Alek
A masculine Slavic name meaning "defender of mankind".
Name Census estimates that about 4,509 living Americans carry the first name Alek. It is a predominantly male name (98.1% of registrations). The average person named Alek today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alek births was 2007 (162 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alek. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Alek with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Alek is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 86 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
4.5K
~ 1 in 76,016 Americans
Peak year
2007
162 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,964
Tracked since 1916
Census
Alek in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,343 people with the first name Alek, which placed it at #4,342 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#4,342
National first-name rank
People counted
4.3K
4,343 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alek
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alek is White at 59.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.0%) and Two or More Races (4.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Alek described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Alek at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.3% · 2,577
- Hispanic or Latino29.0% · 1,259
- Two or more races4.9% · 212
- Black or African American4.0% · 172
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 90
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 33
Gender
Gender distribution for Alek
Alek leans heavily male at 98.1% of total registrations, but 86 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Alek as a male name
- Ranked #1,964 in 2024
- 79 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1999 (154 births)
Alek as a female name
- Ranked #15,406 in 2022
- 5 female births in 2022
- Peak: 2007 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alek leans strongly male. 4,184 people counted with this name were male (96.3%), compared with 160 female bearers (3.7%).
Popularity
Alek: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alek from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,421 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Alek remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alek by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Alek during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Aleks live
The SSA's state-level files cover 26 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Alek, while Mississippi, Maryland, Kansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 92 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alek
The name Alek has its origins in the Ancient Greek language and can be traced back to the name Alexandros, which means "defender of men" or "protector of men". This name was popular in ancient Greece and was borne by several notable historical figures, including Alexander the Great, the renowned Macedonian king and military commander who conquered much of the ancient world in the 4th century BC.
The name Alek is a shortened form of the name Alexandros, which was later Latinized as Alexander. This Latinized version became widely used throughout the Roman Empire and eventually spread to other parts of Europe and beyond. Over time, various diminutive forms of the name emerged, including Alek, Alec, and Alex.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Alek can be found in the Byzantine Empire, where it was used as a variant of the name Alexander. In the 9th century AD, there was a Byzantine emperor named Alexios I Komnenos, who ruled from 1081 to 1118. His name was a Greek form of the name Alexandros, and it is possible that the diminutive form Alek was derived from this variant.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Alek, including Alek Wek, a South Sudanese-British model and author who was born in 1977. Another famous Alek is Alek Sandar, a Serbian-American actor known for his roles in films like "The Bourne Identity" and "The Hitman's Bodyguard". He was born in 1972.
In the world of literature, Alek Petöfi was a renowned Hungarian poet and revolutionary who lived from 1823 to 1849. He played a significant role in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and is celebrated as one of Hungary's greatest poets.
In the field of science, Alek Issigonis was a British-Turkish designer and engineer who is best known for creating the iconic Mini car. He lived from 1906 to 1988 and his innovative design revolutionized the automotive industry.
Another notable figure with the name Alek is Alek Wek, a South Sudanese-British model and author who was born in 1977. She gained international recognition as one of the first African models to achieve global success and has been a prominent advocate for diversity and inclusion in the fashion industry.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Alek
People
Alek + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alek as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Alek: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alek?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,509 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alek going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 76,016 US residents.
Is Alek a common name?
We classify Alek as "Rare". It ranks above 96.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,599 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alek most popular?
The single biggest year for Alek was 2007, when 162 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alek is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alek in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,343 people with the name Alek, or 1.44 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,342 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Alek in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Alek?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alek leans strongly male. 4,184 people counted with this name were male (96.3%), compared with 160 female bearers (3.7%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Alek?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alek is White at 59.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.0%) and Two or More Races (4.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Alek most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Alek in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.3% (2,577 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Alek in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alek a male name?
Yes, 98.1% of people registered as Alek in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Alek still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alek in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Alek can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Alek?
Find out how many people have the name Alek on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.