Skanderbeg - Name

Name

George Kastrioti Skënderbeu appears in various Latin sources as Georgius Castriotus Scanderbegh. Gjergji is the Albanian equivalent of the name George. The form of his last name was given variously as Kastrioti, Castriota, Castriottis, or Castriot. The last name Kastrioti refers both to the Kastrioti family and to a municipality in northeastern Albania called Kastriot, in the modern Dibër District, from which the family's surname derives, having its origin in the Latin castrum via the Greek word Κάστρο (English: castle).

The Ottoman Turks gave him the name Iskender bey, meaning "Lord Alexander", or "Leader Alexander", which has been rendered as Scanderbeg or Skanderbeg in the English versions of his biographies, and Skënderbeu (or Skënderbej) is the Albanian version. Latinized in Barleti's version as Scanderbegi and translated into English as Skanderbeg, the combined appellative is assumed to have been a comparison of Skanderbeg's military skill to that of Alexander the Great.