Alejandro
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Meaning
defender of mankind (Spanish form of Alexander); a beloved classic
Goes by Ale. See all nicknames
The story
Alejandro and Alejo look as though one could slip out of the other. Their origins tell a different story. Alejandro is the Spanish form of Alexander; Alejo is the Spanish form of Alexis. The resemblance makes the distinction easy to miss: Alejo has an origin of its own.
Alejandro's own line reaches back to Greek Aléxandros. Its components join aléxein, 'to ward off' or 'defend,' with andr-, from anēr, 'man.' The familiar defender gloss compresses that construction into English. Looking at the pieces keeps the old verb and noun visible beneath the polished phrase.
Then there is the pleasure of finding a name inside an old poem. The thirteenth-century Spanish Libro de Alexandre gives us Alexandre in its sixth stanza. Beside that line, the Cervantes edition records another reading, Alixandre, in manuscript P. Two spellings sit together in the edition, a small glimpse of the name's written life.
Those readings belong to this medieval work; they do not establish Alejandro's first appearance or a straight spelling path to its modern form. They offer something more tangible than a tidy origin slogan: a line to read, a variant to notice, and a reason to look twice at names we thought we knew.
Start with Alejandro and Alexander in the constellation below: the Spanish form and its source name give this wider family a familiar foothold.
Alejandro across languages
One shared root links 18 names across 7 languages.
Shared root: from Greek Alexandros, "defender of men"; Alexander the Great’s fame and medieval stories helped spread the name in Europe
The constellation
15 more branches of this family
Alejandro in song
Alejandro
Lady Gaga (2009)
A brooding Europop farewell from The Fame Monster in which Alejandro is one of the boys she is letting go, and the one whose name you end up singing.
How popular is Alejandro around the world?
In the United States, 11,274 babies were named Alejandro between 2020 and 2025. In Mexico City, there were 855 registrations of Alejandro in 2022.
Alejandro is on the official records of the United States, Mexico City, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Montevideo, Puerto Rico, Canada, Brazil, Austria, France, England and Wales and Poland.
Alejandro crosses languages: it is in the latest top 300 of an English-speaking birth record and of a Spanish-speaking one. The full list: English and Spanish
United States
1 in 1,900
In the United States, 11,274 babies were named Alejandro between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Alejandro peaked in the 2000s.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Mexico City City
1 in 140
In Mexico City, there were 855 registrations of Alejandro in 2022.
share of that year’s registrations in the city
Civil-registry acts in Mexico City by registration year. Counts are lower bounds (names under 6 in a month and borough are removed at source) and count name-instances, not people; compound names are split, so “Maria Jose” counts under each part. 2023 (32 registrations through 3 Mar) is excluded as partial. Source: Registro Civil of Mexico City, open data portal, registered given names 2000-2023
Spain
1 in 160
In Spain, 273,491 residents are named Alejandro, the 12th most common name among men, with a mean age of 29.7 years.
In Spain, Alejandro was the 8th most common name among boys born in 2024.
Residents of Spain on 1 January 2025. Spain publishes how old a name’s living bearers are, not a birth series, so there is no year chart. Source: INE (Spain), Censo de Población anual, 1 January 2025
Argentina
1 in 330
In Argentina, 1,984 newborns were given the name Alejandro in 2024.
share of that year’s name registrations
Given-name components of births in Argentina 2012–2024; national cells are lower bounds and no sex split is published. Source: RENAPER (Argentina), Dirección Nacional de Población, given names 2012-2024
Chile
1 in 670
In Chile, 266 boys were registered as Alejandro in 2021, every accent spelling counted together.
share of that year’s name registrations
First-name registrations with Chile’s civil registry by year of registration, 1920–2021, counted as spelling groups (Sofía, Sofia and Sofìa are one name, shown with its most-registered spelling); the registry withholds nothing, nametree keeps the groups that reached 5 registrations in some year, and shares divide by every registration of the year. Source: Servicio de Registro Civil e Identificación (Chile) via the guaguas package, first-name registrations 1920-2021
Montevideo City
1 in 7202011
In Montevideo, 34 boys named Alejandro were born in 2011, spelling variants counted together.
share of that year’s births on record
Births in the department of Montevideo (not all of Uruguay) by first name and year of birth, 1940–2011, from the city’s civil registry, which writes names in capitals, almost always without accents; counted as spelling groups (accent and punctuation variants merged), nothing is withheld at source, and 2012 is excluded as a partial year. Source: Servicio de Registro Civil, Intendencia de Montevideo, Partidas de Registro Civil de Montevideo (Licencia de Datos Abiertos - Uruguay); 2012 dropped as partial
Puerto Rico
1 in 820
In Puerto Rico, 22 babies were named Alejandro in 2025, and 3,979 have carried the name since 1998.
share of that year’s births on record
First given name only, from Social Security records of births in Puerto Rico; any name-sex-year under 5 births is withheld at source. Shares divide by the Puerto Rico Demographic Registry’s count of births on the island; the 2025 count is provisional. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, territory name file (Puerto Rico)
Canada
1 in 13,000
In Canada, 29 boys named Alejandro were born in 2024, the 886th most common name among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from provincial and territorial vital statistics across Canada; any name-sex-year under 5 is excluded at source, and small Quebec counts carry a randomized adjustment made at source. Shares divide by Statistics Canada’s count of live births for the year; the 2024 count is preliminary. Source: Statistics Canada, first names at birth (table 17-10-0147-01)
Brazil
1 in 20,000
At the 2022 census, 9,889 people in Brazil were named Alejandro, ranked 1,730th, with a median age of 12.
