Saša

Sasa, properly Saša, began life as a diminutive of Aleksandar or Aleksandra and then, in the unhurried way of Slavic nicknames, quietly became a given name in its own right. One soft syllable followed by another, both hushed by that central sh, it sounds like a whispered secret. Across Serbia and the wider Balkans Saša is unisex, worn by women, men, novelists and goalkeepers without confusion. Saša Stanišić, the German-Bosnian writer, has carried it into contemporary European literature. It reads affectionate, informal, easy to love. A small name with a big embrace, short enough to be shouted across a courtyard and still arrive gently.