Alexandria
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "defender of men".
Name Census estimates that about 100,122 living Americans carry the first name Alexandria. It sits at #463 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Alexandria today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alexandria births was 1993 (5,042 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alexandria. 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 Alexandria with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Alexandria is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 230 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
100K
~ 1 in 3,423 Americans
Peak year
1993
5,042 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2006 SSA rank
#463
Tracked since 1902
Census
Alexandria in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 84,201 people with the first name Alexandria, which placed it at #628 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
#628
National first-name rank
People counted
84K
84,201 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
27.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alexandria
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alexandria is White at 59.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.0%) and Black (13.4%). 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 Alexandria 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 Alexandria at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.1% · 49,748
- Hispanic or Latino18.0% · 15,144
- Black or African American13.4% · 11,299
- Two or more races6.7% · 5,676
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 1,619
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 715
Gender
Gender distribution for Alexandria
Out of the 104,116 babies given the name Alexandria since 1880, 99.8% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Alexandria as a male name
- Ranked #12,119 in 2006
- 5 male births in 2006
- Peak: 1989 (26 births)
Alexandria as a female name
- Ranked #463 in 2024
- 675 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1993 (5,027 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alexandria appears almost entirely female. Of the 84,197 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Alexandria: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alexandria from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 44,182 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
Alexandria 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 Alexandria during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alexandrias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Alexandria, while District of Columbia, Vermont, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,984 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alexandria
The name Alexandria has its origins in the ancient Greek language. It is derived from the Greek words "alexo," meaning to defend or protect, and "andros," meaning man. The name was first coined around the 4th century BCE during the reign of Alexander the Great.
Alexandria was the name given to numerous cities founded by Alexander the Great during his conquests across the ancient world. The most famous of these cities was Alexandria in Egypt, established in 331 BCE and named after the Macedonian ruler himself. This city became a major center of learning and culture in the ancient Mediterranean world.
In Greek mythology, Alexandria was also the name of a character associated with the city of Troy. According to legend, she was the daughter of the Trojan prince Priam and was renowned for her beauty. Her name appears in various ancient Greek texts and epic poems, such as the Iliad by Homer.
The name Alexandria gained popularity throughout the Hellenistic world and was later adopted by the Romans. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name is Alexandria Troas, a city founded in northwestern Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) in the 3rd century BCE.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Alexandria. Here are five examples:
1. Alexandria Soter (c. 315 BCE - 275 BCE), a Macedonian princess and daughter of Ptolemy I Soter, the founder of the Ptolemaic Dynasty in Egypt.
2. Alexandria Eudoxia (c. 380 CE - 460 CE), the wife of the Byzantine Emperor Arcadius and a powerful figure in the Eastern Roman Empire.
3. Alexandria Feodorovna (1798 - 1860), a Russian princess and the wife of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia.
4. Alexandria Pallas (1778 - 1811), a Russian Princess and renowned artist who painted portraits of notable figures of her time.
5. Alexandria Kollontai (1872 - 1952), a Russian revolutionary and feminist who played a prominent role in the Bolshevik Revolution and later served as the Soviet ambassador to several countries.
The name Alexandria has endured throughout the centuries, carrying with it the rich history and legacy of the ancient Greek world, as well as the countless remarkable women who have borne this name.
People
Alexandria + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alexandria 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
Alexandria: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alexandria?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 100,122 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alexandria 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 3,423 US residents.
Is Alexandria a common name?
We classify Alexandria as "Common". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 104,116 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alexandria most popular?
The single biggest year for Alexandria was 1993, when 5,042 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alexandria is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alexandria in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 84,201 people with the name Alexandria, or 27.88 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #628 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 Alexandria 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 Alexandria?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alexandria appears almost entirely female. Of the 84,197 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Alexandria?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alexandria is White at 59.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.0%) and Black (13.4%). 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 Alexandria most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Alexandria in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.1% (49,748 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 Alexandria in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alexandria a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Alexandria in the SSA data are female. 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 Alexandria still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alexandria 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 Alexandria 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 Alexandria as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Alexandria on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.