Among people named Alejandro living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
people alive at the 2022 census, by decade of birth
The census also counted 1,009 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart. People alive and resident in Brazil at the 2022 census, a living-population count, not births; names under 20 are withheld at source. Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
Austria
1 in 25,000
In Austria, 3 boys named Alejandro were born in 2025, the 981st most common name among boys that year, spellings that differ only by special characters counted together.
The count never rose above 8 in a year, too few to chart.
Live births in Austria by year of birth, 1984–2025, from Statistik Austria’s first-name statistics; spellings that differ only by special characters are counted together (umlauts stay apart), every name down to a single birth is published, and the count covers babies with Austrian citizenship only until 2009, every baby from 2010, and from 2015 also births abroad to mothers living in Austria. Shares divide by Statistik Austria’s count of live births from 2010, and before that by the file’s own total for the year. Source: Statistik Austria - data.statistik.gv.at (OGDEXT_VORNAMEN_1, updated 2026-07-09)
France
1 in 26,000
In France, about 25 boys named Alejandro were born in 2025, ranked 1,437th among boys that year.
share of that year’s births on record
Births in France by year of birth, from INSEE’s fichier des prénoms (1900–2025; Mayotte from 2012); exact spellings count separately (Léo and Leo are different names), any spelling under 3 in a year and sex is withheld at source, every count is rounded to the nearest 5 at source, and nametree keeps the spellings that reached 20 in some year. Shares divide by INSEE’s count of births in France from 1957, and before that by the file’s own total for the year; INSEE says the file is not complete before 1946. Source: Insee, fichier des prénoms (last updated 2026-07-16)
England and Wales
1 in 34,000
In England and Wales, 17 boys named Alejandro were born in 2025, ranked 1,538th among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
Poland
1 in 120,000
In Poland, 2 boys named Alejandro were born in 2025, the 705th most common name among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
First names given to children born in Poland by year of birth, 2000–2025, from the PESEL population register (Ministry of Digital Affairs); exact spellings count separately (Łukasz and Lukasz are different names), names given fewer than 5 times in a year were left off the list through 2012 and fewer than 2 times from 2013, and the register also counts children born abroad, so its yearly sums run above Poland’s live births. Shares divide by the register’s own published total for the year, never by births. Source: Ministry of Digital Affairs, PESEL register (dane.gov.pl)
Ireland
last on record 2021
Alejandro is not on the 2025 record for Ireland, where names under 3 in a year are withheld at source.
The count never rose above 7 in a year, too few to chart.
Exact registered spellings from Irish vital statistics; any name under 3 in a year is withheld at source, and accented spellings (fadas) are recorded reliably only from 2018. Source: Central Statistics Office (Ireland), Irish babies' names
Norway
last on record 2015
Alejandro is not on the 2025 record for Norway, where names carried by fewer than 4 people in a year are withheld at source.
share of the boys on the register for that year, SSB’s own figure
People who have or have had a Norwegian ID number, emigrants left out, from Statistics Norway’s name statistics (release of January 2026): by year of birth for 1945–2020 (everyone born that year who was ever registered in Norway, including people who registered later and people who have since died) and by year of naming from 2021; only first names carried by 200 or more living people are listed, counts under 4 are withheld, and SSB merges spellings that differ only by letters outside the Norwegian alphabet. The shares are SSB’s own, of the people of that sex and year in that count; the 2025 figure counts the children named that year, and no year is a count of births. Source: Statistics Norway (SSB), table 10467 (updated 2026-01-28)
Scotland
last on record 2020
Alejandro is not on the 2024 record for Scotland, where spellings under 3 in total are suppressed at source.
The count never rose above 4 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in Scotland; different spellings count separately but accents are merged at source, and any spelling under 3 in total is suppressed. Source: National Records of Scotland, babies' first names
South Australia
last on record 2015
Alejandro is not on the 2017 record for South Australia, whose registry publishes every name given that year.
The count never rose above 2 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Not on the record in New Zealand: that registry withholds small counts, so rare uses may sit below its floor.
When you meet Alejandro
Most people given the name Alejandro in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Alejandro deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Alejandro truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Alejandro fits with your family’s names and surname.
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