Alex and Friends

This spin on the "Alex" prefix was the 88th most popular girl name in Scotland in 1900.

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

This name leapt into the female column via vixen Alexis Carrington on 'Dynasty" in the 1980s. It's more popular for girls, but it's still a widely used boys' names and is one of the most popular unisex names in the US today.

Alexis, a one-time exclusively-boys’ name, was more popular than its sister Alexandra for quite a while, but in recent years Alexandra has overtaken it once again. Alexis was a Top 20 girls’ name from 1994-2010 but has experienced a decline in popularity in recent years, though now it's one of the top unisex names.

With many British names invading the Yankee name pool, the sophisticated Alistair could and should be part of the next wave. It debuted in the US Top 1000 in 2016. You have a triple choice with this name--the British spell it Alistair or Alastair, while the Scots prefer Alasdair--but they're all suave Gaelic versions of Alexander. Adopted by the lowland Scots by the seventeenth century, the name didn't become popular outside Scotland and Ireland until the twentieth century.

For people looking for an unusual variant of Alexandra, especially one that can be shortened to the ubiquitous Alex, Alistrina might be the name for you.

A chic and sassy French choice, popular in France but likely to be confused with the more prosaic Alex in English-speaking countries. Although sometimes used in the US as a variant spelling of Alex, the French name Alix actually derives from a medieval French form of the name Alice or Adelaide.

Common as an independent name in Slovenia.

A somewhat feminine-sounding name used for the unsavory character Alliser Thorne in HBO's Game of Thrones. Thorne was one of the highest-ranking officers of the Night's Watch in early seasons of the show, whom Jon Snow beheads for insubordination.