Alejo
Rich protector or defender, a Spanish variant of the name Alexius.
Name Census estimates that about 712 living Americans carry the first name Alejo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Alejo today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alejo births was 1996 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alejo. 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.
People living today
712
~ 1 in 481,397 Americans
Peak year
1996
17 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,752
Tracked since 1909
Census
Alejo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,003 people with the first name Alejo, which placed it at #7,567 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
#7,567
National first-name rank
People counted
2.0K
2,003 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
88.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alejo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alejo is Hispanic at 88.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (7.6%) and White (2.3%). 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 Alejo 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 Alejo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino88.5% · 1,773
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.6% · 152
- White2.3% · 46
- Black or African American0.9% · 19
- Two or more races0.4% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 4
Popularity
Alejo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alejo from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 125 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Alejo remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Alejo 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 Alejo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alejos live
Origin
Meaning and history of Alejo
The name Alejo is a Spanish variant of the name Alejandro, which itself is derived from the Greek name Alexandros. Alexandros is composed of the elements "alexo" meaning "to defend" and "andros" meaning "man." So the name essentially means "defender of men."
The name Alejandro was borne by the famous Alexander the Great, the legendary king and military commander of ancient Macedonia who conquered vast territories in the 4th century BCE. His reputation and conquests spread the name to many parts of Europe and the Mediterranean.
In Spain, the name evolved into the form Alejo during medieval times. It became established as a distinct name in its own right, used alongside the original Alejandro. One of the earliest recorded bearers was Alejo Venegas, a Spanish translator and writer active in the early 16th century.
Another notable Alejo from history was Alejo Carpentier, a Cuban novelist and musicologist born in 1904. He was a prominent figure in the Latin American literary boom of the 20th century and is best known for novels like "The Kingdom of This World."
Alejo Zuloaga was a Spanish painter and ceramicist active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was part of the revival of Spanish ceramic arts and is remembered for his works depicting scenes of Spanish life and culture.
In the 17th century, Alejo de Venegas was a Spanish Jesuit priest and scholar who wrote influential works on education and moral philosophy. His treatise "De Instituto of Societatis Iesu" outlined principles for the Jesuit educational system.
Alejo Hernández was a Mexican artist and muralist born in 1934. He was part of the Mexican muralism movement and created numerous large-scale public murals depicting scenes of Mexican history and culture.
People
Alejo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alejo 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
Alejo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alejo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 712 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alejo 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 481,397 US residents.
Is Alejo a common name?
We classify Alejo as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 882 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alejo most popular?
The single biggest year for Alejo was 1996, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alejo is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alejo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,003 people with the name Alejo, or 0.66 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,567 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 Alejo 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 Alejo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alejo appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,001 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Alejo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alejo is Hispanic at 88.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (7.6%) and White (2.3%). 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 Alejo most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Alejo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.5% (1,773 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 Alejo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alejo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Alejo 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 Alejo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alejo 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 Alejo 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 have Alejo as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Alejo on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.