Russian names

My mum is a Natalka which I think sounds lovely and is less common than the Natalka/Natalia variants.

I love Russian names, esp the tradition of diminutives, my faves are
Maria/Masham
Ekaterina/Katya
Anna/Anya
Larisa/Lara
Svetlana/Sveta
Elena/Lena
Galina/Galya
Zinaida/Zina

Nikolai/Kolya
Ivan/Vanya
Alexander/Sacha

Bit late in the game, but under-rated but still lovely "dual-use" which work in English (without being overly unusual) and Russian

Girls:
Anna (Anya)
Marina (Masha)
Xenia (favourite)

Boys:
Victor
Ivan
Felix
Alexander

I came across this feed when I was just seeing how many names come up when I put my daughters name. I have family heritage in Russia and wanted to give honor to my family and picked names from my cousin (Tatiana),my great aunt (Anya), and my mom (Nathalie). With this combination I came up with Tatianya Natalya. I have always liked the name Tatiana but it is too common here in the US especially closer to Mexico they use that name so I came up with the combo as I did. Her name gets missed pronounced all the time I should of used a hyphen but I didn't I am not changing what some people cannot read correctly. Another name I adore is Anastasia but I guess sometimes it is how you pronounce the name as well and changing the spelling sometimes help people to pronounce it the way you want it to sound. Good Luck

Alexandra Nina Elena all sound good and are easy to spell in the UK. Ekaterina Katya is my favourite. Why does it make me think of Cherry orchards?

Love the name Artem! What a fabulous thread!

Anoushka, Anouska ...a favourite of mine
Catarina
Ekaterina
Elissa
Eva
Feia
Ilena
Isidora
Karolina
Katia
Lara
Lena
Mariia
Mila
Natassja
Nikita
Pavlolva
Sofiia, Sofia, Sofya
Tahnia
Vida

Aleksandr
Aloysha
Dimitri
Laurente
Markov
Mikhail
Nikolai
Roman
Sevastian ..I love this!
Tamryn
Vasilii
Yuri

My (half Russian) DD1 is Nadia and DD2 is Anya. others on the list were Katya, Arina, Sasha.

For boys I considered Andrei, Alexander, Anton.

I myself find Russian girls name quite beautiful and tend to like the shorter versions - i.e. Tanya, not Tatianna.

Conventionally in Russia e.g., Nadejda is always called Nadia while small. But it is very confusing for Westerners. I lost count how many times I had to explain to people why I am called Natasha while my passport says Natalia.

My advice would be - when choosing the name, don't go for the one where people would go - "how do you spell it..." And look for the ones that are not completely "foreign" to an anglo-saxon ear - while Uliyan or Evdokia may work if you live in Russia, in the UK it'll make your kid stand out and not in a great way.

Tatyana pronounced Tatty-a-AHna in UK, no? Not Tatty-Anna.

I desperately wanted a Russian/Eastern European name for the DDs, but we could not agree on anything. Loved Ekaterina, but would not have gone with our surname.

Darya - sounds like Diarrhoea.
Natasha - prostitute
Svetlana, love this, but Svetty not a good nickname.

Also like Oksana, Ksenia, Ludmila, Nadejda, Yulia, Larissa.

I love love love Ludmila!

I know half Russian little boys called Lyosha and Timofei, and a baby girl called Inessa, which is pretty.

Having spent 3 years working out there I think I might cry if I ever meet another Sasha (male or female!) But here are some names I did love (and some I didn't!):

Girls:
Karyna
Karolina
Natalia
Masha
Nadya
Slava (Yaroslava)
Oksana
Anna
Elena
Nila
Yulia
Nina
Anya
Aida

Boys:
Vitaly
Yuri
Valery
Misha
Victor
Yaroslav
Artur
Anton

Larissa
Natalya
Tamila

Anatoly - Tolio for short

Dziga for a boy

I love Slava as a pet form of Mstislav.

Evdokia and Praskovia although unusual are seen as very old fashioned/country bumpkin-ish if I recall. Mind you, every girl in East Dulwich aged 5 and under seems to be named after a mid-19th century parlour maid, so maybe due a comeback.

I used to live in Russia and speak Russian and love Boris, Ivan, Bogdan. I'm not a fan of names ending in 'a' (don't know why!) so can't help with the girls.

Don't follow my first boyfriend's family and name your daughter Lenina!

There were in communist times women wandering about called 'Tractora', after new cooperative farming equipment

leontai

A few less commonly used names:

Boys:
Gleb
Pyotr
Fyodor
Egor
Georgy
Demiyan
Uliyan
Mitrofan

Girls:
Polina
Alyona
Glafira (Fira or Glasha)
Evdokia (Dotia)
Arina
Agafia (Aga)
Klavdia (Klava)
Antonina (Tonia)
Kira
Praskovia (Prasha)
Angelina (Gelya)
Galina (Galia)

Think Sacha from a boy is gorgeous (esp as a nn for Alexander)

Btw, Evan is a NN for a Greek name Evangely and has nothing to do with the Russian name Ivan (John in English).

Girls:

Alexandra
Vera
Victoria (Vika)
Sofia (Sonya)
Daria
Xenia
Larissa (Lara)
Valentina
Alevtina (Tina or Alia)
Tamara
Marina
Alexandra
Valeria (Lera)
Veronika (Nika)
Zoya

Boys:
Alexander
Alexei
Mikhail
Constantine
Danilla
Anton
Platon
Andrei
Stepan
Maxim

Dmitri is lovely for a boy, and Xenia for a a girl

Love Nina and Nadezhda (means Hope)
also really like Milena (nn Mila) for a girl
Lara I prefer to the full name, Larisa

for boys I like Alyosha, the nn from Alexei

We considered Anastasia for DD, but its pronunciation is different in English and Russian (Ana -STEI -zha in English, Ana-stah-SIA in Russian). The most typical nickname for it is Nastya which is too close to "nasty' in English I think.

Like in the UK, Russian names have social connotations as well. There are classical "intelligentsia" names (e.g. Anna, Ekaterina/Katya, Natalia, Irina, Olga, Elena, Tatyana/Tania, Marina; Alexander, Alexei, Sergei, Vladimir etc).

Then there are more traditional / folksy names which are very popular now (e.g. Daria/Dasha, Olesya, Maria/Masha, Ksenia; Danila, Vasily / Vasia, Piotr/Petya, Ivan / Vanya, Stepan / Stiopa,
Fyodor / Fedia etc).

Nadezhda/Nadia from your list is more 1950s factory girl's name, together with names like Zinaida, Klavdia, Raisa.

Bizarrely, everyone thinks that Boris is an uber-Russian name. In Russia, it is a typical Jewish name, as well as Arkady, Mark, Lev, Rosa, Alla...)

Have fun choosing the right name, one of the more enjoyable aspects of pregnancy!

Sasha?
Natlka - Natalia

Vladimir