Fun Facts About the Name Alesana
- 331 babies named Alesana: U.S. records list 331 babies given the name Alesana from 1880 through 2025.
What Does the Name Alesana Mean?
Alesana is the Samoan form of Alexander, and it carries the meaning that name has carried since Greek antiquity: "defender of men," or more traditionally, "defender of mankind." The source is the Greek name Alexandros, made of alexein, "to ward off, defend," and anēr (genitive andros), "man." The literal sense is closer to "he who defends men" or "protector of men"; "defender of mankind" is the long-standing customary rendering rather than a word-for-word translation.
The Samoan form is not a separate name with its own root. Samoan has no letters x or d, and its words normally end in a vowel, so the foreign name was rebuilt to fit Samoan sounds and syllable structure as a-le-sa-na. Alesana belongs with the many localized versions of Alexandros that appear in Pacific and European languages, sharing the same underlying meaning rather than preserving a distinct Samoan sense of its own.
Alesana Name History & Origins
Alesana came into Samoan use through Christian missionary work in the nineteenth century. London Missionary Society missionaries, who began work in Samoa in 1830, translated scripture into Samoan, and biblical names received Samoan spellings. Alexander is a New Testament name - among others, a son of Simon of Cyrene, a coppersmith who opposed Paul, and a figure in the disturbance at Ephesus - and the Samoan Bible renders it as Alesana, which helped establish the form as a personal name in Samoa.
From Samoa the name spread with Samoan families to American Samoa, New Zealand, Hawaii, and the continental United States, where it is used both as a given name and as a family name. Samoan naming does not restrict Alesana to one sex, and it appears on men and women alike among Samoan families. In the early twenty-first century the American post-hardcore band Alesana took the name as its own, which made the spelling familiar to listeners with no Samoan background.
How Popular is the Name Alesana?
Alesana has historically been an exceptionally rare given name in the United States, remaining well outside the national mainstream. It saw its highest recorded annual births in 2012. Its best rank was #4,715 in 2012.
U.S. name popularity from 1880-2025, based on SSA data. Rank shows how the name compares with other names - lower numbers mean greater popularity. Births shows how many babies received the name each year.
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | #8,390 | 12 | 0.0007% |
| 2024 | #6,381 | 18 | 0.0011% |
| 2023 | #9,643 | 10 | 0.0006% |
| 2022 | #6,719 | 17 | 0.0010% |
| 2021 | #6,702 | 17 | 0.0010% |
| 2020 | #6,639 | 17 | 0.0011% |
| 2019 | #7,362 | 15 | 0.0009% |
| 2018 | #7,418 | 15 | 0.0009% |
| 2017 | #5,350 | 24 | 0.0014% |
| 2016 | #5,996 | 21 | 0.0012% |
| 2015 | #4,729 | 29 | 0.0016% |
| 2014 | #5,317 | 25 | 0.0014% |
| 2013 | #5,320 | 25 | 0.0014% |
| 2012 | #4,715 | 30 | 0.0017% |
| 2011 | #6,345 | 20 | 0.0011% |
| 2010 | #5,986 | 22 | 0.0012% |
| 2009 | #12,483 | 8 | 0.0004% |
| 2008 | #15,482 | 6 | 0.0003% |
Name popularity over more than a century, based on Social Security Administration data. Gaps in the chart indicate years when the name does not appear in the published records.
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How the Name Alesana Shapes Your Personality and Life?
Powerful and complete. You are good intellectually and require several outlets for your energies. You are not a builder but a planner, and you want others to carry out your plans. You are bold, independent, inquisitive and interested in research. You know what you want and why you want it.
Position and social status is very important for you and you are always looking for way to improve your position in society. You have power and ability to chose your own destiny and achieve anything you want in life. You can expand in any direction according to your will and the set of values. You have passion for justice and belong to the position of authority. You have an inherent courage and endurance to accomplish "The Impossible Dream". With the power comes responsibility. You hold keys to the material world, but with this gift comes high spiritual responsibility to be fair and true to others. You are philosophical and mature, determined and intense with a desire to endure, often religious.
✦ Alesana's Deeper Meaning & Tips for Parents Discover Alesana's symbolic numbers and practical tips for choosing a name that complements your child's birth date.