonic rather than through Latin. It peaks in the American data in 2006.
How the name formed
- Alexandros
- Alexander
- Alexandru
Related forms: Alexandru · Alexander · Aleksandr
Pronouncing Alexandru
ah-lek-SAN-droo
Four syllables, stress on the third. The final u is short and often barely voiced in speech, which is why Romanian speakers can sound as though they are saying Alexandr. English speakers usually say al-ig-ZAN-droo.
Nicknames for Alexandru
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
- 1981
- Most boys named
- 200634 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3153reached in 2006
- Change vs 2024
- +80.0%9 in 2025, 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.
Alexandru in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alexandru in Romanian — same name
- Alexander in English — same name
- Aleksandr in Russian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Illinois.
Alexandrus among us
people named Alexandru are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 189,786 born in 2025 was named Alexandru
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 Christepher test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Alexandru's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Christepher climbed just as high around 1972, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Christepher's path sketches the road Alexandru is walking now.
Alexandru 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
Alexandru beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alexandru 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 and the name has a three-thousand-year record.
- Alex is understood everywhere.
- Sandu gives a distinctly Romanian short form.
- Alexander is the form Americans will write.
- The final u is often dropped in English records.
- Four syllables is long for American use.
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What they receive
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Alexandru
Masculine · #8243 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Alexandrus are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Alexandru are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Alexandru in 2025?
- Alexandru ranks #8243 among US boy names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alexandru?
- About 1 in every 189,786 US boys born in 2025 was named Alexandru — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alexandru with classmates?
- Alexandru will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alexandru
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Danial#8243 · Ogden#8243 · Aaren#8243 · Trinity#8243 · Kourtney#8243 · Maury#8243 · Lindon#8243 · Elbert#8243
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alexandru? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Alexandru and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
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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