Alexandru
A masculine name of Roman origin meaning "defender of mankind".
Name Census estimates that about 593 living Americans carry the first name Alexandru. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Alexandru today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Alexandru births was 2006 (34 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Alexandru. 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 Alexandru with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
593
~ 1 in 578,001 Americans
Peak year
2006
34 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,386
Tracked since 1981
Census
Alexandru in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,541 people with the first name Alexandru, which placed it at #6,347 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
#6,347
National first-name rank
People counted
2.5K
2,541 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
97.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Alexandru
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alexandru is White at 97.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.5%) and Two or More Races (0.6%). 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 Alexandru 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 Alexandru at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White97.2% · 2,469
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 38
- Two or more races0.6% · 14
- Black or African American0.4% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 4
Popularity
Alexandru: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Alexandru from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 243 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
Alexandru 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 Alexandru during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Alexandrus live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. California, Illinois, Florida recorded the most babies named Alexandru, while New York, Michigan, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 13 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Alexandru
The given name Alexandru has its origins in the Greek language and culture, deriving from the Greek name Alexandros. It can be traced back to ancient times, with the earliest known historical reference being Alexander the Great, the renowned Macedonian king and military commander who lived from 356 BC to 323 BC.
Alexandros is a combination of the Greek words "alexein," meaning "to defend," and "andros," meaning "man." The name's literal translation is "defender of men." This reflects the ideals of strength, bravery, and protection that were highly valued in ancient Greek society.
During the Hellenistic period, which followed Alexander the Great's conquests, the name gained widespread popularity across the territories he conquered, including parts of the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. As Greek culture spread, so did the name Alexandru.
In the Byzantine Empire, which emerged after the fall of the Roman Empire, the name Alexandru remained in use, particularly among members of the aristocracy and ruling class. Notable historical figures bearing this name include Alexandru Aldea (1858-1919), a Romanian historian and theologian, and Alexandru Ioan Cuza (1820-1873), the first ruler of the united principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which later became modern-day Romania.
In Russia, the name took on the form of Aleksandr, with notable figures including Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837), the renowned poet and playwright considered the founder of modern Russian literature, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), the Nobel Prize-winning novelist and critic of the Soviet regime.
In the Western world, the name Alexander gained prominence during the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods. Notable individuals included Alexander the Great's namesake, Alexander III of Macedon (336-323 BC), and Pope Alexander VI (1431-1503), whose reign was marked by controversy and the infamous Borgia family scandals.
Other historical figures with the name Alexandru include Alexandru Dimitrie Ghica (1795-1857), a Romanian prince and scholar, Alexandru Averescu (1859-1938), a Romanian military commander and prime minister, and Alexandru Mavrocordat (1642-1709), a Prince of Wallachia and Moldavia.
People
Alexandru + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Alexandru 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
Alexandru: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Alexandru?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 593 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Alexandru 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 578,001 US residents.
Is Alexandru a common name?
We classify Alexandru as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 600 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Alexandru most popular?
The single biggest year for Alexandru was 2006, when 34 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Alexandru is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Alexandru in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,541 people with the name Alexandru, or 0.84 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,347 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 Alexandru 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 Alexandru?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Alexandru appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,541 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Alexandru?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Alexandru is White at 97.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.5%) and Two or More Races (0.6%). 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 Alexandru most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Alexandru in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.2% (2,469 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 Alexandru in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Alexandru a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Alexandru 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 Alexandru still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Alexandru 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 Alexandru 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 the name Alexandru?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.