Xander
Variant of Alexander, derived from the Greek meaning "defending men" or "protector of man".
Name Census estimates that about 38,666 living Americans carry the first name Xander. It sits at #216 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Xander today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Xander births was 2017 (2,420 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Xander. 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 Xander with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Xander is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 68 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Xander is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 12 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
39K
~ 1 in 8,864 Americans
Peak year
2017
2,420 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#216
Tracked since 1990
Census
Xander in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 27,437 people with the first name Xander, which placed it at #1,328 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
#1,328
National first-name rank
People counted
27K
27,437 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
9.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Xander
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Xander is White at 62.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.6%) and Two or More Races (9.1%). 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 Xander 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 Xander at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.1% · 17,026
- Hispanic or Latino20.6% · 5,663
- Two or more races9.1% · 2,509
- Black or African American4.1% · 1,129
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 745
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 365
Gender
Gender distribution for Xander
Out of the 38,996 babies given the name Xander since 1880, 99.8% 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.
Xander as a male name
- Ranked #216 in 2024
- 1,665 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (2,413 births)
Xander as a female name
- Ranked #17,471 in 2023
- 5 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2016 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Xander appears almost entirely male. Of the 27,442 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Xander: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Xander from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 19,346 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Xander remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Xander 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 Xander during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Xanders live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Xander, while District of Columbia, Delaware, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 751 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Xander
The given name Xander is derived from the Greek name Alexander, which means "defender of men" or "protector of men." The name Alexander has its roots in the ancient Greek language, dating back to the 5th century BC.
Alexander was a very popular name in ancient Greece, and it was borne by several notable historical figures, including Alexander the Great, the famous Macedonian king who conquered much of the known world in the 4th century BC. The name gained widespread popularity across Europe and the Middle East due to Alexander the Great's military conquests and the spread of Hellenistic culture.
The name Xander emerged as a shortened form of Alexander in the English-speaking world. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Xander can be found in the 16th century work "The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia" by Sir Philip Sidney, where a character named Xander appears.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Xander. One of the earliest was Xander de Bissipat, a 13th-century French nobleman and crusader. Another was Xander Brett, an English soldier and politician who lived in the 17th century.
In the 19th century, Xander Dougan was a Scottish poet and author, while Xander Hauff was a German writer and novelist. More recently, Xander Berkeley, an American actor born in 1955, is known for his roles in various films and television shows.
The name Xander has also been used in literature and popular culture. In the 1990s television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," one of the main characters was named Xander Harris, played by actor Nicholas Brendon. This helped to popularize the name in the late 20th century.
People
Xander + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Xander as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with X
Other first names starting with X with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Xander: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Xander?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 38,666 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Xander 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 8,864 US residents.
Is Xander a common name?
We classify Xander as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 38,996 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Xander most popular?
The single biggest year for Xander was 2017, when 2,420 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Xander is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Xander in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 27,437 people with the name Xander, or 9.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,328 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 Xander 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 Xander?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Xander appears almost entirely male. Of the 27,442 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Xander?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Xander is White at 62.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.6%) and Two or More Races (9.1%). 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 Xander most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Xander in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.1% (17,026 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 Xander in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Xander a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Xander 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 Xander still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Xander 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 Xander 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 Xander?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.