Ethnic names

Oops, you’re right. Still a lovely name though.

That's Titania. @PiggieWig .

Tatiana is a main character in A Midsummer Nights’ Dream, a core English GCSE text.

This is totally a neighbour issue, not all English people.

All your name choices are lovely, but I especially like Tatiana.

Your neighbour sounds like she occupies quite a small world OP. I'm British and out of your suggested names and existing names, only 2 are unfamiliar to me.

Yekaterina is the only one I can see people having trouble with, but if your ultimate plan is to return to Russia in the near future and she'll grow up there then don't worry about what anyone here thinks or says anyway.

Ps.. I know a couple of Anastasia's, both are British! One goes by Ana and the other by the very British working class Stacey.

Ah, a flag waver.

How lovely those all are!!

The names are fine, @olga3860 . They'll probably sound a bit different depending on who says them, but you get that anyway in the UK.
e.g. Alexandra/Aleksandra will have a long or short a sound in the middle depending on the regional accent.

Your neighbour sounds batshit.

Oh gosh OP, your neighbour sounds mad, name your child a lovely Russian name (or any name you like) and people can make the effort to learn to pronounce it !

This a thousand times. No need to call your kids British names. How dull if we all had the same names.

I think that's key. Not being too worried that English friends may pronounce the names slightly differently.

Fwiw I have a very common English name, which has a similar German equivalent. I always found it quite endearing that ex-MIL called me by the close German equivalent. Almost like a pet-name.

My step-mother is also Norwegian and her name is pronounced slightly differently in English to Norwegian. She just accepts it.

So choose a name you like the pronunciation of in both languages.

Our childrens' names are not pronounced the same in English and our native language. The is a slight difference but it isn't that important for us. It works just fine.

All of those names are lovely and easy to pronounce in English

Aleksandra without changing the spelling is such a beautiful classic name.

My dc are half British, half German and it was important to us to choose names that worked well in both languages. It is important to recognise their heritage too.

Don't just choose an "English" name and Russian-ise it. Chloe for example is awful in English and Khloe just sounds like a name with a "unique" spelling.

Go for a classic name that you love and don't be swayed by other people's opinions on the matter.

If your neighbour is the type to have an England flag flying outside her house, may I suggest she may be a little xenophobic and "little England" type?

I think all the names with -ka or -ha in the end are nick names such as Misha or Sasha. Dasha from Darya? Mitya, Petya etc.

DD has a Russian friend called Dasha - I’ve always thought that it is such a lovely name and she definitely doesn’t encounter any issues with pronunciation. Maybe one to consider?

It's Ana-stay-si-a or Ana-stay-sha in the UK, and Ana-sta(r)-si-a in most of Europe (I think). Don't know about Russia,

Out of interest how do you pronounce Anastasia?

a lot of people on here are saying they know how to but it is a name where the British and Russian pronounciation is quite different.

I can pronounce all of these and Anastasia as well. The Disney film helped people. Would you write it with double S?

You should choose a name you like and other people just have to learn how to say it.

Aleksandra
Irina
Maria
Tatiana
Yekaterina

Maria is a very common middle name in countries like Portugal so not difficult to say. Would you always use the whole name or nick names? I like Katya and Katinka, too. I feel Irina is old fashioned like Irene rather than a classic name. I accept I am likely to be wrong.

So many lovely names to pick from: Alisa, Sofiya, Mila, Lilia, Aleshka, Anoushka etc.

In UK Nikita has often been a girl name whereas my experience has always with Nikita boys.

I think a fricative /kh/ like in Khalid (not Russian or girl's but another lovely name incidentally!).

Bladimir! Is the neighbour's first language English?

I ask because pronoucing /v/ as /b/ or /w/ happens in quite a few languages. /v/ is quite an unusual phoneme worldwide.

Spanish doesn't have it, for instance (it is written as in Valencia but not pronounced).

I wonder if she's coming from a place of having had difficulty with her own or her children's names being pronounced, rather than just being ignorant.

Either way, your beautiful choices will be fine.

Out of interest as I am fascinated by Russian naming conventions, can I please ask whether you use any diminutives for your boys and which ones?

Your neighbour is a bit thick and/or xenophobic.

Love Anastasia like Tatiana, can imagine them pronounced with Russian accent, beautiful.

Maria, aleksandra and Tatiana are very easy to pronounce. I can think of two different ways of saying Irina but it’s nice and perfectly fine for the uk. Yekaterina is a bit more difficult and probably the only one that people may not have heard of before