The name Alexander comes from the Greek Ἀλέξανδρος Aléxandros and means ‘the one who defends men’ or also ‘the protector’. The meaning is derived from the Greek words ‘aléxō’ for ‘protect, defend’ and ‘anḗr, andrós’ for ‘man’.
Alexander is a first name typically given to boys, but in rare cases also used as a girls name.
The first name Alexander is one of the top 100 most popular boys names in the US – currently at #11 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named Alexander, accounting for approximately 0.70 % of all newborn boys. In total, there are currently 703,113 people – children, adults and seniors – named Alexander living in the United States, which is approximately 0.21 % of the entire population.
The name Alexander comes from the Greek Ἀλέξανδρος Aléxandros and means ‘the one who defends men’ or also ‘the protector’. The meaning is derived from the Greek words ‘aléxō’ for ‘protect, defend’ and ‘anḗr, andrós’ for ‘man’.
Did you know… that the name Alexander is one of the oldest names still in use today. Thus, the character Paris of Troy, from the Iliad, is also known as Alexander.
Alexander Skarsgård (*1976)
Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård is a Swedish actor, director and former model. He belongs to the famous Swedish acting family 'Skarsgård', which also includes Stellan (his father) and Bill (his brother). Alexander played the main role in 'The Northman' and the vampire 'Eric Northman' in the series 'True Bloods'.
Alexander von Humboldt (1769 - 1859)
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a German explorer with a field of activity that extended far beyond Europe. His body of work spanned seven decades and he became a co-founder of geography as an empirical science. He was the younger brother of Wilhelm von Humboldt.
Mrs. Alexander (1825 - 1902)
Anne French Hector was an Irish writer known by her pseudonym Mrs. Alexander. She wrote several novels during her early life, her first, Kate Vernon, in 1854.
Alexander 'Sascha' Zverev (*1997)
He is a German tennis player as well as an Olympic champion, winning 19 singles titles to date - including the gold medal in singles at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 - as well as two competitions in doubles with his brother Mischa. Zverev also reached his only Grand Slam final to date at the 2020 US Open.
Alexander the Great (356 BC - 323 BC)
Alexander the Great, also known as Alexander III of Macedonia was king of Macedonia and hegemon of the Corinthian League from 336 BC until his death.
Alexander Van der Bellen (*1944)
He is an Austrian economist, politician (independent, until 2016 The Greens) and since 2017 Federal President of the Republic of Austria. In the federal presidential election in 2022, he was confirmed in office with an absolute majority in the first round.
When you hear the name Alexander, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Alexander? Are you also called Alexander? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...
of New York there is a city with the name Alexander.
and mud spa in Bavaria carries the name Bad Alexanderbad.
in Australia are named Alexander. The Lake is man-made and located in the Northern Territory.
The Evangelical Lutheran Alexander Church in Tampere carries the name of the Russian tsar and Grand Duke of Finland, Alexander II.
The name Alexander is as much a part of the DNA of the USA as the Constitution, the Capitol and the Superbowl: Alexander is one of the few boys' names that have been given in the USA every year since the beginning of the name statistics, and thus since 1880. Of course, Alexander hasn't been equally popular in all 143 years - but it's just recently become especially beloved. In 2009 it was even ranked number 5 in our SmartGenius name statistics, making it one of the most popular boys' names in the entire United States.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Alexander was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
In 2022 the name Alexander was given a total of 8,683 times in the USA, ranking #17 on the list of the most popular boys' names. It was least common in 1959 - back then only 1,172 expectant parents gave their child the name Alexander, ranking it #225 of all male names in our SmartGenius statistics, so there were 224 other boy names given more often in 1959.
There are only 386 different male names registered in every single state in the U.S., and Alexander is one of them. However, Alexander is not equally widespread in all states, but people in Nevada seem to particularly fancy this name – the 5,096 men called Alexander who live here are 0,901% of all male residents and push their name up to #18 in our SmartGenius statistics, easily placing it in the top 100 most common male names in Nevada. If you look at all the states in the USA together, you can currently find as many as 703,113 people with the name Alexander. Across all regions and age groups, this lands Alexander on position 47 in our SmartGenius ranking of the top male names – of course, the current popularity as a baby name for newborns looks somewhat different, as you can see from the statistics above.
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 nine letters, the name Alexander is relatively long compared to other names. In fact, 5.6% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly nine letters. 92% of all first names are shorter, while not even 2.5% of all boys’ and girls’ names use ten or more letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long with 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 Alexander 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 Alexander, you can simply say:
Apple
Lion
Elephant
Xylophone
Apple
Nut
Dinosaur
Elephant
Rocket
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Alexander
Alexander
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
A
L
E
X
A
N
D
E
R
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
A
N
D
E
R
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. Alexander sounds like this:
