Talk:Alexander

Etymology

The word "Alexander" doesn't mean "defender of men" but "defender from men". Ofcource they mean "defender from the enemy men". In Greek wikipedia they have the correct etymology.

In Greek the prefix "alex-" means "the one that repels something/the one that defends from something".

Αλεξίπτωτο (alexiptoto) is the parachute from Alex+ptosi (ptosi=falling). So the word means "defender from falling", and not "defender of the fall".

Αλεξίσφαιρο (alexisfero) means bulletproof (sfera=bullet). So the word means "defender from bullets", and not "defender of the bullet".

Αλεξικέραυνο (Alexikeravno) is the lightning rod, where keravnos=lightning. So the word means "defender from lightnings".

Αλεξιβρόχιο (Alexivrohio) is the umbrella, where vrohi=rain. So the word means "protector from the rain".

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 176.92.173.212 (talk) 19:23, 19 March 2018 (UTC) 

Cheeky and scientists

Word Alexander is an albanian language word. It have no greek meaning. In albanian language it means like this : A (asht, eshte) meaning "to be", LE (le, lind) meaning "to born", KSA (ksaj, kesaj) meaning "this", ANDER (ander, enderr) meaning "dream". And in albanian language of today Alexander means "is born in this dream". This is more strong and more accurate meaning than the greek meaning "aleksos+aner". If it is true the albanian ethimiological meaning then albanians have the right to claim Alexander the Great as a cultural forebear. User:newalbin —Preceding undated comment added 16:29, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

So modern Albanian populists claim Alexander the Great as a cultural forebear now? Wow! Cheeky, eh! Difficult neighbors everywhere in that part of the world, I figure!User:Wetman

The Albanian translation is very unlikely, because the language evolved in the last 2500 years and it should look different from what it was back then. Comparing the name with a reconstructed proto-Albanian expression would be more appropriate. Bogdan | Talk 14:05, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Scientists why isnt the discoverer of penicillin, Alexander Fleming mentioned here? and also Alexander Graham Bell ?!

changes added a new heading for scientists....

several other "alexanders" missing. i'm gonna attempt to link a few more here. ppl, there are too many..... a little help here?

ok, im giving up... too many "Alexanders"... :) added a couple tho....

"Alexander" redirect

"Alexander" currently redirects to Alexander the Great. In my opinion it would be more reasonable to redirect to this page. Ornilnas 15:03, 24 June 2006 (UTC) Additionally, I would propose to name this article only Alexander, since it is about the name, and not a simple disambiguation page. Alternatively split it. Ornilnas 15:06, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Lex

If the article can mention Lex as a shortening of the name ('Also in more modern times, Alexander has been shortened to "Lex" (popularized by the Superman villain Lex Luthor)') then why is Alex only mentioned as a Portuguese variant, when it's widely used in English speaking countries too?--Jcvamp 03:09, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Al

I assume that Al is a short form of Alexander, but I see no mention of this neither in this article nor on the Al disambiguation page. __meco 08:53, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

Al is short for Albert usually, sometimes Alfred. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Arthurian Legend (talk • contribs) 04:55, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

Er, I think Al is short for any name starting with "Al", but mainly a male nickname. aLii 12:05, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Al is listed as diminutive of Alex. Same time Alex is diminutive of Alexander. I’m wondering if the principle of superposition would work in this case? Berezco (talk) 01:10, 16 June 2022 (UTC)

Alistair

Why does Alistair redirect here? They are completely different names.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.10.207.234 (talk • contribs) 15:09, 12 April 2007 (UTC).

Because the article claims it is a variation of Alexander? -- JHunterJ 17:01, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Alexander the magician

"Claude Alexander Conlin (1880–1954), stage magician" is listed under monarchs, which seems like an error?

Alexis

Alexis (variants include Aleksis, Alexius, Alexus, Alesio, Aleksei, Alexina, Elek and Alejo) is not a variant of Alexander. The name originates from Aléxeios wich means defender.

Alexander is a romanization of the greek Aléxandros ( formed by two words translating to "defender" and "male" ).

