Humanverse

Alean vs Alexandra

American parents have registered 246,320 Alexandras since 1880, against 1,098 Aleans. Alexandra is still ahead, with 1,314 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Alean against Alexandra, 1880 to 2025 0 3k 6k 9k 12k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Alean Alexandra

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 128 years in which either name was published, Alexandra for 120 years and Alean for 8 years. The lead changed hands 12 times.

9 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

  Alean Alexandra
Total US births 1,098246,320
Most in one year 4010,720
Babies in 2025 under 51,314
Estimated living today 280240,000
Median age today 7628
Peak year 19271993
Best rank 1,233rd girls28th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked237th
First recorded 18991894
Girls / boys 1,098 / 0245,451 / 869

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Aleans alive today are over 76; half the Alexandras are over 28. That is 48 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Alean and Alexandra.