A by Jutta via Flickr

She’s another feminine twist on Alexander, and while she’s quite rare, is there any steam left in this appellation?

Thanks to Renee for suggesting Alexine as our Baby Name of the Day.

From the current US Top 1000, there are no shortage of Alex- names for girls, including:

• Alexis (#16)
• Alexa (#50)
• Alexandra (#64)
• Alexandria (#205)
• Alexia (#242)

Alix is a Medieval French variant of Alice, reasonably popular in modern France.  Alexine sounds French, too, but she’s not terribly common.

Still, there have been women who have answered to the name.  I’m often bewildered by the idea that there’s one one valid, set-in-stone, feminine version of evergreen male monikers.  It simply isn’t true – just a century ago, we can find options like Tomasa, Albertine, and Hermina at the outer edges of the Top 1000, while others, like Samantha, are yet to take hold.  I’m guessing, but I suspect Alexine may have evolved from Alexandrine.

While Alexine has never appeared in the US rankings, there are some fascinating figures who have worn the name.

My top choice for an inspiring Alexine is nineteenth century explorer Alexine Tinne.  Miss Tinne, a Dutch heiress of significant wealth, spent her early 20s exploring the Nile and then the Sahara, accompanied by her mother and aunt.  Alexine’s explorations were extraordinary for the time, and she met with quite a bit of success, before meeting her death en route to Lake Chad.

Other figures include:

• Alexina Louie is a celebrated contemporary Canadian composer.  She recently completed an opera based on the life of former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney;
• In the role playing game Sudeki for Xbox, characters are called Ailish, Alexine, Nico, and Tal – not bad for a video game;
• There’s a New York City public school in Brooklyn called Alexine Fenty, but I can’t uncover a bio of Ms. Fenty;
• On a totally different note, I found a nineteenth century nun called Sister Alexine, known for establishing a girls’ school in Lagrange, Illinois in 1900.

The picture that emerges is a patchwork.  Alexine defies categorization.  She’s not nouveau, like Alexus.  While she’s vaguely French, that’s not as clear an identity as, say, Alessandra is Italian.  She shows up in France, but also among non-French speaking Americans in the mid-nineteenth century.

Perhaps the simplest explanation is this: like Samantha, Alexandra was rare until the twentieth century.  The name first appears in the US Top 1000 in 1915, but remains unusual until the 1980s.  Alexander was more steadily used, and so it isn’t surprising to find multiple feminine forms.

Today Alexine remains different, but her nickname options are well-worn: Allie, Lexi, Alexa.  The repetition robs Alexine of a certain fresh, crisp style that she should be able to claim.  However, in the middle spot I can endorse Alexine with enthusiasm.  She’d be an absolute delight to discover instead of a more predictable middle moniker.