Quote Originally Posted by bonzaialsatian
Quote Originally Posted by Pravit
He was originally a Georgian and "Stalin" was a name he made for himself from "сталь", steel. I can't remember what his actual name was, though. But for some reason I remember his revolutionary nickname "Коба".
I don't know if I'm right but I'm sure I've heard him referred to as Joseph Stalin - I'm not sure where, though.
Of course you've always heard him referred to as "Joseph Stalin." That is the official English transliteration of his name. As I said, Stalin was a name he made for himself(much as "Lenin" was a name Vladmir Ilyich Ulyanov made for himself) and that is how we refer to him. You won't see his original Georgian name unless you're reading something that deals with him specifically.