Strong Russian names?

[NinjaKangaroo]

I'm Russian born and bred. Don't live there now, and have a DD named Sofia.

I like Artem for a boy...I like strong sounding names for girls (although I admit Sofia doesn't match that but that was more down to ex) but maybe a long elegant name (like Anastasia) which can be shortened?

Any ideas, as I'm stuck?

I love, love, love Anastasia. I've been watching the Sochi Olympics today and heard someone announce an Anastasia, and the pronunciation in Russian is so lovely, much nicer than how it will get said in the UK. I'm not going to do it any justice trying to spell it out phonetically, but here goes, it was
Ana-stah-seeeeya with the focus on the seeeeya bit, as opposed to the way I think Brits would say it, which is Anna-stays-yah, which has more focus on the 'stays' bit.

Sorry a pointless ramble, I think it is a beautiful name, either way it's pronounced, although I secretly hope you would go for and encourage the Russian pronunciation. I would go for it. Don't worry about 50 shades. I haven't read it. It's not a compulsory read. It wouldn't be my automatic connection.

I met a very impressive older Russian lady some time ago. Her name was Irena (Ih-RAY-nah). I think it means 'peace', which can only be good.

Natalia for a girl

For a boy
Yegor or Igor

I like Anastasia and know one shortened to Tasia always.

Katerina goes really nicely with Sofia too.

For boys, I really like Gregori/y but not sure how Russian it is

wow, I had no idea about Natasha!!

Irena I think is lovely in the Russian pronunciation but likely to become Irene in English?

Elena is another one with interesting pronunciation, in German it is pronounced like Eleanor, but in Russian - El lay na which is pretty.

When we were in Kazakhstan, a very popular Russian name was Yaraslav, for boys and Yaraslava for girls. The girl I knew was Yara for short.

(secretly hoping you will go for Svetlana!)

Nadezhda has such a lovely meaning, it means Hope.

How about Vladlena, or a similar power type name for boys : Vlad, Vladimir, Vsyevolod - can't get much stronger than that!
Also love Antonina (both strong and cute) or Anton.
Varvara, Zhanna, Zoya, Izolda for girls
Abram, Viktor, Lev for boys

Short version of Svetlana can be Lana.
Which is nice.
Irina is lovely, pronunciation can be trouble.

I like Nina.

Anastassya would be an Assya, generally.

Oh, sorry.
Missed the born and bred bit, in which case you are obi. aware of all this.

Galia

Alillia

Tanya

Anya

Natalia

Natasha

I love Yekaterina. One of my favourite actresses, Yekaterina Golubeva, died a couple of years ago and she was a brilliant, creative woman.

For boys, I'm a big fan of Andrei and Arseny (after Tarkovsky) but I know a name with 'arse' in it might be tricky in Anglophone countries!

My friend's boyfriend is called Pacha (I admit I don't know what it's short for), but I love that for a boy.

Pacha might have connotations of the club circuit (pacha cherries/ Ibiza club remixes etc)

I love svetlana nn Lana and also petrochemical and andrei for boys!

Very interesting about the 'Natasha' meaning/ connotation in Eastern Europe!

Sorry that was petroV Not petrochemical

Some lovely names here. Love Artem & Anya/Anje. How about ...

Kirill (nn Kir)
Constantin/Konstantin
Igor (nn Igor)
Alexandr (nn Sasha)
Ilya

Valentina
Severina
Elizaveta (so many nns!)

Orofondo Pacha is short for Pavel.

I have an Anastasia, we are not Russian, but it was a family name in my DPs family (used quite a lot in ireland actually). I adore it, she is only 2, so is usually called Annie, but think we will use her full name as she gets older. It's pretty, feminine, strong, unusual, not hard to spell. It is a little long is the only objection you might have

Vania for boy.
Olga for girl.

Also, have a look in the saints calendar, see what's close to date of birth and if you can get inspired?

Marina?

How about Alina? I was at school with an English one, but know lots of russian ones too. Also love Pavel and Piotr.

I love the name Anastasia (DS2 would have been Anastasia - the only reason we didn't call DD Anastasia is that DH said it might get shortened to Stacy which is my least favorite name ever) I think if I had another girl I would definitely go for Anastasia, shortened to Ana.

I also love Tatiana (DD's middle name)

I also love Boris and Vladimir. I knew a little boy called Vladimir, and when he was called from the other side of the park, it just sounded so cool. I also love Conrad.

There are so many great traditional Russian names.

Haven't a clue how to spell them but these are the names of the children we met in Russia when we adopted DD and the names of some of the carers (mostly in their 40s/50s)

Girls Boys

Nazdya Sasha x 2
Dakmina Dasha
Anya Ramon
Kristina Sergei
Sonia Andrei
Kirill
Tanya
Katya
Valla
Grunthilda (No not really, that was what we nicknamed the only horrible carer in DD's baby home)

rhetorician I only found out Anastasia was used a lot in Ireland after we chose not to go for it. If I had known, I think I would have stuck to my guns, as DH's family are from Ireland, and we have an Irish surname.

Yes, Stacy is pretty crap! I think it was used here because it was sort of aspirations but she is one of the sAints named in the litany for the Christmas mass. Quite a cool saint, as it happens. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anastasia_of_Sirmium

We discovered, after we named both dds, that there were two sisters in the family with same names back in the 1830s, which was quite something.

I love the name Yefim (nn Fima)

LynetteScavo Anastasia was used a lot in Ireland years ago- you won't find one under 70 now and the pronunciation was dreadful - Ana-STAY- sha, or STAYsha for short. Dreadful. So different to the beautiful Russian name. If you'd called your dd that, your head would be melted by your Irish relatives pronunciation of it.