The baby name Alexandra is a classic choice for our daughters, regal and sophisticated, but with fun nicknames galore.
Thanks to Virginia for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day.
WHAT DOES THE NAME ALEXANDRA MEAN?
In brief, Alexandra is the feminine form of Alexander.
Alexander comes from the Greek alexein – to help or defend. Andros means men. So Alexander – and Alexandra – mean “defender of men.” Pretty powerful.
In Greek mythology, we tend to think of the goddess Hera mostly as a jealous, vengeful wife. But she was so much more. In fact, Alexandra was an epithet of the goddess Hera, referring to her role as a protector of soldiers. In her own way, she was also a defender of the people.
ALEXANDRA OF ROME
The ancient world gives us a second bearer of the name. It’s not clear if she’s real, legendary, or some mix of both. But she is famous among early Christian saints for her bravery.
The story goes like this: the Emperor Diocletian was persecuting early Christians, putting them through torture and death if they refused to renounce their faith.
While Diocletian was attempting to crush the believers, his wife had secretly converted. And was converting others, too.
Some versions give her name as Prisca or Priscilla. Others make her the wife of a high-ranking official instead.
Details aside, she eventually confessed and met her death alongside other martyrs, including Saint George. Her husband, it is said, sentenced her himself.
PRINCESSES and QUEENS
A popular saint is often enough to keep a name in use over the generations. Combined with the success of masculine equivalent Alexander, it’s not surprising that princesses and queens answer to the name across the centuries.
Princess Alexandra of Denmark became Queen of England as the wife of King Edward VII in the late nineteenth century.
But the most famous royal figure? Almost certainly the last empress of Russia, the wife of Nicholas II.
Born Alix of Hesse and by Rhine, the German princess was one of Queen Victoria’s many grandchildren. Her full name was Alix Viktoria Helene Luise Beatrix. Alix is a medieval form of Alice, used in several European languages. That makes it a cousin to Adelaide, rather than Alexander.
Alix is rare today, but must have been reasonably familiar in the late 1800s. The young princess may have been named for her mother, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom.
When she married the future Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, her name became Alexandra.
ALEXANDRA IN THE UNITED STATES
That’s a thoroughly European pedigree. As a baby name, Alexandra has been heard in English-speaking countries, including the United States, but was relatively rare.
Or, when we did hear it, it might’ve been perceived as foreign.
WillaCather’s 1913 novel O Pioneers! follows Swedish immigrant Alexandra Bergson and her family’s travails on the prairie.
HOW POPULAR IS THE NAME ALEXANDRA?
Accordingly, the baby name Alexandra first ranks in the US Top 1000 in 1915, only to quickly fall off the charts. It returned in 1934, and slowly climbed into the mainstream.
By 1967, Alexandra finally cracked the US Top 500.
By 1984, the name entered the US Top 100, where it would stay through 2014.
During the 80s, Alexandra would fit with long names like Jacqueline and Samantha, also feminine forms of masculine names.
It reached peak popularity around the same time in Canada and Australia, as well as England.
As of 2023, however, the name has fallen to #204 in the US. Still common, but not nearly as popular as it would’ve been even a decade prior.
POP CULTURE POWERHOUSE
From the 1980s onward, pop culture gave us famous people and notable figures. Many of them answered to Alex instead of Alexandra, including:
- Alex Owens, welder-turned-dancer in 1980s classic Flashdance.
- GlennClose wore the name in Fatal Attraction.
- Nickelodeon’s The Secret World of Alex Mack was a hit in the 1990s.
- Degrassi: The Next Generation also included a girl Alex.
- Over on the Disney Channel, The Wizards of Waverly Place featured teen star Selena Gomez as Alex Russo.
- More recently, Modern Family included Alex Dunphy.
Of course, nickname options abound, and Alex isn’t alone. There’s Lexi or Lexie, Alexa, Allie and Ali (shared with names like Allison), Sasha, Xandra, and Sandy and Sandra – to name just a few. In Germany and Hungary,
Short forms like Sasha and Ola are more popular in some countries. And variations of Alexandra in different languages compete, too, including Alejandra, Alessandra, and Aleksandra. Though it’s not always what you might expect – Alexandra outperformed Alejandra in Chile over recent decades.
ENDURING CLASSIC
Overall, Alexandra is a well-established classic name, a grand and elegant choice easily adapted with nicknames for everyday use.
There’s a flexibility to this name that would serve a child well throughout her life – any life she chooses.
What do you think of the baby name Alexandra?
First published on October 16, 2013, this post was revised on December 28, 2024.
Do you choose Alexandra or Alessandra that’s the question?….
I think Alexandra sounds rich and lovely, but as someone who forms mental pictures of names seperate from the people wearing them, I have always found this name to be very heavy and dark. Must be a royal-name thing, because I feel similarly about Victoria, Isabella and Anastasia (though not Elizabeth for some reason). That picture pretty much sums it up: I see Alexandra as completely weighed down by luxury.
The Queen Alexandra pictured above was also known as Alix to her family. Her full given name was Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia. 😀 I read somewhere that Kate, the current Duchess of Windsor, wanted to name their baby Alexandra had it been a girl, and I wonder whether they’d have used Alix (or maybe just Alex) as a nickname. Now that baby George has Alexander as a middle name, it seems pretty unlikely they’d use Alexandra for any future daughters.
Oops, I mean Duchess of Cambridge. That’s what I get for posting in the middle of the night!
Funny, I knew exactly what you meant – didn’t even register the mistake until I saw your second comment! 🙂