Alexis

358,350 people in America carry this name — ranked #139 of 923.

A name with a settled sense and a settled sound.

Say it uh LEHK sihs

3 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

AH0 L EH1 K S IH0 S — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 358,350 2020 Census
  • Rank #139 Common
  • As a surname 7,379 ranked #4,659 the other way round

What Alexis means and where it comes from

Greek in origin, reading literally as “helper”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Alexis through the years

405,626 babies were given this name since 1882. The busiest year was 1998, with 22,094 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 00s 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 2000s. It has been given less often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names for Alexis

Three syllables already, so a short middle name keeps the whole from running long.

Better avoided

  • Alexis Susan — runs together
  • Alexis Sarah — runs together
  • Alexis Ashley — same opening

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

Going quiet

Alexis has more than halved in three decades. The people carrying it belong mostly to Generation Z.

Boys or girls: who is called Alexis?

17.2% men
296,602 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

Full names people carry

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

The states where Alexis is most common

In Nevada the name is given 1.7 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Nevada ×1.7
  • Delaware ×1.6
  • Arizona ×1.5
  • New Mexico ×1.3
  • Wyoming ×1.2

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

How Alexis is spelled

Alexis is how 90% of them spell it — 397,934 people answer to the sound.

Each spelling is its own census entry — the counts never overlap, so the shares are of the group, not of the country.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Who answers to it now

  • White alone (non-Hispanic) — 50.2%
  • Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 11.6%
  • Hispanic or Latino origin — 30.6%
  • Two or more races — 5.2%
  • Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 1.7%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native alone — 0.6%

Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.

The same name abroad

  • Ales Slav
  • Alexe French
  • Alejo Spanish
  • Aleks Lett
  • Aleksa Serv
  • Alexius Latin
  • Alexios
  • Alessio Italian

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

Try it Adult Height

Open Adult Height on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Greek origin