Xander, a shortened form of Alexander, comes from the Greek name Alexandros, which is composed of the Greek elements alexo, meaning "to defend" or "to help," and aner, meaning "man." Therefore, Xander translates to "protector of man" or "defender of man." It debuted on the Social Security Administration's top 1,000 for boy names in 1999 and was a top-250 boy's name by 2003. Xander has now been featured in the top-250 every year since 2011 and is the name "Mad Men" actress January Jones chose for her son Xander Dane, born in 2011.
