View Message

I majored in Russian in college (many, many moons ago) so I can only see Sasha as a boy's nn for Alexander.

---

Nns in Russian are a lot of fun. Suffice it to say they love to make the nn as soft and "smooshy" as possible. The "x / ks" sound in Russian is what turns into an "s" sound at the start of Sasha. Maria becomes Masha, Pavel becomes Pasha. There's no real formula, just the desire to smoosh.

---

I prefer the Sasha spelling because there are strict transliteration rules and that's how a linguist would spell it. (I'm guessing the "ch" spelling is a German or Yiddish one. But as I say, that's just a guess. Does anyone else know for sure?)