Russian names

[Muira]

We have family connections to Russia and, although we live in the UK, hope to give future DC a Russian name. Something easily pronounced in both countries would be great. We are stuck on boys names, really. Just TTC and playing with ideas, not actually pregnant. So far we've thought of:

Girls
Anastasia
Nadejda
Tatiana

Boys
Pavel
Alexei

Larisa and Maxim

Am loving all the suggestions.

I was in moscow for a bit, and I hate the name Pavel (sorry knew a couple of horrid ones!). but love Ivan and Maxim, and Artem. I like Katya and Tatianya - which can be shortened to Tanya. I also love Alexander (nn Sascha). And Alla's pretty too.

Oh, yes, indiechick, Kiril/Kirill is lovely. Soooo much better than the English variant, which is Cyril.

Dd1 go's to school with an Arkady which I love.

I love Alexander but I would say as it is dh's name. Dh works with a few Russians and one of them is Sergey which I like the sound of.

Valentina
Florentina
Sofia
Tamara
Ksenia

Anatoly
Stanislav
Roman
Vitaly
Konstantin
Ignat(y)
Lev
Leonid
Marat
And I love Vladimir

Pasha for a boy!

These are amazing! I want to have many, many DCs and use all the names. Keep 'em coming!

my middle name is swetlana with the pronounciation svetlana!

I love Anya! I would love to have used it but unfortunately here in Australia I fear it would have been pronounced An-ya instead of Ar-nya iyswim.

I like Natalyia and Anastasia, Alexi and Alexa, Sascha (for either). Ivan is a great name but I cannot help think of Ivan the terrible (the original one and the nazi one).

Anon, that's my reason for disliking Ivan! Evan is good and close enough, I prefer it.

Sasha?
Natlka - Natalia

Vladimir

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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)

leontai

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

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.