Aleksei
A masculine Russian form of the name Alexander, meaning "defender of mankind".
Name Census estimates that about 450 living Americans carry the first name Aleksei. It is a predominantly male name (97.4% of registrations). The average person named Aleksei today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Aleksei births was 2001 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Aleksei. 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 Aleksei with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
450
~ 1 in 761,676 Americans
Peak year
2001
25 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,440
Tracked since 1994
Census
Aleksei in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,154 people with the first name Aleksei, which placed it at #11,234 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
#11,234
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,154 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Aleksei
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aleksei is White at 83.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.4%) and Two or More Races (3.2%). 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 Aleksei 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 Aleksei at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.1% · 959
- Hispanic or Latino10.4% · 120
- Two or more races3.2% · 37
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 21
- Black or African American1.3% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Aleksei
Aleksei leans heavily male at 97.4% of total registrations, but 12 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Aleksei as a male name
- Ranked #5,440 in 2024
- 17 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2001 (25 births)
Aleksei as a female name
- Ranked #12,131 in 1997
- 6 female births in 1997
- Peak: 1996 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aleksei leans strongly male. 1,114 people counted with this name were male (96.0%), compared with 46 female bearers (4.0%).
Popularity
Aleksei: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Aleksei from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 175 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Aleksei remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Aleksei 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 Aleksei during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alekseis live
Origin
Meaning and history of Aleksei
The name Aleksei is a masculine given name of Russian origin, derived from the Greek name Alexios, which means "defender" or "helper." This name has its roots in ancient Greek culture, where it was a common name given to boys.
In the Russian Orthodox tradition, Aleksei is a popular name associated with the 14th-century Saint Aleksei, the Metropolitan of Moscow, who is revered for his piety and contributions to the Russian Orthodox Church. The name gained widespread popularity in Russia and other Slavic countries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Aleksei can be found in the Primary Chronicle, an ancient Russian manuscript dating back to the 12th century. This chronicle mentions Prince Aleksei Svyatoslavich, who ruled the city of Novgorod in the late 11th century.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Aleksei. Among them is Aleksei Mikhailovich Romanov (1629-1676), the Tsar of Russia from 1645 to 1676, known for strengthening the Russian state and expanding its territories. Another prominent figure is Aleksei Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1883-1945), a renowned Russian writer and novelist best known for his science fiction works.
The name Aleksei has also been associated with Russian royalty. Aleksei Nikolaevich (1904-1918) was the son of Tsar Nicholas II and the heir apparent to the Russian throne before the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. His tragic fate, along with that of his family, has become a part of Russian history.
In the world of science, Aleksei Krylov (1863-1945) was a prominent Russian naval engineer and mathematician who made significant contributions to the theory of ship motions and vibrations. Aleksei Leonov (1934-2019) was a Soviet/Russian cosmonaut who became the first human to conduct a spacewalk in 1965.
The name Aleksei has also had its place in the arts. Aleksei Batalov (1928-2022) was a celebrated Russian actor known for his roles in classic Soviet films, while Aleksei Arbuzov (1908-1986) was a renowned Russian playwright and screenwriter.
People
Aleksei + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Aleksei 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
Aleksei: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Aleksei?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 450 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Aleksei 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 761,676 US residents.
Is Aleksei a common name?
We classify Aleksei as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 456 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Aleksei most popular?
The single biggest year for Aleksei was 2001, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Aleksei is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Aleksei in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,154 people with the name Aleksei, or 0.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,234 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 Aleksei 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 Aleksei?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aleksei leans strongly male. 1,114 people counted with this name were male (96.0%), compared with 46 female bearers (4.0%). 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 Aleksei?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aleksei is White at 83.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.4%) and Two or More Races (3.2%). 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 Aleksei most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Aleksei in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.1% (959 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 Aleksei in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Aleksei a male name?
Yes, 97.4% of people registered as Aleksei 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 Aleksei still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Aleksei 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 Aleksei 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 have the name Aleksei?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.