 He is often known by the Russian version of his name, Kosta [Levanovich] Khetagurov ()

Khetagurov was born in the village of Nar in what is now Alagirsky District in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania.He studied at the Stavropol Gymnasium from 1871 to 1881, and entered the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts in 1881, but had to abandon his studies due to financial constraint in 1885.Back in his native Ossetia, he became a prominent poet, whose poems composed in Ossetic quickly spread throughout Ossetian towns and villages in an oral form.