Although they do enjoy a similar meaning and Aléxandros might have been derived from Aléxeios, Alexis and Alexander have been standalone names for thousands of years. Therefore I suggest giving Alexis_(name) an article of its own. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Blueblister (talk • contribs) 05:51, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

There is no word as "aleksis" in the greek language. Also the second part "aner" is far away from the meaning "ander". Word "alexander" does not have a greek meaning nor a roman meaning. Word Alexander is an albanian language word. It have no greek meaning. In albanian language it means like this : A (asht, eshte) meaning "to be", LE (le, lind) meaning "to born", KSA (ksaj, kesaj) meaning "this", ANDER (ander, enderr) meaning "dream". And in albanian language of today Alexander means "is born in this dream". Albanian language explanation seems more accurate than any other explanation for the word Alexander. User:newalbin —Preceding undated comment added 16:33, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

Alexander made and pushed Qin (state) more stronger?

I agree and believe this viewpoint.it raised chain reflections for eastern Asia. have any one agree? Hans yulun lai 04:01, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

"Alexander, but call me Steve for short if you're Somalian"

Probably not. I don't speak Somali, but I'm willing to bet it's 'اسكندر' as in other Semitic languages. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.209.49.114 (talk) 05:51, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

That's what I was thinking. I was trying to find where it got changed, but I'll just delete if I can't. Better not to have it than to be misinforming people. Tad Lincoln (talk) 02:32, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Why was the info about "Alexander" being an "inverse tatpurusha" removed?

Why was the info about "Alexander" being an "inverse tatpurusha" compound removed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.190.34.219 (talk) 21:32, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Etymology

The etymology explained here is slightly different from that on the Alexandra page. Confused!

There is no word as "aleksis" in the greek language. Also the second part "aner" is far away from the meaning "ander". Word "alexander" does not have a greek meaning nor a roman meaning. Word Alexander is an albanian language word. It have no greek meaning. In albanian language it means like this : A (asht, eshte) meaning "to be", LE (le, lind) meaning "to born", KSA (ksaj, kesaj) meaning "this", ANDER (ander, enderr) meaning "dream". And in albanian language of today Alexander means "is born in this dream". Albanian language explanation seems more accurate than any other explanation for the word Alexander User: newalbin —Preceding undated comment added 16:36, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

I thought that the meaning of the name is closer to "to ward off men", in other words closer defeat men than defend them...

Yep. Αλέξανδρος literally means "cannot be defeated by men". Plain and simple. Anyone who speaks common Greek can realise this. Compare it to αλεξίσφαιρο, αλεξικέραυνο (bullet-proof vest, lightning rod). The etymology you see everywhere is probably the result of a non-native-Greek speaker who just added words he translated and this is what he came up. I know it's romantic to say defender (i dig it too), but it really means "undefeated by men". According to myth, Alex the Great was considered undefeated in battle and he was thought to can only be defeated by the Gods. CuteHappyBrute (talk) 00:23, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

Shouldn't the disambiguation section be broken off into its own article?

This page is an awkward article-disambiguation hybrid. I'm not sure what the best titles would be if my proposal is acceptable to the consensus of others. Perhaps Alexander (name) and Alexander (given name)? Wareh (talk) 17:36, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Alternatively, there's no great reason not to simply quadruple the size of Alexander (disambiguation) by moving the disambiguation section of this article over there. But I'd like to get some input before I do anything on that scale. Wareh (talk) 18:57, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

I don't have a specific advice (or preference), but, for the record, I support your assessment in that the split of this dab page is long overdue.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); August 27, 2010; 20:00 (UTC)

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Not moved. Lack of consensus to move article. Moving the list of names from here to the dab page or elsewhere can be discussed and carried out separately. Born2cycle (talk) 01:08, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

---

Requested move

Alexander → Alexander (name) — My proposal is that the disambiguation portion of this article be separated from the expository portion on Alexander-the-name (& incorporated into Alexander (disambiguation). I propose the move of this page because the name itself (its origin, etymology, variants) has a weak-to-nonexistent claim to be the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC of "Alexander." I suggest that Alexander be the new home of the disambiguation page (or else a redirect to the current disambiguation page). Wareh (talk) 16:19, 31 August 2010 (UTC)

