Zander
Zander was given to 804 boys in 2025, #397 among boys’ names; 28,786 Americans have been recorded with it since 1915 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 28,500 Americans named Zander and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 7 and 18.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Zander by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Zander mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Zander is “a diminutive of the male given name Alexander, from Ancient Greek, variant of Xander.”
/ˈzæn.dɚ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Zander?
#397 among boys’ names, 2025
Zander fell from #249 in 2015 to #397 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.77 to 0.47 per 1,000.
1,600 babies in 2013, the peak
Zander peaked in 2013, when 1,600 boys were given it, #230 among boys’ names. The 804 births of 2025 are 50% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 804 | #397 | 0.47 |
| 2024 | 870 | #376 | 0.50 |
| 2023 | 927 | #355 | 0.54 |
| 2022 | 1,088 | #309 | 0.62 |
| 2021 | 1,152 | #293 | 0.66 |
| 2020 | 1,195 | #281 | 0.69 |
| 2019 | 1,297 | #276 | 0.72 |
| 2018 | 1,400 | #259 | 0.77 |
| 2017 | 1,563 | #237 | 0.84 |
| 2016 | 1,394 | #260 | 0.73 |
Every recorded year (40)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,470 | #249 | 0.77 |
| 2014 | 1,524 | #246 | 0.79 |
| 2013 | 1,600 | #230 | 0.85 |
| 2012 | 1,471 | #247 | 0.78 |
| 2011 | 1,308 | #265 | 0.69 |
| 2010 | 1,119 | #294 | 0.58 |
| 2009 | 1,147 | #287 | 0.58 |
| 2008 | 1,120 | #297 | 0.55 |
| 2007 | 1,052 | #313 | 0.51 |
| 2006 | 1,081 | #305 | 0.53 |
| 2005 | 911 | #333 | 0.46 |
| 2004 | 1,141 | #279 | 0.57 |
| 2003 | 957 | #313 | 0.48 |
| 2002 | 420 | #534 | 0.22 |
| 2001 | 274 | #665 | 0.14 |
| 2000 | 150 | #990 | 0.08 |
| 1999 | 109 | #1,186 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 79 | #1,445 | 0.04 |
| 1997 | 32 | #2,541 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 18 | #3,822 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 12 | #5,115 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 8 | #6,956 | under 0.01 |
| 1993 | 11 | #5,349 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 9 | #6,118 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 5 | #9,632 | under 0.01 |
| 1990 | 5 | #9,476 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 7 | #6,417 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 5 | #8,142 | under 0.01 |
| 1934 | 6 | #3,675 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 9 | #2,826 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Zander a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Zander has been given almost only to boys: 36 girls in 40 years of records.
Girls and boys named Zander: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Zander, and how old are they?
28,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 28,786 Americans ever recorded as Zander. The median Zander alive today is 12 years old; half are between 7 and 18.
The 2020 Census counted 21,549 people named Zander (120 women and girls, 21,429 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 22,841 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 1 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 77 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 12,200 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 16,200 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Zander born?
The states with the most babies named Zander are California, Texas and Florida, with 25% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 71 | #452 | 0.6× |
| Texas | 71 | #476 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 50 | #393 | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 40 | #305 | 1.5× |
| New York | 34 | #490 | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 33 | #341 | 1.1× |
| North Carolina | 31 | #371 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 27 | #427 | 0.7× |
| Indiana | 26 | #306 | 1.5× |
| Illinois | 25 | #445 | 0.9× |
Where Zander is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Zander is most over-represented in North Dakota: since 1915 it was given 2.0 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Zander with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 28,899 babies since 1880, Zander is the most given (100% of them). In 2025 it was given to 804 of their 804 babies (100%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Zander
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Zander and names like it
- Compare Zander and ZandyrBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sZander peaked in 2013.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Zander since 1910.
- Ancient Greek namesWiktionary’s origin for Zander: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2013The year the most babies were named Zander.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Zander alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with ZMost given first.