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Extremely late reply, actually. But I hope this still helps. Being born in a foreign country works. If another country doesn’t distinguish between masculine and feminine surnames, and his mother is single, he could be born with his mother’s surname and not his father’s. If you’re thinking *really* out of the box, he could he legally female for whatever reason (ex. he’s trans, he’s using faked legal documents, etc.), and Alexander could be his chosen name. Or, following the “legal” part of it, it could be a pseudonym for reasons you see fit in-story. Perhaps it’s his nom de guerre to keep a true identity from being revealed. Whatever you choose, best of luck!

The most realistic way of having a man named Baranova is letting his mother (who is a single mom) move (or travel) to a different country that doesn't use female suffixes for surnames. Than, when the boy would be born, he would get his single mom's surname on his birth certificate. There are examples of this IRL when sons of single mothers get a feminine form of a surname if they're born in a foreign country.