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?

Viktor, Max, Abram, Dimitri, Adrian, Gregory, Mark, Isaak, Albert, Ivan

Another Roman!

I love Sergei and Dmitri

swoons

What's wrong with Vladimir?! (good enough for Putin). Little Vlad...

More seriously, I like Anton, Artem, Yuri.

I think the spelling isn't set in stone as they would originally be in Cyrillic anyway.

I know a constantin NN con or tanti , I really like it

Leo is really lovely

Kiril. My fav name ever.

Thanks everyone, so many suggestions!

I like Nikita but I've only ever met two and they were both Indian girls, funnily enough.

I like Artyom but it seems clunky in English vs the elegant Russian pronunciation. Artem looks better written down but you'll have a fight trying to teach people to pronounce it based on the spelling.

I like Maxim/Maksim but I once volunteered with a very very difficult child called Max, so the association isn't amazing! Will put it on the list though...

Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming! So pleased at such positive responses

Yevgeny is always popular too! I like Veleri, but obviusly pronounced the russian way, probably not wise to give a boy that name growing up in England!

Georgiy - with a hard G
I like Basil - Vasiliy - a lot too.
Rudolf?

Know two Nikita's, one a man using Nick as a nickname who is a Russian. The boy is part Russian and uses the full name as is. Aleksandr -Alex is another. Sacha. Piotr_Peter

Also in my family we use Russian names at home etc but the Anglicised version in public etc - is that an option? I much prefer being called e.g. Anna instead of AnurSTAYSHAAAA and a family member goes by Nicholas/Nick but we call him Nicolai.

I love Dimitri.

Depending on how close the family member names Alexander is, could you use Alexander and go by Sasha?

We use anglicised versions in English and the Russian version with family.

All biblical names have a Russian version.
David
Samuel
Paul/Pavil

Vladimir/Wally/Walter
Alexander (Sasha)
Piotr/Peter
Mikhail
Igor
Gregory/Grigori
Victor
Eugene/Yevgeni
Yuri

Alex/Sasha and Vladimir/Wally were the most common in our community.

Kirill?

Vladimir - shortens to Vova
Stanislav - Slava

The Fyodor I know is Freddie as a nn which I love.
Russian names are gorgeous.

I'm really like Fyodor/Freddie and Mikhail/Misha!

I knew a Dimitri who was Dimka to friends. I liked that.

Valera

The Russian boys I know are called:

Nikita (Nikki)
Steven
Alex (I assume Alexander)
Emil
Artijoms (I think that's he spelt it)
David

If you like Fyodor, you might like the anglicised version of Theodore.

More examples

Arthur/Artur (Артур)
Sergei (Сергей)
Ivan (Иван)
Daniel (Даниил)
Denis (Денис)
Andre (Андрей)
Simon (Семен)
Robert (Роберт)
Victor (Виктор)
Mark (Марк)
Albert (Альберт)
Philip (Филипп)
Luca (Лука)
Christian (Кристиан)

Misha, Pasha or Vitali for me

My votes (in order of preference) are Maxim, Leo and Valentin.

The problem with Valentin/Valeryi/etc is... baby Val? A boy Val? To me it's a female pensioner's name - no offence to any hip, young Vals out there. If baby is a girl (finding out in a fortnight) DH likes Valentina, but I have the same issue with Val.

LOVE Theo, but it's too popular for me... Same as Leo :(

I do like Phillip and Daniel, which fit the bill although the connection is very muted... But not keen on Phil or Dan. Sorry, I'm so fussy!

I do like the more Russian-sounding names but I think they can be hard to pull off in the UK- like Vladimir, Ivan, Igor, Dmitri... Dima is cute though.