Where the Sanders name comes from

Sanders is son of Alexander, arrived at by way of the shortened Middle English form Sander. Alexander is Greek, Alexandros, a compound of alexein, to ward off or defend, and aner, a man, so it means defender of men. The oldest form of it anybody has found is Mycenaean, written in Linear B, and Alexander the Great is why the name spread as far as it did. The surname belongs to Germany, the Netherlands, England, Scotland and Ireland, and it also appears as Saunders, Zander and Sender.