Stalin's birth name was Ioseb Besarionis dzе Jughashvili;. He was born in the Georgian town of Gori, then part of the Tiflis Governorate of the Russian Empire and home to a mix of Georgian, Armenian, Russian, and Jewish communities. He was born on , and baptised on 29 December. His parents, Besarion Jughashvili and Ekaterine Geladze, were ethnically Georgian, and Stalin grew up speaking the Georgian language. He was their only child to survive past infancy and was nicknamed "Soso", a diminutive of "Ioseb".