Alexander

Where Alexander comes from

From Middle English Alexander, Alexandre, from Latin Alexander, from Ancient Greek Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros), from ἀλέξω (aléxō, “to defend”) + ἀνδρ- (andr-), the stem of ἀνήρ (anḗr, “man”). Doublet of Alastair, Alejandro, Iskandar, Sikandar, Alessandro, and Alexandre.
— Wiktionary's entry for Alexander
  • Ancient Greek
  • 4 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1769
    Alexander von Humboldt born
    Prussian geographer, naturalist and explorer
  2. 1847
    Alexander Graham Bell born
    Canadian-American scientist inventor of telephone
  3. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #73 among boys — 211 babies in the first year on record.
  4. 2009
    Peak, #4
    18,254 babies named Alexander — more than any year before or since.
  5. 2022
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #17.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Ancient Greek, most famously held by Alexander the Great.
Namesakes
  • Alexander Graham Bell · Canadian-American scientist inventor of telephone, 1847–1922
  • Alexander von Humboldt · Prussian geographer, naturalist and explorer, 1769–1859
  • Alexander Fleming · Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, botanist, and Nobel laureate, 1881–1955
  • Alexander Pope · English poet, 1688–1744
  • Alexander VI · pope of the Catholic Church 1492–1503 from the Borgia family, 1431–1503

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.