Xander is a short form of Alexander, from the Greek Alexandros, and means "defender of the people" or "protector of men". It took off as a name in its own right after the character Xander Harris on Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the late 1990s, and the initial X gives it a modern, slightly edgy look. Xander climbed from number 929 in 2000 to a US peak of number 164 in 2017 and ranks number 259 among boys' names in 2025.