Sandra

Where the name comes from

• Italian, from Greek
  Short form of Alessandra, the Italian form of Alexandra. Alexandra goes back to the Greek name Alexandros, 'defender of men.'
  Greek alexein 'to defend' + anēr, andros 'man' (through Alexandra and Alessandra)
  Sandra began as a shortened form of a longer name. The Greek 'defender of men' meaning belongs to its parent name, Alexandra. Today Sandra is mostly given as a name in its own right.
• English (American usage)
  In some early American records, a short form of Cassandra
  Cassandra (Greek)
  The first two Sandras in the 1860 US census both appear as 'Cassandra' in other records. In 1900, many American Sandras were born in Finland, Sweden or Norway, where Sandra was a short form of Aleksandra. Few were born in Italy.

Sandra across traditions

• English literature. Name dictionaries usually credit George Meredith's novel 'Sandra Belloni' (1887) with bringing the name to English speakers. The heroine is Emilia Alessandra Belloni. The novel first came out in 1864 as 'Emilia in England.' Name scholar Cleveland Evans argues that Cassandra and Finnish immigrants did as much to spread the name in America as the novel did.
• American naming. Sandra first entered the US top 1,000 in 1913 and got a boost from the 1924 film 'Sandra.' It climbed fast in the 1930s and peaked in 1947. It belonged to the same wave as Linda, Barbara, Nancy and Sharon. Many women born from 1966 on have a mother or aunt named Sandra.
• Mexican American and Latino. Sandra is also used in Spanish. Its best-known Mexican American bearer is the writer Sandra Cisneros.

Who carried it

• Sandra Day O'Connor (1930–2023): Born in El Paso, Texas, and raised on an Arizona ranch. She was the first woman to serve on the US Supreme Court, from 1981 to 2006.
• Sandra Cisneros (born 1954): Mexican American novelist and poet. She is best known for 'The House on Mango Street' (1983).

Forms in other languages

Sondra, Saundra, Sandy, Sandie, Alessandra, Alexandra, Cassandra

Sandra in letter-number systems

Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.