# Can you help me spell two names in Cyrillic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 31, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-me-spell-two-names-in-cyrillic/534492 "2010-03-31T20:20:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-me-spell-two-names-in-cyrillic/534492/1 "2010-03-31T20:20:21Z")
I’ve gone to Google images, looking for the spelling of the names Nicholas and Alexandra in Cyrillic. I’ll get icons for St. Nicholas but the resolution on my screen makes the letters fuzzy. Can you point me to a place where the names are clear? I don’t know Russian, and while I can read part of the Cyrillic alphabet I don’t want to chance screwing this up. One more little thing, when Westerners use the Roman alphabet to spell Saint Nicholas, they abreviate Saint as St. Is there a similar notation for the Cyrillic spelling of saint’s names? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-me-spell-two-names-in-cyrillic/534492/2 "2010-03-31T20:25:37Z")
Nicholas is Nikolay, or Николай. Alexandra is Aleksandra, or Александра. Edit: oh, and Saint is Sankt, or Санкт. It is abbreviated as Ст., I believe. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-me-spell-two-names-in-cyrillic/534492/3 "2010-03-31T20:26:17Z")
Nicholas (Nikolai): Николай Alexandra (Aleksandra): Александра From here: > **[Nicholas II of Russia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_II_of_Russia)** > > Nicholas II (Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov\[d\]; 18 May \[O.S. 6 May\] 1868 – 17 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,\[e\] was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. During his reign, Nicholas gave support to the economic and political reforms promoted by his prime ministers, Sergei Witte and Pyotr Stolypin. He advocated modernization based on forei... and > **[Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alix_of_Hesse)** > > Alexandra Feodorovna (Russian: Александра Фёдоровна; 6 June \[O.S. 25 May\] 1872 – 17 July 1918), Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine at birth, was the last Empress of Russia as the consort of Emperor Nicholas II from their marriage on 26 November \[O.S. 14 November\] 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March \[O.S. 2 March\] 1917. A favourite granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, she was, like her grandmother, one of the most famous royal carriers of haemophilia and bore a haemo... ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-me-spell-two-names-in-cyrillic/534492/4 "2010-03-31T20:35:27Z")
A little late to the party, but I’ve found that a way to get translations like this is to go to the English Wikipedia page for the subject in question, and then to scroll down in the sidebar and look to see if there’s a version of that page in Russian (Русский.) In this case, it works for translating Nicholas but not Alexandra; go figure. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-me-spell-two-names-in-cyrillic/534492/5 "2010-03-31T20:35:32Z")
St. Nicholas was of course overthrown by Xapno Mapkc, in what was termed the Silent Revolution. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Anaptyxis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anaptyxis/32/3171_2.png) [@Anaptyxis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaptyxis)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-me-spell-two-names-in-cyrillic/534492/6 "2010-03-31T20:51:24Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Edit: oh, and Saint is Sankt, or Санкт. It is abbreviated as Ст., I believe. In my experience (recovering Slavic lingust), Slavic saints are given the honorific “Holy”, rather than “Saint”. In Russian this is spelled светый, which is abbreviated as Св. This is what you’ll see on icons. Polycarp: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-me-spell-two-names-in-cyrillic/534492/7 "2010-03-31T21:35:05Z")
Thanks so much for the help everyone! This board is fantastic. And **Polycarp** , I don’t know Russian, as I said in the OP, but I can sound out some of the lettering and that is one stinker!😛 ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-me-spell-two-names-in-cyrillic/534492/8 "2010-03-31T21:43:50Z")
> [@Anaptyxis](#): > > In my experience (recovering Slavic lingust), Slavic saints are given the honorific “Holy”, rather than “Saint”. In Russian this is spelled светый, which is abbreviated as Св. This is what you’ll see on icons. Ah, I was going by Saint Petersburg. Also, oddly, when I posted it, the lower-case Cyrillic T looked like a small Latin T. When you quoted my post it showed up like a Latin m. Is that purely an italic font thing? Санкт _Санкт_ Edit - apparently [so](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillic_alphabet#Letterforms_and_typography)! ---
**Author:** ![Anaptyxis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anaptyxis/32/3171_2.png) [@Anaptyxis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaptyxis)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-me-spell-two-names-in-cyrillic/534492/9 "2010-03-31T21:53:42Z")
**Colophon** , yep, the lowercase Cyrillic т that looks like Roman “m” is the typical italic and handwritten form of the letter, as you deduced.\* Although the Cyrillic font that my browser is using just has a slanted regular т, heh. You can tell a good Cyrillic font if it gives you true italic forms, rather than just slanted Roman. A couple of other letters have differences, such as the pre-Revolutionary letter jat’ \<ѣ\>. \*Although lots of people handwrite the т shape rather than the “m” shape, I should note. Ah, I am boring at parties! Oh, and **Baker** : we’ve all been assuming that you want the names in _Russian_ specifically. The spelling of the names you’re asking about varies in other Slavic languages that use the Cyrillic alphabet. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-me-spell-two-names-in-cyrillic/534492/10 "2010-03-31T22:23:54Z")
Yes, I was thinking of Russian. I’m a baker by profession, and Friday evening the cafe I work at is participating in the Edible Book festival… One takes a book and makes their own representation of it. I’m doing Nicholas and Alexandra, the biography by Robert K. Massie I’ll be baking a double headed eagle out of gingerbread, an old style Russian crown(the kind with the fur around the bottom edge, a “Faberge” egg(Rice Krispie treat covered with decorated fondant), and a silhouette of an onion domed church. I also wanted to put a little plaque out front with their names on it in Russian, as well as an actual hard copy of the book. [http://www.tscpl.org/gallery/comments/the\_reutrn\_of\_edible\_books/](http://www.tscpl.org/gallery/comments/the_reutrn_of_edible_books/) The above link is to our library website, and you can see the types of things done. I’ve done it for the past two years, but not in 2007. But you really need to go back to 2007 and see the cake a woman did based on The Vagina Monologues. Again, thatnks to everyone for their help! This is why I love this board.