I think Sasha has transitioned to a girl's name here in the US.

I know an Alexander who goes by Lex.

I like the Lex suggestion!

Are you hoping to have him go by Alexander and are just trying to be proactive about avoiding Alex or Zander if people start moving towards a nickname? Or do you have some connection to the name Alexander and have to name him that but are trying to come up with a nickname that you actually intend to use right off the bat?

If the former, I say go for Alexander and you’ll probably succeed for a while. A natural nickname will eventually happen though, whether it be an unofficial “Al” or something derivative of your last name or something random that he earns (hopefully not “booger” or “stank”).

If the latter, I think Sasha is fine for a boy. Besides Sasha Obama, who isn’t really all that relevant anymore, it’s not a name you hear that often for girls anyway. I do like Lex. And FTR, I also like Zander.

What about Sandy? I love Sandy for a boy!

We're German, and have an Alexander. My mother always called him Sascha, the rest of us call him Xander (Zander). I think it's kind of funny that the mommies of all the Hudsons, Becketts, Masons, and Parkers, etc think this of all things is pretentious.

Anonymous wrote:how the heck is Sasha short for Alexander??

Many Russian nicknames, for both genders are formed by taking the accented vowel and the consonant before it and adding “sha” at the end.

Mikhail becomes Misha

Daria becomes Dasha

Natalia becomes Tasha

And Aleksander becomes Sasha

I knew a couple who were not Russian, but one of them took Russian in college, who named their son Alexander and called him Sasha. They chose the name Alexander purposely so they could call their son Sasha.

I only know one Sasha, but she’s a girl. In the US, it’s a girl’s name.

I’ve seen about 10 “if you’re Russian”

Are you Russian op?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Zverev is German.

Yes, but his family is Russian in origin. His parents both played professionally for the Soviet Union and didn't move to Germany until later in life. While Sasha was born in Germany, his brother Misha (10 years older) was born in Moscow.

Yes, I know, was a tongue-in-cheek comment.

Anonymous wrote:Zverev is German.

Yes, but his family is Russian in origin. His parents both played professionally for the Soviet Union and didn't move to Germany until later in life. While Sasha was born in Germany, his brother Misha (10 years older) was born in Moscow.

I really appreciate all the replies! (Especially the-above-and-beyond office poll!)

Anonymous wrote:I would think either you are Russian or your child is a girl.

This.

Sasha Cohen = girl
Sasha Baron Cohen = boy

Its all good.

Zverev is German.

I asked about ten people in my office just now and they said they would think it was a female, aka Sasha Obama. One guy said, if you weren’t Russian, he’d think you were being pretentious.