Alexander
A masculine name of Greek origin meaning "defender of men".
Roughly 675,019 people in the United States go by the first name Alexander, which ranks #27 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Alexander today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alexander births was 1993 (20,707 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Stephanie (674,276).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alexander. 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 Alexander with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Alexander is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 4,531 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
675K
~ 1 in 508 Americans
Peak year
1993
20,707 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#27
Tracked since 1880
Census
Alexander in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 556,753 people with the first name Alexander, which placed it at #74 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
#74
National first-name rank
People counted
557K
556,753 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
184.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alexander
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alexander is White at 59.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (26.2%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Alexander 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 Alexander at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.4% · 330,920
- Hispanic or Latino26.2% · 145,909
- Two or more races5.1% · 28,137
- Black or African American4.9% · 27,131
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.0% · 22,399
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2,257
Gender
Gender distribution for Alexander
Out of the 733,348 babies given the name Alexander since 1880, 99.4% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Alexander as a male name
- Ranked #27 in 2024
- 7,517 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1993 (20,529 births)
Alexander as a female name
- Ranked #9,555 in 2024
- 10 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1988 (331 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alexander appears almost entirely male. Of the 556,757 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Alexander: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alexander from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 185,404 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alexander 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 Alexander during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 2,081 | 0 | 2,081 |
| 1890s | 1,954 | 0 | 1,954 |
| 1900s | 2,230 | 5 | 2,235 |
| 1910s | 11,352 | 51 | 11,403 |
| 1920s | 12,539 | 52 | 12,591 |
| 1930s | 7,095 | 30 | 7,125 |
| 1940s | 9,477 | 18 | 9,495 |
| 1950s | 12,181 | 52 | 12,233 |
| 1960s | 14,178 | 111 | 14,289 |
| 1970s | 24,940 | 290 | 25,230 |
| 1980s | 82,013 | 1,528 | 83,541 |
| 1990s | 183,943 | 1,461 | 185,404 |
| 2000s | 178,842 | 599 | 179,441 |
| 2010s | 142,142 | 273 | 142,415 |
| 2020s | 43,850 | 61 | 43,911 |
Geography
Where Alexanders live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Alexander, while Wyoming, Vermont, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 14,173 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alexander
The name Alexander has its origins in the Greek language, deriving from the word "Alexandros" which means "defender of men" or "protector of men". The name dates back to ancient times, with its earliest known use recorded in classical Greek literature and historical accounts from the 4th century BC.
Alexander was a name borne by several notable figures in ancient Greek history, the most famous being Alexander the Great (356 BC – 323 BC), the legendary Macedonian king who conquered much of the known world in his time. His military campaigns and empire-building efforts played a significant role in the spread and popularity of the name across various regions.
In the Bible, Alexander is mentioned as the name of a Jewish leader and high priest from the 1st century AD, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. This early association with religious texts and figures likely contributed to the name's acceptance and usage among different cultures and faiths.
During the Middle Ages, the name Alexander remained popular in various European regions, particularly in the Byzantine Empire and among the nobility. Several notable historical figures carried this name, including Alexander Nevsky (1220 – 1263), the revered Russian prince and military leader who played a crucial role in defending Novgorod against Swedish and Teutonic invasions.
In the Renaissance period, the name gained further prominence with individuals like Alexander VI (1431 – 1503), the controversial Pope who was instrumental in the political and cultural affairs of the time. Another notable figure was Alexander Hamilton (1755 – 1804), one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and the first Secretary of the Treasury.
Other famous individuals named Alexander throughout history include Alexander Pushkin (1799 – 1837), the acclaimed Russian poet and writer often referred to as the father of modern Russian literature, and Alexander Graham Bell (1847 – 1922), the Scottish-born scientist and inventor credited with patenting the first practical telephone.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Alexander
People
Alexander + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alexander 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
Alexander: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alexander?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 675,019 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alexander 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 508 US residents.
Is Alexander a common name?
We classify Alexander as "Very Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 733,348 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alexander most popular?
The single biggest year for Alexander was 1993, when 20,707 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alexander is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alexander in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 556,753 people with the name Alexander, or 184.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #74 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 Alexander 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 Alexander?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alexander appears almost entirely male. Of the 556,757 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Alexander?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alexander is White at 59.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (26.2%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Alexander most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Alexander in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.4% (330,920 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 Alexander in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alexander a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Alexander 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 Alexander still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alexander 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 Alexander 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 Alexander as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.