Date
Meaning & History
Latinized form of Γέσανδρος (Gesandros). This given name could possibly be derived from Greek γῆ (ge) "the earth, soil, land" combined with Greek ανδρος (andros) "of a man", but most likely it is actually of Scythian origin. After all, in Greek mythology, Gesander was a Scythian warrior who fought for Perses in the Colchian civil war(1). He slayed the Argonaut Canthus(2) and the Amazon Lyce(3) during that war. A son of Voraptus, Gesander was king of the Iazyges, a Scythian tribe(4). It should be mentioned that an other source states that the Iazyges were actually a Sarmatian tribe(5), even though that should not matter all that much in practice, since both the Sarmatians and the Scythians were ultimately an Iranian people(6) who spoke a Scythian language(7). Either way, it is not known what the original Scythian form was of the name Gesander, which makes it very difficult to find out what its meaning must have been in Scythian.