Alessandro

Alessandro is the Italian form of Alexander, which comes from the Greek alexein, to defend, and aner, man, so the name means defender of men. The physicist Alessandro Volta invented the voltaic pile, an early electric battery, and the unit of electrical potential, the volt, is named in his honour. The novelist Alessandro Manzoni wrote The Betrothed, a cornerstone of modern Italian literature, and the composer Alessandro Scarlatti shaped Neapolitan opera. The name is often shortened to Sandro, as in the painter Sandro Botticelli, whose given name was Alessandro. Equivalent forms include Alejandro in Spanish and Alexandre in French and Portuguese.