Alejandro
An iconic Spanish name derived from the Greek meaning "defender of man".
Name Census estimates that about 139,671 living Americans carry the first name Alejandro. It sits at #184 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Alejandro today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alejandro births was 2001 (4,577 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alejandro. 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 Alejandro with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Alejandro is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 846 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
140K
~ 1 in 2,454 Americans
Peak year
2001
4,577 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#184
Tracked since 1885
Census
Alejandro in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 180,046 people with the first name Alejandro, which placed it at #309 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
#309
National first-name rank
People counted
180K
180,046 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
59.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
96.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alejandro
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alejandro is Hispanic at 96.2%. The next largest groups are White (2.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (0.9%). 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 Alejandro 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 Alejandro at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino96.2% · 173,284
- White2.2% · 3,913
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 1,626
- Black or African American0.4% · 698
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 290
- Two or more races0.1% · 235
Gender
Gender distribution for Alejandro
Out of the 145,614 babies given the name Alejandro since 1880, 99.4% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Alejandro as a male name
- Ranked #184 in 2024
- 1,992 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2001 (4,557 births)
Alejandro as a female name
- Ranked #14,666 in 2014
- 6 female births in 2014
- Peak: 1992 (62 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alejandro appears almost entirely male. Of the 180,051 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Alejandro: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alejandro from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 43,268 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alejandro 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 Alejandro during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alejandros live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Alejandro, while West Virginia, New Hampshire, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,041 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alejandro
The name Alejandro has its origins in the ancient Greek language. It is derived from the Greek name Alexandros, which combines the elements "alexo" meaning "to defend" and "aner" meaning "man". The name essentially translates to "defender of man" or "protector of mankind".
The name first gained widespread recognition and popularity through the legendary figure of Alexander the Great, the king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. Born in 356 BCE, Alexander the Great conquered a vast empire stretching from Greece to India, and his military campaigns and leadership exploits became the stuff of legend. The name Alejandro is the Spanish form of the name Alexander, which was adopted by the Romans and spread throughout Europe and other regions under their influence.
In the Christian tradition, the name Alejandro is associated with several saints and martyrs, including Saint Alexander of Alexandria, a 3rd-century patriarch of Alexandria, and Saint Alexander of Comana, a 3rd-century martyr. These early Christian figures helped to establish the name's religious significance and contributed to its popularity among believers.
Throughout history, there have been numerous notable individuals bearing the name Alejandro. One of the earliest recorded examples is Alejandro de Hales, a 13th-century English philosopher and theologian (c. 1185-1245). In the realm of literature, Alejandro Casona (1903-1965) was a Spanish playwright and novelist known for his works exploring the human condition.
In the field of music, Alejandro Sanz (born 1968) is a renowned Spanish singer-songwriter and guitarist who has won numerous Latin Grammy Awards and is considered one of the most successful Spanish artists of all time. Alejandro Jodorowsky (born 1929) is a Chilean-French filmmaker, playwright, and author known for his avant-garde and surrealist works.
Another notable figure is Alejandro Malaspina (1754-1810), an Italian-born Spanish naval officer and explorer who led a scientific expedition around the world in the late 18th century, making significant contributions to cartography and natural history.
These are just a few examples of the many individuals who have borne the name Alejandro throughout history, reflecting its enduring popularity and cultural significance across various regions and fields of human endeavor.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Alejandro
People
Alejandro + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alejandro 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
Alejandro: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alejandro?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 139,671 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alejandro 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 2,454 US residents.
Is Alejandro a common name?
We classify Alejandro as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 145,614 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alejandro most popular?
The single biggest year for Alejandro was 2001, when 4,577 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alejandro 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 Alejandro in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 180,046 people with the name Alejandro, or 59.61 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #309 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 Alejandro 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 Alejandro?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alejandro appears almost entirely male. Of the 180,051 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Alejandro?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alejandro is Hispanic at 96.2%. The next largest groups are White (2.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (0.9%). 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 Alejandro most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Alejandro in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.2% (173,284 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 Alejandro in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alejandro a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Alejandro in the SSA data are male. 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 Alejandro still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alejandro 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 Alejandro 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 Alejandro?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.