Lysander is a Greek name from lysis, release, and aner, man, and means "liberator" or "one who frees men". It was borne by the Spartan admiral who defeated Athens in 405 BC and by one of the young lovers in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. In the United States Lysander was long a curiosity, around number 4000 for most of the 2010s, but it has jumped to number 2203 in 2024 and number 1719 in 2025, its best rank so far.