I was listening to HC History's podcast called "The Macedonian Soap Opera" and noticed that everyone, except Alexander, had a Greek or Macedonian name. His mother was Olympias, and his General's names were even harder to pronounce. Some are known to even non-historians, but most just drip with the regions dialect.
Why was his so common sounding?
My first though was that Alexander was a Western usage of his name. That doesn't explain the multitude of cities with his name though. My second though was it just seems common because it became a popular name assigned to boys in history around the world. That doesn't explain the spelling difference in the other names. His seems so western compared to Ptolemy.
Am I on the right track? Or is there another reason for his name?
Am I on the right track? Or is there another reason for his name?
I think what you're trying to ask is why doesn't "Alexander" sound Greek, and the answer is because it's not. Your first instinct was that it's the Western usage is correct: It's the anglicized version of "Alexandros," which is how he would have been known in his own language. So is "Ptolemy," by the way, which is properly "Ptolemaios."
The convention nowadays, at least in the area of Greek history I study, is to faithfully transliterate names unless there's an English version of it that's so overwhelmingly well-known that it would be overly pedantic to use the native form. In Byzantine terms, that means Constantine, John, and Basil instead of Konstantios, Ioannes, and Basileios.