Iskander
A variant of the name Alexander, of Greek origin meaning "defender of men".
Name Census estimates that about 72 living Americans carry the first name Iskander. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Iskander today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Iskander births was 2009 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Iskander. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Iskander. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
72
~ 1 in 4,760,477 Americans
Peak year
2009
13 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2023 SSA rank
#12,958
Tracked since 2008
Popularity
Iskander: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Iskander from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 42 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Iskander 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 Iskander during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Iskanders live
Origin
Meaning and history of Iskander
The name Iskander has its origins in the ancient Greek name Ἀλέξανδρος (Alexandros), which is derived from the Greek elements ἀλέξω (alexo) meaning "to defend" and ἀνήρ (aner) meaning "man". It is closely associated with Alexander the Great, the famous Macedonian king and military commander who conquered much of the ancient world in the 4th century BC.
Iskander is the Persian and Arabic form of the name Alexander, which was adopted and popularized in the Middle East and Central Asia during the reign of Alexander the Great and the subsequent spread of Hellenistic culture throughout the region. The name has been used in various forms in Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and other languages influenced by the Persianate world.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Iskander can be found in the Shahnameh, the epic Persian poem written by Ferdowsi in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. The poem includes a section dedicated to the life and conquests of Alexander the Great, known as Iskander-e Zabardast (Iskander the Mighty).
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Iskander. One of the most famous was Iskander Mirza (1384-1411), a Timurid prince and ruler of Persia and parts of Central Asia. Another was Iskander Shah (1516-1534), the second ruler of the Sur Empire in northern India.
In the Ottoman Empire, Iskander Beg (1592-1631) was a renowned Ottoman statesman and grand vizier, while Iskander Pasha (1819-1876) was a prominent Ottoman general and governor of several provinces. Iskander Khan (1781-1857) was a notable ruler of the Principality of Nakhchivan, now part of modern-day Azerbaijan.
Other notable figures with the name Iskander include Iskander Khayrov (1900-1986), a prominent Soviet Uzbek writer and playwright, and Iskander Kaziev (1924-1992), a Soviet Chechen writer and poet.
Throughout its long history, the name Iskander has maintained its connection to the legacy of Alexander the Great, while also taking on various cultural and regional connotations in the diverse societies it has been adopted into.
People
Iskander + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Iskander as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Iskander: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Iskander?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 72 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Iskander 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 4,760,477 US residents.
Is Iskander a common name?
We classify Iskander as "Very Rare". It ranks above 59.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 73 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Iskander most popular?
The single biggest year for Iskander was 2009, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Iskander is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Iskander a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Iskander 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.
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.