Springing to men’s defense

Alexander is one of my favorite names; it means “defender of men.”

It’s popular in English and many other languages. In French it is Alexandre; in Italian it sounds softer as Alessandro; in Spanish it also sounds soft—Alejandro—because the “j” is pronounced as a “h.” In Czech the final "e" is dropped and it becomes Alexandr.

Alexander the Great was king of Macedon, a northern state of ancient Greece. He has gone down in history books as one of the world’s greatest commanders. By the time he was 30, “he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from the Ionian Sea to the Himalayas,” according to Wikipedia.

Part of the Alexander Mosaic, depicting Alexander the Great astride his horse Bucephalus.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia