Patronymic from Alexander, meaning 'defender of the people' in Greek.
Sanders is a medieval English surname derived from the given name Alexander — itself from the Greek "Alexandros," meaning "defender of men" — via the common medieval short form "Sander." The 's' ending is a patronymic marker meaning "son of," so Sanders literally means "son of Alexander." The name was widespread in medieval England and Scotland, and it migrated to America with early settlers, eventually becoming established as both a surname and, more rarely, a given name in its own right.
The name's most vivid cultural presence in the 20th century came through Harland David Sanders (1890–1980), the white-suited, string-tied founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, who began franchising his restaurant at the age of 62 and became one of the most recognized faces in the world. "Colonel Sanders" — his title was an honorary Kentucky Colonel commission — became an icon of American entrepreneurship and folksy Southern hospitality, his image so ubiquitous that it shaped the name's popular associations entirely. In politics, Bernard Sanders brought the name into progressive political discourse, adding a different register entirely.
As a given name, Sanders carries a patrician quality that its more famous surname-bearers sometimes obscure. It sounds like old money and frontier determination in equal measure. For parents drawn to surnames-as-given-names with genuine historical depth, Sanders offers a name that is immediately recognizable yet feels fresh in the first-name slot — substantial, unpretentious, and carrying centuries of quietly sturdy English heritage.