spelling of foreign names

[AlexAD]

Who is this question addressed to?

Which story is that?

[AlexAD]

I have no idea about Russian orthography,but the story goes that in the beginning we had Aleksandr; then it was changed to Alexandr and finally the Anglicized form Alexander.

May be. I was born at the end so can only tell you about things connected with this time

[5jj]

Whom is this question addressed to?

I have now clarified that. I thought my post would come immediately after balakrishnanijk's, but yours got in first.

ps. If we are being formal, it's "To whom is this question addressed?" More normal is "Who is this question addressed to?" We tend not to mix the formal 'whom' with the less formal preposition at the end.

[balakrishnanijk]

The same old story of the Internet.
If you Google the name of the Russian poet, what you find is Aleksandr(which seems to smack of Russian) and the Anglicized Alexander with rare appearances of Alexandr, which seems to be a hybrid of both Russian and English.

[5jj]

If you Google the name of the Russian poet, what you find is Aleksandr(which seems to smack of Russian) and the Anglicized Alexander with rare appearances of Alexandr, which seems to be a hybrid of both Russian and English.

But you claimed, "the story goes that in the beginning we had Aleksandr; then it was changed to Alexandr and finally the Anglicized form Alexander".That's what I asked about.

[AlexAD]

As far as I am concerned, the name Alexander originally came to Russia from Greece at the time when Greece had much influence in the world.
The Russian seems to just dropped the last two letters from the initial Greek name Aléxandros.
Then the UK and their language derived from Latin appeared on the scene. To the best of my knowledge the UK and Russian Empire were hostile.
Pretty much the same were the relationships with the USSR not counting the period of World War II. Starting from 1980's - the influence of British and American culture has made great impact on the Russia and other republics like Belarus.
So, of course since the time Alexandr Pushkin was alive, a lot has changed in the sense of language evolution.

[balakrishnanijk]

Thank you so much for the answer. I just hope it doesn't detract from the respect and admiration I have for the great poet however I spell his name.

[Barb_D]

Psst - Alex: English evolved a Germanic root, not a Latin one.

[AlexAD]

Oh.. then I have to update my knowledge in this regard.