Sasha Makedonsky

Mark Liberman has a post at Language Log discussing Alexander the Great, and his relative Greekness, Macedonianess, or Persianess...

I don't have anything to add to that, but it did remind me of one of the many subtitle failings in the otherwise excellent Russian mini-series Brigada (Gang). Our hero is named Aleksandr, which has the nicknames Sanya and Sasha, among others; various people call him those or a different one based on his surname. Who calls him what is a reflection of how they see him, though the subtitles don't always track it well.

But what I was reminded of was the moment when he's first courting his future wife. He tells her that his name is Sasha, and then that Sasha is a lucky name. Throughout history, he says, people with that name have been winners. Think of Sasha Pushkin, he says. When she laughs he reaches further back and turns the prince Alexander Nevsky into "Sasha Nevsky". Her amusement at that leads him to the biggest name of all: Alexander the Great.

Except that Russians call him "Alexander of Macedon", which is "Aleksandr Makedonsky". So what our Sasha actually calls him is "Sasha Makedonsky" - which is exactly what the subtitler put.

Which no (or very few) non-Russian speakers would recognize as Alexander the Great... making the reference both obscure and not funny.