Roxane
Feminine · “little shining one”
Roxana was a Bactrian noblewoman who married Alexander the Great in the mountains of what is now Afghanistan or Tajikistan, and her son was born after his death and murdered before he was fourteen. Her name in Old Persian is Roshanak, built on a word for shining — so the name means something like little bright one, which is the sort of thing a language does with real affection.
How old is the name Roxane?
Roxane first appears in US birth records in 1925 — 100 years ago. The typical Roxane alive today was born around 1963, making them about 62 years old. About 4,600 people named Roxane are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Roxane most popular?
Roxane peaked in 1956, reaching #528 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 12,680 places below that high. See the whole 1956 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Roshanak to Roxane
The story of Roxane
Alexander married Roxana in 327 before the common era, in the middle of a brutal campaign in Bactria, and the marriage was political as well as personal; what happened to her afterward is a grim story of Macedonian succession politics. The name reached Europe through the historians and became genuinely popular much later, when a French play put it in front of every theater audience on the continent. Roxane is the French and Greek spelling; American records carry it from 1925 and it peaked in the mid-1950s.
Meaning
little shining one
From the Old Persian roshanak, a diminutive of a word meaning bright or shining — the same root that gives the modern Persian roshan, light. Greek wrote it Roxane, Latin Roxana, and the meaning has never been in doubt, which is unusual for a name this old.
How the name formed
- Roshanak
- Roxane
- Roxana
Related forms: Roshanak · Roxane · Roxana · Roksana · Roxani
Pronouncing Roxane
rok-SAN
Two syllables with the stress at the back, following the French. Americans often say rok-SAN-uh in three, borrowing the Latin ending that this spelling does not have. Both are heard.
Nicknames for Roxane
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
- 1925
- Most girls named
- 1957292 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #528reached in 1956
- Change vs 2021
- +20.0%6 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.
Roxane in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Roshanak in Persian — same name
- Roxane in French — same name
- Roxana in Spanish — same name
- Roksana in Russian — same name
- Roxani in Greek — same name
Roxanes among us
people named Roxane are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Roxane
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Roxane
- #13208
- Roxane on the 2025 chart
- #784
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Roxane went to 6 girls in 2025, but Roxanne is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 176, which makes it the 784th most-given girls’ name of the year — 12,424 places above the chart.
- Roxanne170
- Roxane6
About 1 girl in 9,132 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 267,878 for Roxane 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 Myrtice test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Roxane's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Myrtice climbed just as high around 1907, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Myrtice's path sketches the road Roxane is walking now.
Roxane 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
Roxane beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Roxane in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is documented, ancient and entirely positive.
- Roxy is available and is one of the more cheerful short forms in English.
- It has a genuinely remarkable historical bearer with a well-recorded life.
- It is standard in French and Greek rather than an American variation.
- Roxana and Roxanne are both commoner and will be written instead.
- The syllable count is unsettled in American use, so the name arrives two ways.
- A very well-known song carries the name and will be sung at anyone who has it.
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What they receive
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Roxane
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Roxanes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,600 people named Roxane are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Roxane?
- Roxane is one of 2 recorded spellings. Roxanne is the more common one — 170 births in 2025 against 6 for Roxane.
- How popular is the name Roxane in 2025?
- Roxane ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Roxane?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Roxane — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Roxane with classmates?
- Roxane will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Roxane
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Roxane? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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