• Support the split, neutral on what the "primary topic" should be.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); August 31, 2010; 16:30 (UTC)
• Support per nom. I agree that isn't really a primary topic here and would support having the disambiguation page at Alexander. Recury (talk) 20:15, 31 August 2010 (UTC)
• Comment For future reference, this is why WP:RM has instructions for moving multiple pages. This discussion involves both Alexander and Alexander (disambiguation) and the multiple-move instructions would have ensured that users watching the latter would be informed of the discussion. Propaniac (talk) 17:50, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
• Oppose. The list of people with the given name Alexander belongs on this page rather than the dab page. There is already a separate article for Alexander (surname). Cjc13 (talk) 11:57, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
  • What's wrong with combining the names into Alexander (name) (with separate sections for the first and last names), and having a dab separately? Seems to be a much cleaner solution that what we have now?—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); September 7, 2010; 15:15 (UTC)
    • I'd also like to clarify that this !vote is for the proposal to move Alexander to Alexander (name) and Alexander (disambiguation) to Alexander. The issue being directly addressed here by Cjc13 -- where to put the disambiguands -- is strictly speaking separate. Sorry for confusing the issue in my proposal, but I thought it fair to indicate that I believe disambiguation should be done on disambiguation pages (which this article is not) where possible. Moving the Alexanders off of this page could be done at any time, by any editor, without a !vote, though, since there is disagreement I'm glad we have this incidental opportunity to canvass opinions about it. Wareh (talk) 17:38, 7 September 2010 (UTC)
• Support as nom. Wareh (talk) 17:39, 7 September 2010 (UTC)
• Comment. Alexander the Great is often referred to as simply Alexander. While I would not claim this as primary usage it does strengthen the claim for the name to be primary usage. None of the places on the dab page seem well-known and none of the other entries on the dab page seem particularly significant. For these reasons I would consider the given name as primary usage. Cjc13 (talk) 12:23, 8 September 2010 (UTC)
  • You're right that anyone who types in Alexander needs to be at most one more click, not two, from Alexander the Great. This is one reason why Alexander (disambiguation) makes an exception to its general omission of persons called Alexander to link him prominently, and it would make sense to me to see Alexander the Great, possibly in boldface, at the top before the various sections (whatever else is on that page). But, this article is not about Alexander the Great, and in my opinion cannot derive a sliver of Alexander the Great's massive notability to support its claim as primary. Maybe "weak-to-nonexistent" was too blunt in my original statement, but on the other hand it's hard to read this page from beginning to end and believe its topic is the primary referent of "Alexander." In another vein, let me say that, if you are not the only one who resists having Alexander be dab, then it would be by far my second choice to have it redirect to Alexander the Great with a dabhat there. Wareh (talk) 14:13, 8 September 2010 (UTC)
    • Personally I feel the given name has been widely used, including Russian emperors, popes, Scottish kings and other rulers, military leaders and scholars, it justifies primary usage. I have reordered the page as I find the list of variants to be of lesser significance. Cjc13 (talk) 22:15, 8 September 2010 (UTC)
      • Well, this gets us back to the point that it is, I believe, quite nonstandard to have a disambiguation section jammed into the middle of an article on a topic. What it seems we both agree on, is that Alexander should point users immediately to a list of all the Alexanders. Can we go back to your objection to having the list of Alexanders as the most prominent and important part of the Alexander disambiguation page? Then we could have Alexander quickly tell people, right at the top, Alexander may refer to (1) Alexander the Great, (2) a name with an origin and variants -- on which we've got an article -- held by a lot of other people, (3) the following other people, (4) some people with a surname (separate disambiguation page to hold them, as now), (5) some places and other uses. Wareh (talk) 00:40, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
        • Compare with Nicholas, Julian, and Adrian. What you are suggesting is a rewriting of the dab page and at the moment the dab does not do what you suggest. I still think the given name is clearly primary usage and there is scope for improving the article. Cjc13 (talk) 11:46, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

• Oppose. This is already a brilliant and refreshing article in a style that is interesting and encyclopedic. Any change to the overall style or naming will diminish Wikipedia. Andrewa (talk) 21:11, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Persons with Alexander as given name (diff)

First, I am completely fine with the failure of my move proposal above; please accept this next question afresh, as I really think it is a new issue.

