Alexander

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Alexander , short Alex , is a male given name, the Greek form is Ἀλέξανδρος Aléxandros . The name means something like "the man defender" or "protector".

The earliest evidence is the son of Priam in the Homeric Iliad , better known today as Paris . Possibly the Hittite name of King Alaksandu of Wilusa from the 13th century BC. To be equated with the Greek form Alexandros . In this case Alexander would be one of the oldest names still used today. The most important name bearer is Alexander the Great . For the female form see Alexandra .

etymology

The starting components of the ancient Greek name Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros) are the verb ἀλέξειν (aléxein) (to ward off, protect, defend) and the noun ὁ ἀνήρ (ho anḗr man, human), whose genitive is singular ἀνδρός (andrós) . But this derivation may be secondary and the origin may be in Asia Minor.

Development to the German name

In contrast to other Greek names, which found their way into the German vocabulary through Christianity (e.g. Georg / Jörg / Jürgen von Georgios = farmer), it was less the church name for Alexander that made its way into German . Rather, Alexander the Great (356–323 BC), King of Macedonia , is the namesake - here, however, not the historical figure, but mostly the hero of the so-called Alexander novel . Thus, Alexander first became a popular first name in the aristocratic and patrician circles who were able to read.

In the 17th century the name went out of fashion and was not revived until the Romantic era (e.g. Alexander von Humboldt ). In the German-speaking world, the short forms Sander , Xander and Zander developed from Alexander at the end of the Middle Ages .

variants

The female variant is Alexandra .

Name days

Name bearer

Ruler

Alexander as a cognomen

Other historical namesake

(chronologically)

Name bearers of the present

(Alphabetical)

"Aleksandr" and similar variants

Variant "Oleksandr"

stage name

  • Alexander , pseudonym of Ernst Herbeck (1920–1991), Austrian poet and painter

Biblical persons

There are five people named Alexander mentioned in the New Testament:

  • a son of Simon of Cyrene (Mk 15, 21)
  • a high priest (Acts 4, 6)
  • a Jew from Ephesus (Acts 19:33)
  • a Christian ostracized by Paul (1 Timothy 1:20)
  • a blacksmith in the time of the apostle Paul (2 Tim 4:14)

See also

Wiktionary: Alexander  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

swell

  1. ↑ Alexander Demandt : Alexander the Great. Life and legend. Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-59085-6 , p. 58.
  2. ↑ Rosa Kohlheim, Volker Kohlheim: Duden. The great first name dictionary. 3rd edition, Mannheim u. a. 2007, p. 46f.
  3. ↑ Alexander Demandt: Ancient forms of government. A Comparative Constitutional History of the Old World. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-05-002794-0 , p. 267.

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