Skip to main content

Zander / Xander

Today's name: Zander, Xander

Pronunciation: ZAN-der

Potential nicknames: Zan, Xan, Ander, Anders, Andy

Variant forms: Zan, Zandro, Zandros, Zann, Xan, Xandro, Sandor, Sander, Sandino, Sender, Sandero, Saunder, Sandy, Sandro

Origin: Greek, short form of Alexander that stands alone as its own name, meaning "man's defender."

Popularity: Both Zander and Xander are in the top 300 of the top 1000 U.S. baby names. There were 1,336 baby boys named Xander in 2010 and 1,106 baby boys named Zander. In 2011 Zander was #265 and Xander was #205.

Fun fact: (1) Zander/Xander Harris was a character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (2) Actress January Jones recently chose the name Xander Dane for her son.

.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sailor Moon Baby Names

As a long-time fan girl of Sailor Moon, I was thrilled to hear about a potential reboot of the series, which was supposed to be in 2013 and has now been pushed to 2014. It's been over 20 years since Sailor Moon first aired, but many still get a warm fuzzy feeling when they think of the show. What is not often mentioned is how well researched Takeuchi's name choices were. She covered gems, minerals, astrology, mythology and creative word choices. Today I'll talk about Sailor Moon names. Usagi Tsukino- Bunny - Serena - Princess Serenity - Sailor Moon Usagi means "rabbit" in Japanese, referring to the Japanese legend of the rabbit on the moon, and Tsukino means "moon." In the translation of the comics, Usagi was renamed Bunny appropriately. Keeping with the mythological aspects of the moon and both Greek and Roman moon goddesses, Usagi's character was given the concept of "serene," which gave her the name Serena in the American TV series (a...
3 comments
Read more

Galician Baby Names

I grew up on a street that was named an Italian variant of Roger. When I got married and we bought our first house, it turned out to be on Roger Street. Once noting that coincidence, I started searching for other variants of the name. However, female variants turned out to be pretty nonexistent. Save for Roxeria, which I later discovered was the Galician female form, possibly pronounced rohz-AIR-ee-uh. That led me to a few lists of female Galician names, ranging from common to rare. Here is a sampling of names not often heard here in the states... Albina Alda Alma Alodia Aloia Amada Amadora Amalia Amparo Anisia Antia Araceli Aranzazu Artemisa Avelina Azucena Baia Balbina Baltasara Beatriz Benvida Berenice Bieita Branca Braulia Caetana Carola Casilda Casimira Ceferina Celsa Cipriana Cira Clorinda Coralia Cornelia Cosima Davinia Delfina Desideria Dionisia Dominga Dorinda Dorotea Dositea Edelmira Edenia Elba Elvira Emiliana Etelvina ...
2 comments
Read more

Witchy Baby Girl Names!

Circe Invidiosa by John William Waterhouse Have a little girl due in October? Looking to name a character? Here's my [seemingly endless] list of witchy-sounding baby names. Most of them also fit in the "clunky but cool" category, or "vintage." Most plants, trees, herbs, spices, flowers, gems, space and nature names fit the bill, because in stories and current practice these things are useful to witches. I've put any actual witch names from legend, myth, literature, movies, etc in bold and up front. I have not considered the names of actual, living people or their Pagan names, and I've left out any characters that only have a surname, or truly ridiculous given names. In the second half you'll see a list of names that, to my knowledge, have not been used for witch characters. Please know that this is not a complete list. Wikipedia has an almost complete list you can view  here . Tabitha, Samantha, Endora, Clara, Serena  (Bewitched) Katrina...
25 comments
Read more