As you’ve been reading about the Russia-Ukraine crisis, you may have noticed a slight — but significant — discrepancy in how different media outlets spell Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s name.
CNN uses the single “y” spelling for “Zelensky,” while Fox and MSNBC go with a double “y” for “Zelenskyy.” The New York Times and The Washington Post are both single “y” organizations. The Associated Press is a double “y” outlet. Reuters goes in a completely different direction, spelling his last name “Zelenskiy.”
So, what gives? And why?
The issue is primarily one of transliteration — from the Cyrillic alphabet used in Ukraine to the Latin alphabet we use in America. There simply isn’t a clear and definitive way to render the Ukrainian President’s last name through our alphabet, which leads to the variety of spellings you see.
