Alexey
Masculine · “Greek "defender”
Alexey is given to both — 560 boys and 19 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Alexey has half a dozen English spellings for one Russian name, and the reason is bureaucratic rather than creative. Russian has to be transliterated into the Latin alphabet, and there is no single standard — passport offices, libraries and newspapers all use different systems, so Alexey, Aleksei and Alexei all point at the same Алексей.
How old is the name Alexey?
Alexey first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Alexey is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 600 people named Alexey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alexey most popular?
Alexey peaked in 2017, reaching #2798 nationally. Today it ranks #7194, 4,396 places below that high. See the whole 2017 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Alexios to Alexey
The story of Alexey
The Cyrillic-to-Latin problem is genuinely unsolved. The Russian letter й has been written y, i, j and nothing at all; кс has been written x or ks. Library cataloguing uses one scheme, the US Board on Geographic Names another, ISO a third, and Russian passports have changed their own rules more than once since 1997 — so members of the same family can hold documents spelling the name differently. Alexey is the spelling closest to the older English convention; Aleksei follows the linguistic standards. The name itself is a major Russian one, carried by Tsar Alexis and by Alexei Nikolaevich, the last tsarevich. The American figures peak in 2017, reflecting recent immigration.
Meaning
Greek "defender"
From Greek Alexios, from alexein, to defend or ward off — the same verb behind Alexander, defender of men. Alexios was borne by several Byzantine emperors, and the name came into Russian through Orthodox Christianity rather than through Latin Europe, which is why Russian has Aleksey and English has Alexis from the same source. The Russian and the English are the same name arriving by different routes.
How the name formed
- Alexios
- Алексей
- Alexey
Related forms: Алексей · Aleksei · Alexios · Oleksii
Pronouncing Alexey
uh-lyek-SAY
Three syllables with the stress firmly on the last — this is the part English speakers get wrong, usually saying uh-LEX-ee. The Russian stress is final, and the ye is a single palatalised syllable.
Nicknames for Alexey
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
- 1970
- Most boys named
- 201743 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2798reached in 2017
- Change vs 2024
- −42.1%11 in 2025, from 19
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.
Alexey in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Алексей in Russian — transliteration
- Aleksei in English — spelling variant
- Alexios in Greek — related form
- Oleksii in Ukrainian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, California, Washington.
Alexeys among us
people named Alexey are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 155,280 born in 2025 was named Alexey
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Alexey
- #7194
- Alexey on the 2025 chart
- #858
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Alexey went to 11 boys in 2025, but Alexei, Aleksey and Aleksei are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 70, which makes it the 858th most-given boys’ name of the year — 6,336 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 24,401 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 155,280 for Alexey itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Thorne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Alexey's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Thorne climbed just as high around 1956, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Thorne's path sketches the road Alexey is walking now.
Alexey 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
Alexey beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alexey 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 shared with Alexander and Alexis.
- Alex is an immediate English short form requiring no explanation.
- It is a major, entirely established name in Russian and Orthodox tradition.
- The stress is on the final syllable and English speakers reliably move it.
- Aleksei, Alexei and Alexey compete, and documents may disagree.
- It will often be shortened to Alex, losing the Russian identity.
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What they receive
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Alexey
Masculine · #7194 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Alexeys 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 Alexey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Alexey?
- Alexey is one of 4 recorded spellings. Alexei is the more common one — 36 births in 2025 against 11 for Alexey.
- How popular is the name Alexey in 2025?
- Alexey ranks #7194 among US boy names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alexey?
- About 1 in every 155,280 US boys born in 2025 was named Alexey — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alexey with classmates?
- Alexey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alexey
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Junius#7194 · Orie#7194 · Shade#7194 · Chesley#7194 · Joesph#7194 · Lofton#7194 · Macon#7194 · Benjiman#7194
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alexey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Alexey and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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