Prince Pyotr Bagration was a war hero for Russia in the Napoleonic Wars. His name was a code name used for Operation Bagration, the Soviet offensive that annihilated much of the Nazi army in the summer of 1944.
But how in the hell do you say “Bagration”? Bah-GRAY-shun? Bah-grah-zsyon, as if it’s French? Bah-GRAY-tee-on? I’ve never known this and I’ve read and written that word for years.
I don’t think I’ve heard it pronounced. Knowing that it’s Armenian (I’ve had Armenian roomies), I’d probably pronounce it bag-RAT-ee-on, but I’ll bet most folks would say "bag-RAY-shun.
The Russian is “Багратион”, so it’d be roughly bah-grah-tee-ONE (long O, like “cone”), spoken in your best Russian accent.
Similar to “Sierra Leone” if you change a few consonants.
According to Wikipedia, he was Georgian.
This Wikipedia page gives “Bagration” as an Armenian noble house that had branches in Georgia:
I’ve never heard a family name that ended in “-ion” or “ian” (or close relatives, like “-yan”) that wasn’t Armenian. It’s ittelevant to my point, in any case, whether it’s Georgian or Armenian.
The name sounded Armenian to me as well so I was surprised to see that they were Georgian. I wonder just how much mixing occurred between the two groups.