The first name Alex is a short form of the name Alexander and thus means ‘the protector, the defender’. The meaning is derived from the Greek words ‘aléxō’ for ‘protect, defend’ and ‘anḗr, andrós’ for ‘man’.
Alex is a male first name. In very rare cases it is also used for girls.
The name Alex isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all boys names, Alex ranks 141. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn boys, approximately 16 were named Alex. In the entire USA, approximately 280,007 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Alex. That is 0.08 % of all living Americans.
The first name Alex is a short form of the name Alexander and thus means ‘the protector, the defender’. The meaning is derived from the Greek words ‘aléxō’ for ‘protect, defend’ and ‘anḗr, andrós’ for ‘man’.
Alex, Inc.' is a... 2018 sitcom starring Zach Braff as the main character who quits his job to start his own podcast company.
Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez (*1975)
Alex Rodriguez, nicknamed »A-Rod«, is a former US-American baseball player of Dominican descent in Major League Baseball (MLB). He is considered one of the best baseball players of his generation. In November 2009, he won the World Series with the New York Yankees.
Alexandrea Borstein (*1971)
Alex Borstein is widly known for voicing Lois Griffin in the animated comedy series »Family Guy«. She won a Primetime Emmy Award for that and got two more Primetime Emmy Awards for her role as Susie Myerson in the comedy-drama series »The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel« (2017–2023).
Alexander Michael »Alex« Karev
Alexander Michael »Alex« Karev is a fictional character from the ABC television series »Grey's Anatomy«. The series playing at the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital Alex starts out as surgical intern and later becomes a pediatric surgeon. The role of Alex Karev is played by actor Justin Chambers.
Alexander Murray Palmer Haley (1921–1992)
In 1976 the US writer, known as »Alex Haley«, became known worldwide for his novel »Roots: The Saga of an American Family«, in which he told the alleged story of his ancestors. He received the Pulitzer Prize for it in 1977. In the same year the network ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries which got a record-breaking viewers.
Alexandra Morgan Carrasco (*1989)
Alex Morgan is a US-American soccer player in position of striker. She plays for San Diego Wave FC where she is captain. She also plays for the US national team, with whom she won the World Cup title in 2015 and 2019. In 2017, Morgan signed with French team Lyon, where she won the UEFA Women's Champions League among others.
Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson CBE (*1941)
With 49 titles to his name, Alex Ferguson is one of the most decorated managers in soccer history. He enjoyed considerable success with Aberdeen FC in the 1980s before taking over as coach of Manchester United (ManU) in 1986. Over the following 26 years (1,500 competitive matches), Ferguson shaped ManU into one of the best and economically strongest club teams in the world. »Fergie Time« became particularly famous, as ManU often scored decisive goals in stoppage time. By the end of his coaching career in May 2013, he had won 38 official titles with Manchester and made the club the English record champions.
When you hear the name Alex, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Alex? Are you also called Alex? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...
There is a small town in Grady County, Oklahoma, that is called Alex.
used to be a French restaurant in Las Vegas, Nevada. It held two Michelin stars and was considered one of the finest in the US. It closed indefinitely in 2011.
Alex is the name of a commune in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in the south-east of France.
»Alexanderplatz« is a large public square and transport hub in the historic centre of Berlin, Germany. It's said to be the most visited area in the city and in Berlin vernacular it's commonly called »Alex«.
is the name of the second largest city in Egypt. It is situated at the river nile.
Appearing throughout the time in the United States, the name Alex is a staple in the country: Boys have been given the name Alex for more than 140 years, according to official U.S. naming statistics. Alex is therefore one of only 442 boys’ names that have been given every year since 1880. Even beyond that, Alex is a very special name, which reached its peak of popularity only in the last quarter of the 20th century, ranking in the top 100 boys' names in our SmartGenius statistics: With position 46 Alex has never been more popular than back in 1995.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Alex was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
As many as 2,143 babies were named Alex in the USA in 2022, ranking it #173 on the list of the most popular boys' names for that year. However, it experienced its lowest point of popularity in 1955, when it was only ranked at #252 of all male names in our SmartGenius statistics – back then only 718 boys were named Alex.
Wherever you go, wherever you live – there’s a good chance to meet Alex. Because: There are men and boys named Alex in every state in the USA. This may sound quite unspectacular at first, but in fact, of the nearly 50,000 different male first names that occur in the USA, just 386 are recorded in each individual state, so the name Alex is definitely something very special. In some regions it even makes it into the top 100 of the most popular male first names, for example in Arizona, where Alex ranks on position 85. The greatest chance of meeting Alex, however, is in Nevada, where one in 346 boys and men bears this beautiful name – that is far above average – in the entire USA it is only one in 611 men and boys and in West Virginia, where the name is least represented in relation to the population, you even have to ask an average of 1,016 men and boys for their name before you once get Alex as an answer.
Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter A is a very popular first letter for boys’ names. That’s because 9.0% of all common boys’ names in the US begin with this letter. Only the first letter J is more common for boys' names.
With four letters, the name Alex is shorter than most other given names. In fact, only 5.5% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly four letters. Just 1.2% of all first names are even shorter, while 93% consist of more than four letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.
That means that if 9.0% of all boys' names start with an A, this initial letter occurs nearly three times as often as all other letters on average. And by the way: Of all the boys' names that start with an A, Anthony is the most common.
If your name is Alex and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Alex, you can simply say:
Apple
Lion
Elephant
Xylophone
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Alex
Alex
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
A
L
E
X
In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.
A
L
E
X
In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Alex sounds like this:
