Alexander

Greek

"defending men"

Alexander Origin and Meaning

The name Alexander is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "defending men".

Alexander has been in a Top 25 boys' name in the US for 30 years now. But namers are still attracted to its imposing historic pedigree.

Alexander is derived from the Greek name Aléxandros, composed of the elements aléxein, meaning "to defend," and aner, meaning "man."

According to Greek legend, the first Alexander was Paris, who was given the nickname Alexander by the shepherds whose flocks he defended against robbers. He was followed by Alexander the Great, aka Alexander III, who conquered much of Asia.

A royal name in Scotland, Alexander is still highly popular there. In Gaelic, the name became Alasdair; in Spain, Alejandro; and in Italy, Alessandro.

The noble Alexander has led to the popularity of many spinoffs, such as Alex, Zander, Xan and Zan, along with female versions such as Alexandra, Alexis, and the unfortunate Alexa.

Among the many notable Alexanders in history, standouts are Hamilton, Graham Bell, Fleming, Pope and Haig.

Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber's Alexander is known as Sasha.

Alexander Rank in US Top 1000

# 22 in the US

Alexander Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

# 38 on Nameberry

Popularity of the name Alexander

• 22 US 2023
• 38 Nameberry 2025
• 34 Canada 2023
• 43 Future 2035
• 34 England 2023
• 13 Scotland 2024
• 44 Ireland 2024
• 21 Australia 2023
• 42 New Zealand 2024
• 39 Germany 2024
• 78 Netherlands 2024
• 11 Mexico 2021
• 36 Sweden 2024
• 49 Norway 2024
• 46 Denmark 2023
• 9 Iceland 2023
• 56 Belgium 2023
• 51 Switzerland 2023
• 15 Austria 2023
• 99 Hungary 2023
• 100 Poland 2024
• 21 Estonia 2024
• 63 Chile 2021

20 Names Similar to Alexander

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Alexander.

• Nathaniel
• Gabriel
• Nicholas
• Daniel
• Benjamin
• Samuel
• Andrew
• Isaac
• William
• Jacob
• Thomas
• Elijah
• Lucas
• Nathan
• Luke
• Matthew
• Adam
• Zachary
• Christopher
• Ethan

Famous People Named Alexander

• Alexander the Great Macedonian conqueror
• Alexander I and II Emperors of Russia
• Alexander King of Greece
• Alexander I III, Kings of Scotland
• Alexander King of Yugoslavia
• Willem Alexander Claus George Ferdinand of Orange,Nassau, King of the Netherlands
• Alexander Graham Bell Scottish inventor of the telephone
• Alexander Hamilton Revolutionary War general, first Secretary of the Treasury and American Founding Father
• (Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich) Alexander von Humboldt German biogeographer
• Alexander Calder American sculptor
• Alexander William Gaskarth American singer of pop/punk band All Time Low
• Alexander Ludwig Canadian actor
• Alexander Meigs Haig United States general and Secretary of State
• Alexander Pope English poet
• Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin American actor
• Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgard Swedish actor
• Alexander Jewish leader (Acts 4:6)
• Alexander Cameron Rutherford Canadian politician; 1st Premier of Alberta
• Alexander Bishop of Lincoln
• Alexander Igoryevich Rybak Belarusian,Norwegian singer,songwriter
• Alexander Jerome Gould American voice actor
• Alexander David "Alex" Turner English lead singer of Arctic Monkeys
• Alexander David "Alex" Linz American actor
• Alexander Peden Scottish Covenanter preacher
• Alexander James "AJ" McLean American singer of the Backstreet Boys
• Alexander Armstrong English comedian and presenter
• Alexander Masters English author
• Alexander Dimmi Yugoslavian singer
• Alexander Kapranos lead singer of Scottish band Franz Ferdinand
• Alexander "Alex" Hirsch creator of Disney cartoon "Gravity Falls" and Actually Satan
• Miss J. Alexander runway coach on "America's Next Top Model"
• Alexander Instøy member of Norwegian boy band The Main Level
• Alexander Vail "Alex" Eckstein American child actor; triplet brother of Benjamin and Caleb
• Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko President of Belarus
• Alexander Massialas American fencer
• Alexander Gamelin American,born ice dancer who represents South Korea
• Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård Swedish actor
• Alexander Thomas "Alex" Castle German music producer of "Twoloud"
• Alexander Timothy "Alex" Marshall American musician of rock band "The Cab"
• Alexander Biehn (b. 2003) son of actor Michael Biehn
• Alexander Puck (b. 2006) son of celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck
• Alexander "Sasha" Pete Schrieber (b. 2007) son of actors Liev Schrieber and Naomi Watts
• Alexander David Conrod (b. 2010) son of journalist and TV personality Nina García
• Alexander "Zander" Rafahi Mehran III (b. 2011), son of model Maggie Rizer
• Alexander "Jack" John Buckley Ford (b. 2012) son of fashion designer Tom Ford
• Alexander Frost Brown (b. 2014) son of country music singer Zac Brown
• Prince Alexander Erik Hubertus Bertil of Sweden Duke of Södermanland (b. 2016), son of Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, Duke of Värmland and Princess Sofia of Sweden, Duchess of Värmland
• Alexander Clooney (b. 2017) son of actor George Clooney and Amal Clooney; twin of sister Ella
• Talus Alexander Meraz son of actor Alex Meraz
• Alexander Gere (b. 2019) son of American actor Richard Gere & Spanish publicist Alejandra Silva
• Alexander "Alex" Adam English singer/gitarist of ROAM
• Alexander "Alex" Costello English singer of ROAM
• Alexander "Sascha" Zverev German tennis player
• Alexander J. Newall creator of Rusty Quill, story editor on "The Magnus Archives"

The name Alexander in Pop Culture

• Alexander Rozhenko Worf's son on TV's "Star Trek: The Next Generation"
• Alexander Saxton character in "Horror Express"
• Dr. Alexander "Alex" Karev character on TV's "Grey's Anatomy"
• Alexander "Xander" Harris main character on TV's "Buffy The Vampire Slayer"
• Alexander "Alec" Lightwood character in 'The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare
• Alexander Ashford character in the Resident Evil video game series
• Alexander von Brennenburg character in video game "Amnesia: The Dark Descent"
• Alexander "Alex" Mercer character in video game series Prototype
• Sir Alexander Dane/Dr. Lazarus character in movie "Galaxy Quest"
• Alexander Szukalski character from "Night Trains" by Barbara Wood
• Alexander Goth character in "The Sims"
• Alexander Cross character in "The Sims"
• Alexander "Alex" Summers also known as Havok, character in Marvel Universe
• Alexander Goodwin Pierce character in Marvel Universe
• Alexander Joseph "Lex" Luthor character in DC Universe
• Alexander Knox character in DC Universe
• Alexander a maleficent, ancient deity in the video game Final Fantasy XI
• "Alexander and the Terrible Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day," children's book by Judith Viorst and 2014 movie
• Alexander DeLarge main character in "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess
• Alexander “Alex” Katsopolis character on TV’s Full House and Fuller House

International Variations of the name Alexander

• Alexei Russian
• Alessandro Italian
• Alexios Greek
• Alasdair Scottish Gaelic
• Sándor Hungarian
• Alexio Portuguese
• Sasha Russian
• Sandro Italian
• Aleksandr Russian
• Shura Russian
• Alexandre French
• Sanya Russian
• Alexandros Greek
• Alastar Irish Gaelic
• Alistair Scottish Gaelic
• Alejandro Spanish
• Alexandru Romanian