To be brief: up till now, this article listed people who could simply be referred to as "Alexander." These new edits include notable people not known as "Alexander," but with the given name Alexander. Accordingly, I believe that MOS:DABNAME thinks the right thing to do, if anything, is to make a new article Alexander (given name). I believe we've crossed the line from a practice with plenty of precedent (Cjc13 helpfully pointed out to me the examples of Nicholas, Julian, Adrian) to something pretty irregular (IMO for good practical reasons of size and logic).

I would move the new names to a given-name-list myself, but I don't really find that this is normal practice, and I don't want to create an arbitrary, partial, and stubby list. If anyone else wants to populate Alexander (given name), I have no objection (I'm no deletionist). Note, however, that it's not a widespread practice: I don't believe there is any place you can go for a listing of articles on people with the given name "John" or "Michael" (as opposed to those referred to without surname, as we had here for Alexander until recently). Functionally it's kind of covered otherwise by Special:PrefixIndex/Alexander, which is provided at Alexander (disambiguation) and could certainly be linked here too. I note that Category:Lists of people by name has only three "given name" members (maybe I'm missing more examples not in this cat?). List of people with the given name Sarah or Sara is the only truly comparable listing (modern persons with a common given name plus a surname) I can see, and it seems like an example of what to avoid (and what we have in the new additions here so far): a completely arbitrary sampling of a tiny fraction of notable Sara(h)s who have Wikipedia articles. Wareh (talk) 20:33, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

I think the hesitations above deserve serious consideration: is starting to list all Alexanders (and there is no rationale for listing any set of them other than all notable ones) a practical project? Why have editors refrained with John and Michael and produced a strange poor example for Sara(h)? Are we trying to do something new and better here?

But I also realized it's not as unexampled as I implied, e.g. Adrian, Dmitry. So I'll just make two points:

1. If one wants to list this new category of Alexanders here, I think one must go through Special:PrefixIndex/Alexander, Special:PrefixIndex/Aleksandr, etc., and really come up with something resembling completion. This tiny tiny start on the project has no justification in its present form: it is not a directory of notable Alexanders, so what is it?
2. Aren't these two things fairly different: to be referred to as "Alexander" simpliciter and to be named Alexander Something? I may experiment with separating out the two categories to see how that looks. Wareh (talk) 20:44, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

• Thanks for your comments. I think it is appropriate to include some modern examples of the name Alexander to go along with the older uses of the name, particularly if a list of fictional Alexanders is included on the page. I do not think it would be practical to include all those with the name so have tried to produce a list of famous Alexanders from the modern era (in order of date of birth). The criteria I would suggest is that they are famous outside of their own country, preferably on a global scale, such as writers Pushkin, Dumas and Solzhenitsyn. I did the current list on a trial basis so am open to suggestions. Cjc13 (talk) 23:15, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

I'll let things take their course, having given my two cents. But I don't think "examples" makes sense in a list: I'd rather see the list stick to a solider criterion of notability. If your main concern was that it was ridiculous to have fictional Alexanders but not much-more-notable-real-ones here, I agree 100% and would prescribe the simple solution of deleting the fictional ones. (Again, there is a good reason why Wikipedia has not attempted to list notable fictional John Somethings anywhere.) Wareh (talk) 18:06, 17 September 2010 (UTC)

Alexander is a Macedonian name not Greek.

Please change this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.212.41.100 (talk) 05:10, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

Like saying that "Leonidas" is a Spartan name, not Greek. A Macedonian (talk) 07:47, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

There is no word as "aleksis" in the greek language. Also the second part "aner" is far away from the meaning "ander". Word "alexander" does not have a greek meaning nor a roman meaning. Word Alexander is an albanian language word. It have no greek meaning. In albanian language it means like this : A (asht, eshte) meaning "to be", LE (le, lind) meaning "to born", KSA (ksaj, kesaj) meaning "this", ANDER (ander, enderr) meaning "dream". And in albanian language of today Alexander means "is born in this dream". Albanian language explanation seems more accurate than any other explanation for the word Alexander. Leonidha is another albanian language word. LEU (leu lindi) meaning "born", NUDH (ne udhe) meaning "in road". Lenodha is an albanian language wod meaning "born in the road". The same thing happens with word Dhimitri. It is another albanian language word. DHI (dhi) meaning "goat", Mitra (mitra) meaning womb. Word Dhimitri in albanian language means "womb of goat". Macedonia is another albanian language. MATHE (madhe) meaning "big", DONIA is the ending for the land. Macedonia in albanian language means "big country". Illyria is another albanian language word. ILIRIA (yjor) meaning "from stars" and takes it meaning from illyrians that called themselves ILIR meaning "people coming from the stars". All those words are explained in the same way that the pure albanian language words like AFERDITA and BARDHYL are explained. AFER (afer) meaning "near", DITA (dita) meaning "day". Aferdita means "day is near" and this is why the planet Aferdita holds this name because it shows that the sunrise is near. BARDH (bardh) meaning "white", YLL (yll) meaning "star". Bardhyl in albanian language means "white star".Newalbin (talk) 23:29, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

