Alejandra
Spanish feminine form of the masculine name Alejandro, meaning "defender of mankind".
Name Census estimates that about 52,043 living Americans carry the first name Alejandra. It is a predominantly female name (99.0% of registrations). The average person named Alejandra today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alejandra births was 1994 (2,223 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alejandra. 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 Alejandra with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Alejandra is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 530 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
52K
~ 1 in 6,586 Americans
Peak year
1994
2,223 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2020 SSA rank
#576
Tracked since 1900
Census
Alejandra in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 78,499 people with the first name Alejandra, which placed it at #673 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
#673
National first-name rank
People counted
78K
78,499 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
26.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
97.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alejandra
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alejandra is Hispanic at 97.3%. The next largest groups are White (1.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (0.5%). 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 Alejandra 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 Alejandra at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino97.3% · 76,358
- White1.7% · 1,309
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 405
- Black or African American0.3% · 247
- Two or more races0.1% · 99
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 81
Gender
Gender distribution for Alejandra
Out of the 54,054 babies given the name Alejandra since 1880, 99.0% 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.
Alejandra as a male name
- Ranked #12,107 in 2020
- 5 male births in 2020
- Peak: 1992 (37 births)
Alejandra as a female name
- Ranked #576 in 2024
- 523 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1994 (2,187 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alejandra appears almost entirely female. Of the 78,499 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Alejandra: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alejandra 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 19,271 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
Alejandra 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 Alejandra during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alejandras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 40 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Alejandra, while Rhode Island, Delaware, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,296 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alejandra
The name Alejandra is a Spanish feminine form of the masculine name Alejandro, which is derived from the Ancient Greek name Alexandros. The name Alexandros is composed of the elements alexo, meaning "to defend" or "to protect," and aner, meaning "man." Thus, the name Alejandra can be interpreted to mean "defender of man" or "protector of man."
The name Alejandra has its roots in the Hellenistic period, when the Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great conquered vast territories, spreading Greek culture and language across the Mediterranean region and beyond. The name Alejandra gained popularity in the areas influenced by Greek and later Roman civilizations, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula, which was under Roman rule for several centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Alejandra can be found in the 12th century, when a Spanish noblewoman named Alejandra de Castilla was mentioned in historical records. Another notable figure bearing this name was Alejandra Pizarro, a 16th-century Spanish conquistadora and the illegitimate daughter of the famous conquistador Francisco Pizarro.
Throughout history, several influential women have borne the name Alejandra. In the 19th century, Alejandra Arango Muñoz (1828-1891) was a prominent Colombian writer and activist who fought for women's rights and education. Another notable Alejandra was Alejandra Soler (1913-2017), a Mexican actress and singer who had a prolific career spanning over seven decades.
In the 20th century, Alejandra Soler (1913-2017), a Mexican actress and singer, enjoyed a remarkable career that spanned over seven decades. Alejandra Guzmán (born 1968), a Mexican singer and actress, has been a prominent figure in the Latin American entertainment industry for several decades.
One of the most famous historical figures with the name Alejandra was Alejandra Feodorovna (1872-1918), the last Empress of Russia. Born Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine, she married Tsar Nicholas II and was tragically executed along with her husband and children during the Russian Revolution.
People
Alejandra + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alejandra 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
Alejandra: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alejandra?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 52,043 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alejandra 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 6,586 US residents.
Is Alejandra a common name?
We classify Alejandra as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 54,054 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alejandra most popular?
The single biggest year for Alejandra was 1994, when 2,223 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alejandra 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 Alejandra in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 78,499 people with the name Alejandra, or 25.99 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #673 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 Alejandra 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 Alejandra?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alejandra appears almost entirely female. Of the 78,499 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Alejandra?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alejandra is Hispanic at 97.3%. The next largest groups are White (1.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (0.5%). 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 Alejandra most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Alejandra in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.3% (76,358 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 Alejandra in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alejandra a female name?
Yes, 99.0% of people registered as Alejandra 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 Alejandra still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alejandra 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 Alejandra 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 are called Alejandra?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.