Hello Buneary,
Joseph Stalin's father's full first name was actually
Besarion, which was often abbreviated to
Beso.
Besarion seems to be the Georgian form of the name
Bessarion, which as the
-ion suffix already indicates, is a Greek name. Bessarion (also Bissarion) seems to be an older Greek form, as the more modern Greek form is
Vissarion (as B in ancient Greek becomes V in modern Greek). Vissarion is also the Russian form of the name, having been adopted into Russian straight from modern Greek.
The name is derived from Greek βῆσσα
(bēssa), which is
vissa in modern Greek. It means "wooded valley, wooded combe, glen". βᾶσσα
(bassa) is the Doric Greek form of the word.
Do take note of the fact, though, that some sources consider this to be a Coptic name and claim that it is derived from the name of an Egyptian god. I find those claims quite doubtful, but I thought I would mention it here, just in case.
Finally, various spellings or transcriptions for this name exist, so here follows a list of the possible spellings and forms:
Basarion
Bassarion
Besarion
Bessarion
Bisarion
Bissarion
Vasarion
Vassarion
Vesarion
Vessarion
Visarion
Vissarion
Okay, that's all - I hope that helped. :)
"How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on... when in your heart you begin to understand... there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend... some hurts that go too deep... that have taken hold." ~ Frodo Baggins
This message was edited 2/20/2013, 12:51 PM