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

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Alexandra, Alexa, and Lexi are more commonly used as feminine forms of this classic name, but Alexander has been appearing in the US stats for girls since the early 20th-century. While a some of these cases are certainly been down to data-entry errors, more recent uses of the name may reflect the trend of "boys-names-for-girls", with James, Maxwell, Ryan, and Wyatt also being considered. 
 
Given to 10 girls in a recent count, it peaked back in the 80s when as many as 330 were given the name. It is however more common to see it in the middle spot for girls, likely as a direct honor for an Alexander.

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Alexander

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The name Alexander peaked for girls at #602 in 1988. The name is most popular in ALEXANDER. Alexander is also used for boys, ranking #30 in 2025.

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

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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.

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The name Alexander is currently ranked #30 in U.S. births. and peaked for boys at #4 in 2009. The name is most popular in ALEXANDER, ALEXANDER, and ALEXANDER. Alexander is occasionally used for girls in 2025.

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Year	US rank	Births	Per million
2014	#4,358	33	18.5
2015	—	0	0
2016	—	0	0
2017	—	0	0
2018	—	0	0
2019	—	0	0
2020	—	0	0
2021	—	0	0
2022	—	0	0
2023	—	0	0
2024	—	0	0
2025	—	0	0