What about Aleksander?

Shouldn't people carrying the name Aleksander with a "k" be reflected here in the disambiguation. If not, a separate Aleksander (disambiguation) page needs to be established. werldwayd (talk) 14:05, 23 September 2011 (UTC)

Protects men / wards off men

I am not entirely convinced with the etymology. Does Alexander protect his men or does he protect his people from other men? I admit that my Ancient Greek is not great, but in modern Greek the only two words with the "alex" particle I can think of, αλεξίπτωτο (parachute – protects from πτώση/fall) and αλεξίσφαιρο (bullet-proof – protects from σφαίρα/bullet) would suggest that the name means "he who wards off men" rather than "he who protects men". Iago2¹² 11:23, 10 June 2016 (UTC)

Your translation coincides with the explanation given by the German version of this article, which refers to Duden's book on given names. --62.227.96.205 (talk) 15:11, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

@Iago4096 Every single of the 12 millions Greek speaking persons would agree that it means "protects from men". So does the Greek Wikipedia. But when I tried to correct it in the past, it was reverted because I didn't mention a source. 2A02:85F:F5A3:E5E5:49BB:1416:FD62:55FF (talk) 02:41, 27 November 2023 (UTC)

Wait, what is the "O" section for?

Section 2.5 is just labelled "O". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.174.6.170 (talk) 23:43, 6 April 2018 (UTC)

Use of Lang Templates in the "In other languages" section

I could be wrong here, but shouldn't basically every entry in the "In other languages" section be enclosed in a Lang template?
Unless I'm wrong I propose each entry be placed in its language-specific Lang template thusly: "{{lang-el|Αλέξανδρος}}", and instead of using the transliteration in those templates we perhaps should instead use, when needed, the "{{lang|el-Latn|Aléxandros}}" option which will make things much more regular. Are there any opinions on this? --Skoulikomirmigotripa (talk) 00:41, 10 April 2020 (UTC)

This suggestion looks totally appropriate to me. I would support this. Berezco (talk) 01:12, 16 June 2022 (UTC)

Earliest attestation

Would the earliest attested form not be the one referenced in the Hittite treaty as the Mycenaean Greek tablet would presumably date around the time of the fall of Mycenae when most of the tablets would have been buried and preserved, and the name itself be of Hittite/Luwian origin since that Hittite treaty with that Wilusan king is the first most prominent bearer of the name? Interesting anyways, as the Anatolian Hittites and Luwians, and the Mycenaeans were more closely related than thought, as either both peoples didn't diverge that far apart after leaving the Danube valley or the advances of the bronze age brought them closer together again. Akin to the Latin speaking Romans and the Celtic speaking Gauls, whose languages were different enough to need interpreters but close enough that both could fairly readily become bilingual, which is why the Gaulish language and people wound up so readily Romanised.

As an aside; that the form found in the Mycenaean version is "a-re-ka-sa-da-ra-ka" is interesting as the "ka" looks like that old "sun cross" symbol and "ka" is Egyptian for "soul" though ancient Egyptian is admittedly a language isolate. Puts me in mind of the "dingir" symbol in Sumerian cuneiform, itself another language isolate. Who knows, maybe there was an earlier wave of Orientalisation which might explain why all those bronze age kingdoms and empires were so uniform and collapsed at about the same time. 2A00:23C5:E295:D700:406A:C642:B4F8:167B (talk) 17:41, 19 August 2020 (UTC)

Controversy

I was thinking about the name, Alexander The Great, some people have created a controversy over "The Great" added to his name. Would love to hear your opinion. Englistaan (talk) 09:45, 25 May 2021 (UTC)