Alessandro

Alessandro is the Italian form of a Greek name, Alexandros. It joins two old roots, the verb alexein, to defend or ward off, and andros, the man. Together they give the sense the dictionaries record: defender of man. Italy took the Greek and reshaped it, doubling the s and ending on a bright open vowel. The sound is Italian.

The name traveled with well-known bearers before it reached any Polish register. Alessandro Volta, the physicist from Como, gave his surname to the volt and lent his first name a scientific ring. Alessandro Manzoni wrote I Promessi Sposi, the novel Italian schoolchildren still read. Neither man was soft, though both carried the plain idea of protection in their name.

In Poland the form stays Italian on the page. A child called Alessandro stands out on a class register beside the Polish Aleksander, the same root in a different coat. The Polish gloss keeps the old promise: obrońca ludzi.