Everyday LifeGreek → English
Alexander
/ˌælɪɡˈzændər/noun
A male given name, borne most famously by the Macedonian king who conquered as far as the Indus.
The Greek roots
ἀλέξειν
aléxein
to ward off, defend
ἀνήρ, ἀνδρός
anḗr, andrós
man
Literally: “defender of men”
The story of the word
This is one of the oldest Greek names on record: the feminine Alexandra appears on Linear B tablets, centuries before the alphabet. Homer gives Alexandros as a second name for Paris of Troy, and a Hittite treaty names an Alaksandu of Wilusa, which many take as the same name in a Bronze Age Anatolian mouth. The conqueror scattered it eastward, where it still lives as Iskandar from Turkey to Malaysia.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
Alexandraandroidphilanderalexipharmic
In a sentence
They named the boy Alexander and called him Sasha from the first week.