Diminutive of Alexander, from Greek meaning 'defender of the people,' also an independent name.
Sandy began as a Scottish pet form of Alexander and Sandra, those great names descending from the Greek "Alexandros" — "alexein" (to defend) plus "anēr" (man) — meaning defender of men. Alexander the Great made the name legendary, and as it spread across Europe it spawned a cascade of nicknames. In Scotland, Sandy became the warm, familiar shortening applied to Alexanders in the same way Sasha was used in Russia, and the name eventually took on independent life.
It also carries an elemental resonance entirely its own: sandy as a color (golden, warm, sun-bleached) and as a texture (coastal, free, shifting), associations that give the name an easy, outdoor naturalness quite apart from its etymological origins. Sandy reached peak popularity in the mid-twentieth century across the English-speaking world, particularly for girls born in the 1950s and 1960s. The name became charged with a specific cultural electricity when "Grease" debuted on Broadway in 1971 and as a film in 1978 — Sandy Olsson, played by Olivia Newton-John, became one of the most iconic characters in American popular culture, cementing the name's association with wholesome innocence in transformation.
Sandy Koufax, the legendary Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher, gave the name athletic heroism on the male side, while Sandy Duncan, Sandy Dennis, and Sandy Denny showed its range across entertainment. By the late twentieth century Sandy began its characteristic arc toward vintage status — common enough to carry generational warmth, uncommon enough among younger people to feel fresh. Its androgynous quality suits contemporary naming trends well, and it carries its decades of pop cultural freight lightly, feeling more breezy than burdened.