Alexander

Alexander meaning

Alexander is an international and Christian boy's name of Greek origin.

Defender of men: alexō "ward off, defend" + anēr "man"

Also used to mean: defender of the people, protector of mankind

Alexander is the Greek name Alexandros, made of alexō, "to ward off" or "to defend", and anēr, "man". Strong's Concordance (G223) glosses it "man-defender", and the Liddell-Scott-Jones lexicon shows alexō in Homer meaning to keep danger away from someone or to come to their aid. Several men called Alexander appear in the New Testament. Its most famous bearer, Alexander the Great, reached north-west India in 326 BCE, and Persian poets retold his story as Iskandar; Platts's Urdu dictionary records sikandar simply as Alexander the Great, so the Indian name Sikandar is the same name. Alex and Xander are short forms.

Source: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (1890), Greek, G223 · entry Ἀλέξανδρος Alexandros · See the entry · checked 25 Oct 2026

References: Strong's G223, Alexandros (Bible Hub) · LSJ, ἀλέξω (Logeion) · Britannica, Alexander the Great · Britannica, Iskandar-nāmeh · Platts, sikandar, p. 665

Famous namesakes

• Alexander the Great, king of Macedon
• Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone

Popularity abroad

• #30 United States, boys 2025 (down 3 from 27 in 2024)
  US Social Security Administration
• #40 England and Wales, boys 2025
  Office for National Statistics

Official birth registrations. India publishes no national name statistics.

Spellings

Alexander · Aleksander · Alexandre · Alessandro

Related names

Also meaning strength

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