Meaning of the nameAlexander

Alexander is the English form of Alexandre, unadapted, from the Greek Aléxandros, 'defender of men'.

Meaning

“defender of men”

Source: Wiktionary: Alexander (Portuguese and English) · Behind the Name: Alexander

People (2022): 21,549
Rank in Brazil: #1,015
Median age: 31 years
2010 Census: 20,528; people

Alexander in the 2022 Census

People with the first name Alexander, by the decade they were born. In the chart, 70 = the 1970s and 20+ = 2020 to 2022. The largest group was born in the 1970s (5,730 people).

154 women 21,395 men

Source: IBGE, 2022 Demographic Census, Nomes no Brasil. The census counts the first name of people alive in 2022; small counts are not published, and the first group covers everyone born before 1940. How to read these data.

Where the name Alexander is most common

States with the highest share of people named Alexander in the population, in the 2022 Census.

All states

State	People	% of population
São Paulo	4,910	0.011%
Rio de Janeiro	4,583	0.029%
Minas Gerais	3,264	0.016%
Rio Grande do Sul	1,577	0.015%
Paraná	1,338	0.012%
Santa Catarina	972	0.013%
Goiás	577	0.008%
Amazonas	548	0.014%
Pará	506	0.006%
Mato Grosso do Sul	411	0.015%
Espírito Santo	361	0.009%
Bahia	338	0.002%
Distrito Federal	312	0.011%
Roraima	311	0.049%
Mato Grosso	304	0.008%
Pernambuco	250	0.003%
Ceará	199	0.002%
Maranhão	123	0.002%
Rio Grande do Norte	114	0.004%
Paraíba	102	0.003%
Alagoas	93	0.003%
Rondônia	86	0.005%
Amapá	86	0.012%
Piauí	57	0.002%
Sergipe	55	0.003%
Tocantins	53	0.004%
Acre	19	0.002%

States with fewer than 15 people with the name are not shown: IBGE does not publish those counts.

About the name Alexander

Wiktionary treats Alexander, in Portuguese, as an unadapted borrowing from English and as a counterpart of Alexandre, the Portuguese form. The English name comes, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros), formed from aléxō, 'to defend', and anḗr, 'man', and is therefore glossed as 'defender of men'. Behind the Name gives the same roots and lists the form Alexander in English, German, Dutch and the Scandinavian languages. In the 2022 Census, IBGE recorded 21,549 people named Alexander, with a median age of 31. The name is almost always male and, proportionally, most common in Roraima.

Sources

Wiktionary: Alexander (Portuguese and English) · en.wiktionary.org · meaning
Behind the Name: Alexander · behindthename.com · meaning

Questions about the name Alexander

What does the name Alexander mean?

Alexander means “defender of men”, according to Wiktionary and Behind the Name.

How many people are named Alexander in Brazil?

IBGE's 2022 Census recorded 21,549 people with the first name Alexander, which ranks it number 1,015 among the country's names. The largest group was born in the 1970s.

Is Alexander a boy's or a girl's name?

Alexander is a male name: in the 2022 Census, 154 women and 21,395 men had this name.

What is the origin of the name Alexander?

Alexander is a name of Greek and English origin. The sources are listed at the end of the page.

In which Brazilian state is Alexander most common?

Proportionally, in Roraima: 0.049% of the state's population is named Alexander (311 people), according to the 2022 Census.

Names that also mean protection

See all

More names of Greek origin

See all

Spotted a mistake? Report a correction for Alexander with a source. See the methodology.