A person is given a name at birth, and they carry this name with them throughout their life. Since ancient times, people have noticed that the name affects the fate of a person, plays a role in the formation of their character. Most often, the question of choosing a name and its meaning arises when you need to give a name to your own child, and it turns out that this is not a simple question.
Names can tell a lot about the history of the people. The names reflect the life, beliefs, creativity of peoples and their historical contacts. For a given nation to have a name and begin to be used, certain cultural and historical conditions are needed. The names of people bear a bright imprint of the corresponding era. A person’s name can tell a lot about their background, especially the ethnicity. Russians have distinctive names that people would clearly see as their ancestry identity. There are interesting facts about these very Russian names too.
Russian names from time to time
In different eras, different names are heard. For example, at the end of the 80s children vied for common names such as Olya, Katya or Natasha for a girl; Seryozha, Zhenya, Andryusha – for a boy. By the beginning of the 2000s, the parents went all out and the kindergartens were flooded with Sophia, Zabava, Bogdany and Borislav.
With confidence, it can be argued that life affects the choice of a name. An example is the first Soviet years in Russia, when names like Oktyabrina, Revolution, Klara or Rosa (in honor of the revolutionaries Klara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg) were in fashion. Today’s trend is difficult to determine, but it is safe to say that children’s names have become a field for parents to express themselves. Many babies are called Kings, Charisms, Eros, and even Lenin. And in 2008, seven hundred Messiahs were born in Russia.
Russian boys’ names
The name Maxim has not gone out of fashion for many years. With the development of the Internet and the integration of Russia into the world community, parents who choose this name for their sons have one more argument: the name Maxim easily adapts to most European languages. It’s the same with the names like Alexander, Denis or Ivan.
The situation is a bit more complicated with the equally popular names such as Yaroslav, Arseniy, Kirill, Artem or Dmitry (Demetria is the name of the same root, but female. For example, actress Demi Moore bears that name). Note that Dmitriev in Russia in recent years began to be born much more than before; perhaps this is due to the figure of the politician Dmitry Medvedev. Of course, young parents do not bypass the name Vladimir – often in honor of Vladimir Putin.
At the same time, fashion returned to the “old” names. So, quite often the kids are named Bogdans, Matvey, Zakhara, Timothy, Gleb, Anatolia. There are also rarer names – for example, Thomas, Miron or Luke (in fairness it should be noted that Miron Fedorov, known as rapper Oksimiron, got this name when it was not yet in fashion). But this is in the regions of Russia, but in the national republics sons are called Timur, Tagir, Arthur and Amir. A slightly different situation happens in the republics of the North Caucasus. For example, in Vladikavkaz, the most common name is Alan, in Makhachkala and Grozny, Magomed, and in Kazan and Ufa, Ruslan.
Russian girls’ names
Fashion for names for girls has changed a bit. If three decades ago it was possible to meet a Lisa or Sonya infrequently, now these are perhaps the most popular names, and this trend has been around for about a decade. However, other sonorous and beautiful names are not inferior.
Still often girls are called by the name Anastasia. This name comes from the Greek “anastos”, which means resurrected. In an esoteric environment, it is believed that a girl with that name in life will be able to overcome all the hardships and reach any heights. At the same time, she will have a fine mental organization. Anastasia is usually gullible. They can become excellent psychologists, artists or teachers in kindergarten.
Strong names for girls are Irina and Marina. Not so popular in recent years, they are still in certain demand among parents who believe in the role of a name for the fate of the child. These names are believed to grow the girls being confident and full of inner strength. The list of popular names for girls also includes Anna, Alexandra, Maria, Polina, Elena, Daria and Natalya.
Newborn girls, just like boys, are often given names with a touch of antiquity. Among the names that sound archaic, for example, are Lyubava, Jaromir, Glafira, Taisiya and others. In addition, Milena and Milan, Eve and Vitali, Barbara and Cyrus are also popular.
Name-giving in Russia
The tradition of giving names in Russia has developed in pre-Christian times. Any word related to custom, habits, appearance, environment, could “stick” to a person and become his name. There were several thousand such nicknames, but there were no more than a hundred in widespread use. Conventionally, they can be divided into a dozen groups.
As a special category of nicknames, it is worth highlighting protective names. In order to avoid the harmful effects of evil spirits or other people, a person was often given a middle name that was believed to protect its wearer from the evil eye or misfortune. As Christianity strengthened in Russia, Slavic names gradually receded into the past. There were even special lists of forbidden names, in which a special ban was imposed on those that were associated with pagan worship, for example, Yarilo or Lada.