Sander
A short form of Alexander, later used as a surname meaning “son of Alexander.”
The #3,906 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 33,965 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname comes chiefly from the medieval pet form Sander, a clipped form of Alexander. In older Germanic and English usage, Sander became a familiar everyday nickname for Alexander, especially in Low German and Frisian areas and then more widely in Britain. In some families it also sits behind longer surname forms such as Sanders and Sanderson, which literally mean “son of Sander” or “son of Alexander.”
History
Historical surname writers treat Sander as an early and widespread nickname-form of Alexander rather than an independent root. The name helped generate a large cluster of surnames across England and the Low Countries, including Sanders, Sanderson, and Sandercock. In modern records, Sander can also appear independently in German-speaking regions, so bearers today may have more than one historical pathway.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname dictionaries explicitly note that Sander was such a common nickname for Alexander that it spawned several related surnames.
From the historical record
“2 for Sanderman, q.v. SANDER I a popular form of Alexander, q.v. Sander seems to have been used from a comparatively early period by the Teu- tons (esp. the Low Germans, incl. the Frisians) as a convenient abbreviation of the Macedonian conqueror's name. " Aleksander, forkortet [shortened] Sander." — Stoylen…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)