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Princeton vs Alexander

How Princeton and Alexander compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Princeton

Male · English

Meaning: Principal One: First. The Rock Musician Prince.

Alexander

Male · Greek

Meaning: Defender Of Man

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Princeton (boys) vs Alexander (boys), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Princeton Alexander
Peak year (most US births) 2017 — 793 boys 1993 — 20,529 boys
Peak rank #402 #21
Most recent rank (2025) #653 (422 births) #30 (7,230 births)
Total US births since 1880 8,661 657,737
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 6,497 100,533

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Alexander reached 20,529 US births in 1993 — 19,736 more than Princeton's peak count.

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name list.

Princeton — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Mississippi #138 290
2 Georgia #211 566
3 South Carolina #212 257
4 Hawaii #227 25
5 Louisiana #227 248

Alexander — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 California #10 14,894
2 Arizona #10 2,337
3 Illinois #10 4,042
4 Nevada #11 990
5 Florida #11 6,338

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →