Alex written in the Arabic script, with pronunciation, a letter-by-letter breakdown, and the story behind the name.
Each Arabic letter below maps to part of the name — remember that Arabic reads right to left.
Alex is short for Alexander, from Greek Aléxandros, "defender of the people." Arabic has known this name for over a millennium through Alexander the Great — called الإسكندر (al-Iskandar) — who even gave his name to the Egyptian city of Alexandria, الإسكندرية.
Arabic has no single letter for x, so Alex ends in kāf + sīn (كس). The name also has a deep-rooted Arabic form: Iskandar (إسكندر), the traditional rendering of Alexander used in classical literature — Alexandria in Egypt is still الإسكندرية, "the city of Iskandar."
Alex is written أليكس, reading right to left: alif with hamza (أ), lām (ل), yā (ي), kāf (ك), and sīn (س). Arabic has no letter x, so the ks sound is spelled with kāf plus sīn — two letters doing the work of one.
إسكندر (Iskandar), often with the article as الإسكندر (al-Iskandar) for Alexander the Great. It entered Arabic centuries ago and remains a given name in parts of the Arab world and beyond — Egyptian Alexandria, الإسكندرية, preserves it in a city name.
Very close to English: A-liks, with a clear glottal start from the hamza. The middle vowel leans toward a short i, since Arabic lacks the English short e. For the full name, Arabic speakers say ah-lek-SAN-dar (أليكساندر) or use the classical Iskandar.