Names That Mean Defending

2012's Hurricane Sandy blew away whatever style currency Sandra retained from its 1960s Sandra Dee heyday. While in recent years it's been associated with Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, as a baby name Sandra is sinking beneath the waves.

Softer and smoother than Alexander, this classic Spanish name for boys has made a seamless transition to this culture. Adding to its current impact: the Lady Gaga song Alejandro .

This diminutive, similar to Alex or Alexis, has been yo-yoing in popularity since the turn of the 21st century.

Lexi and Lexie, pixieish offshoots of the prolific Alex family, have come into their own. While it's on a gentle downslope, Lexi still ranks in the US Top 500.

With the plethora of Alexes around, Xan (and Xander) have emerged as hot new nicknames for Alexander. Xan also stands well on its own. It can be found--not surprisingly--in several computer games.

Lengthy, romantic Alessandro gives us the friendly and casual nickname Sandro, which works just as well as an independent name. It’s a popular international name, having ranked in Italy, France, Portugal, and Switzerland in recent years.

Sander is a more conventional form of Zander or Xander, heard frequently on its own in Europe. It is now a Top 20 name in Norway, and is also popular in Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands. 

Very popular on its native turf, foreign-sounding here.

There's Zan and there's Xan--take your pick. Both of these are the latest generation of Alexander nicknames, Xan having been noticed first as a character on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (a rich source of names), and soon phoneticized into Zan.

In Europe, this name is mostly male, but here it's more fashionable for girls. It's a diminutive of Alexander.

Alejandra, the Spanish form of this popular and multivaried name, has fans both in and outside the Latino community. Still, it has lost ground since its peak in the 1990s.

Largely male throughout Europe, this name--spelled with or without the c, is an energetic choice that has really taken off for girls here; it's been used for the daughters of Steven Spielberg, Jerry Seinfeld, and Vanessa Williams. The Barack Obamas use Sasha as the nickname for their younger daughter, whose proper name is Natasha. Sasha Alexander, on the TV show Rizzoli & Isles, was born Suzana.

Lexi is technically unisex though used much more often for girls in the US, where it ranks among the female Top 100.

Sasha in all its forms -- which include Sacha and Sascha -- is rising in popularity for both boys and girls, especially with the Sasha spelling attached to one of the First Daughters.

Alexandrina is the most elaborate and unusual of the Alex- girls's names.The real first name of Queen Victoria, who was given it in honor of her godfather, Alexander I of Russia (her childhood nickname was Drina), it would make a distinctive pick, even though some might find five syllables a bit much. It was particularly popular in Scotland in the 1930s.

Shura is a unisex Russian nickname for Aleksandr or Aleksandra, themselves forms of Alexander. Less known in the English-speaking world than Sasha, it's also more assertive — probably because of that "sure" sound.

Although it's rarely given in its own right, Ale is a very common nickname for Latinate variations of Alexandra, including Alejandra and Alessandra.

A name that is rarely heard and might be worth considering as a way of zipping up a namesake Sandra. It has long been associated with iconoclastic British fashion designer Zandra Rhodes.

What's the difference between Alexander, the usual English spelling of this deeply classical name, and Alexandre, the French version? English speakers might find the proper French pronunciation challenging: a-lehk-SAHN-dreh, but that last syllable is barely pronounced. Americans might an an a or an ee on the end of the name, or simply pronounce it as Alexander, for better or worse.

Alexandra is a name with many international variations, elaborations and short forms, and Alexandrine is one of the more unusual. Another, Alexandrina, was the first name of Queen Victoria.