Names that work Russian 🇷🇺 England 🇬🇧

[notagoodwife]

What names can work well in both Russia and England. Please could I have male and female suggestions. Not Ana

Mila is popular in the U.K. at the moment but is of course Russian, you could just use that or Ludmila and shorten.
Kristina and Natasha would be easily acceptable in both.

For a boy, Ivan? Though the pronunciation will be a bit different. Max? Viktor/Victor?

Lara (meaning cheerful/happy) for a girl, Luka (meaning light) for a boy.

Nikolai/Nikolaj

Alexander for a boy?

Natasha? Anastasia for a girl?

Anastasia is tricky because it’s pronounced so differently in English - if that bothers you.

Anastasia is tricky because it’s pronounced so differently in English - if that bothers you

True. I much prefer the Russian pronunciation.

Boris

Alexander (nns Alexei, Sacha), Adrian, Anton, Leon, Ivan, Maxim, Roman, Nicholai at a push

Irina, Marina, Alexandra, Anna, Natalya/Natasha, Anastasia, Vera At a push - Katina, Galina

Eva
Anya
Klara
Kira
Sasha
Nina
Tatiana
Elena
Izabella
Maya
Sofia
Mischa

Ivan
Luka
Alexander
Zak

Veronica

Sophia/Sofia nn Sonia, though it’s wildly popular in both countries.

Alexei

Theodore/Feodor

Matthew/Matvei

Wrong flag.

Why don’t you throw out a few names that you like so people can say if they work?

I guess Alexander is ok! Are there names that have equivalents in U.K./Russia that will work?

Elena and Anoushka for girls

Leon, Anton, Michael for boys

Tanya - obviously 😀

Though tanya is constantly mispronounced

Mishka
Svetlana
Natasha
Zasha

@nevernotstruggling

Though tanya is constantly mispronounced

How is is supposed to be pronounced? I can’t think of other ways!

Alexander, Dimitri, Alexei, Mikhail, Nikolai.

Sofia, Katerina/Katya, Irina, Natalia/Natasha, Tatiana/Tanya, Yelena (though it will be pronounced “yell-aina” in the Uk, depends how much that would grate), Maia.

Nadia

@Liquorishtoffee it’s a tapped T, so closer to “Danya”.

Tanya also gets pronounced as Taaarrrn-yuh a lot in the UK, whereas in Russian it’s a short “a” to rhyme with can, not long “ah” like car.

Wouldnt it also be spelt Tanja if it were Russian?

Inessa

We tried to do names which work in both our languages for dc1 and 2, but in the end its actually worse than choosing a really well known name from one language because international names are pronounced differently in each language, and of course people know how to pronounce them, and are correct, but each nationality will know and be correct about a different pronunciation.

Its not really an issue as long as you bring your children up bilingual, but they will change the way they say their own name when they change language, so you have to like both pronunciations, and have a thick enough skin to respond appropriately to children telling you that you pronounce your own child's name wrongly if you stick to your language's pronunciation but live/ spend time in the other country!

For dc3 we chose a name distinctly fromone language but well known, and everyone pronounces it the same way.

Just something to consider, if you haven't already.

@RedLlama

Wouldnt it also be spelt Tanja if it were Russian?

There are a couple of ways of transliterating from Cyrillic to English, so up to you really, both are valid spellings.

Like Aleksander/Alexander.