Russian boys' names

[Goostacean]

I'm looking for some options that reflect Russian heritage in the family. Really struggling to find anything that doesn't seem ugly in English and has a nice nickname/shortening.

Alexander, Nikolai and Andrei are all out for family reasons. I like Constantin, Valentin, Stepan, Stefan... But they don't have nice shortenings, IMO. Really like Leo, but it's too popular for my liking. Front runner is probably Anton.

Any ideas or opinions please?

My husbands name was Vitali. I also really like Aleksei and Maxim.

Mikhail?
Ivan?
Peter/Pyotr?
Boris?!

Pasha!

I know it's a nickname, but I do love it.

Thanks! Peter and Aleksei out for family reasons also. Boris is... topical, I suppose?!

Alexi, Xanda, Sacha,

Mykola ❤️

Sacha

From your list I love Constantin.

Stefan is lovely

Sacha is a nn for Alexander, which is out.

What about Fyodor?

Roman? Or Miron?

Sergey, Alexei, Ivan?

Igor

Stefan is ace!

Maksim (or Maxim).

Peter (Petro), Simon (Symon), Martin (Martyn), Matthew (Matyu, Matviyko), Mark (Marko), Roman, Stan (Stanislav), Max (Maxym), Gregory (Hryhoryj), Nick (Nikolai), Michael (Mihailo), Alex (Oleksa), Paul (Pavlo),

More traditional non English version- Myron, Ivan/Ivash, Sergei, Ivhen, Vitali, Viktor

Ilya
Dmitry (Dima)
Pavel

I knew a (very lovely) Constantin once upon a time. Everyone called him Tantin.

I love Ilya and Yuri. Love them.

Artur
Artem (Artyom)
Eduard
Igor
Georgiy
Yegor
Grigoriy
Oleg

I have a Russian friend, his name is Nikita which I like.

If I ever had a boy I'd call him Stanislav. Can be shortened to Stan.

Kanga83 those are Ukrainian spellings rather than Russian