Name Generator

How popular is the name Alexander?

Births per year, rank history and how many Alexanders are alive today.

Alexander (male) is currently the 36th most popular boys' name in England and Wales, with 1,365 babies given the name in 2024. The name peaked in 1994, when around 6,300 babies were given the name, the 13th most popular that year. Alexander's popularity is double-peaked: popular in the early 1900s and stronger still at its peak in the 1990s. Numbers have been falling in recent years. At least 100,000 babies have been named Alexander in England and Wales since 1904. Figures before 1996 are estimates. Common short forms of Alexander include Alec, Xander and Zander.

The Alexander you are most likely to meet is around 33 years old. Half of all Alexanders born in England and Wales are between 22 and 45, and there are at least 200,000 of them alive today. If you walk into a room of 100 males, there's roughly a 48% chance that at least one of them will be called Alexander.

How many babies are named Alexander each year?

Where does Alexander rank among boys' names?

Where this data comes from

Figures from 1996 onwards are the Office for National Statistics' annual baby-name registrations for England and Wales, which record every name given to three or more babies in a year. Figures before 1996 are estimates: the ONS published only top-100 rankings at ten-year intervals back to 1904, so counts for those years are modelled from the rankings, calibrated against Douglas Galbi's long-run research into English name frequencies, and shown with an uncertainty band. Estimates of living bearers combine these birth figures with national life tables and ONS mid-year population estimates.

One limit worth naming: these figures count names as registered at birth. Anyone who changes their name later in life - including trans people, and anyone who adopts a different name by deed poll or simply by use - is not reflected here. Birth registrations record where a name began, not the name a person lives with.