Zandra
Feminine form of Alexander, a Greek name meaning "defender of men".
Name Census estimates that about 2,918 living Americans carry the first name Zandra. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Zandra today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Zandra births was 1970 (131 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Zandra. 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 Zandra with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.9K
~ 1 in 117,462 Americans
Peak year
1970
131 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
2020 SSA rank
#8,935
Tracked since 1931
Census
Zandra in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,486 people with the first name Zandra, which placed it at #5,058 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
#5,058
National first-name rank
People counted
3.5K
3,486 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
35.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Zandra
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zandra is Black at 35.4%. The next largest groups are White (34.6%) and Hispanic (22.1%). 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 Zandra 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 Zandra at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American35.4% · 1,233
- White34.6% · 1,206
- Hispanic or Latino22.1% · 771
- Two or more races3.4% · 118
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 109
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 49
Popularity
Zandra: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Zandra from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 886 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Zandra 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 Zandra during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Zandras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Zandra, while Kentucky, Kansas, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 60 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Zandra
The name Zandra has its origins in ancient Greek culture, believed to have derived from the word "Alexandra," which means "defender of men." It is a variation of the more common name Alexandra, with the "z" sound replacing the "x" sound.
In the Byzantine Empire, the name Alexandra was popular among royalty and nobility. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Zandra can be found in the writings of the 10th-century Byzantine historian Leo the Deacon, who mentioned a noblewoman named Zandra.
During the Middle Ages, the name Zandra gained popularity in various parts of Europe, particularly in Italy and Spain. In Italy, it was sometimes spelled as "Xandra" due to the influence of the Italian language.
One of the earliest notable figures to bear the name Zandra was Zandra Tansini, an Italian painter who lived from 1460 to 1520. She was renowned for her religious paintings and frescoes adorning churches in the Italian city of Siena.
In the 16th century, the name Zandra appeared in English literature. The playwright William Shakespeare included a character named Zandra in his play "The Two Gentlemen of Verona," written around 1594.
Another prominent figure with the name Zandra was Zandra Maria de Vizcarra, a Spanish noblewoman who lived from 1625 to 1701. She was known for her philanthropic work and her support for the arts and education in Spain.
In the 19th century, the name Zandra gained popularity in Russia. One of the most famous Russian figures with this name was Zandra Alexandrovna Romanova, a member of the Romanov imperial family, who lived from 1824 to 1880.
The name Zandra has also been used in various other cultures and languages, such as Polish, Czech, and Romanian, where it has been adapted to fit the local linguistic conventions.
People
Zandra + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Zandra as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Z
Other first names starting with Z with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Zandra: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Zandra?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,918 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Zandra 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 117,462 US residents.
Is Zandra a common name?
We classify Zandra as "Rare". It ranks above 95.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,547 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Zandra most popular?
The single biggest year for Zandra was 1970, when 131 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Zandra is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Zandra in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,486 people with the name Zandra, or 1.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,058 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 Zandra 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 Zandra?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Zandra appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,486 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Zandra?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Zandra is Black at 35.4%. The next largest groups are White (34.6%) and Hispanic (22.1%). 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 Zandra most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Zandra in the 2020 Census, accounting for 35.4% (1,233 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 Zandra in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Zandra a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Zandra in the SSA data are female. 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 Zandra still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Zandra 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 Zandra 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 share the name Zandra?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.