Alexander
Top 1000
About Alexander
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.
Pronounced al-ig-ZAN-dur.
As of October 2026, Alexander ranked #30 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #4 in 2009, Nameberry popularity #63.
Editor's take: The name Alexander is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "defending men".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #8 | 15,444 | 8,040.1 |
| 2015 | #8 | 14,583 | 7,608.2 |
| 2016 | #11 | 13,445 | 7,084.8 |
| 2017 | #13 | 12,574 | 6,793.2 |
| 2018 | #11 | 12,109 | 6,667.4 |
| 2019 | #10 | 11,325 | 6,311.9 |
| 2020 | #10 | 10,262 | 5,945.3 |
| 2021 | #13 | 9,418 | 5,383.3 |
| 2022 | #17 | 8,744 | 5,008 |
| 2023 | #22 | 7,909 | 4,623.6 |
| 2024 | #27 | 7,517 | 4,363 |
| 2025 | #30 | 7,230 | 4,232.8 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Alexander.
- Gabriel
- Nathaniel
- Nicholas
- Benjamin
- Isaac
- Samuel
- Daniel
- William
- Andrew
- Thomas
- Elijah
- Lucas
- Jacob
- James
- Luke
- Nathan
- Zachary
- Ethan
- Adam
- Caleb
Alexander on lists
Famous Alexanders
- 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"
- Alexander Albon
Thai-British Formula 1 driver
- Alexander Mikhailovich Ovechkin
Russian ice hockey player
- Alexander Stanislavovich Romanov
Russian ice hockey player
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
Variations & nicknames
More nicknames
- Xand