Arkady, Anatoly, Artem

[sillydecision]

These are very old school (apart from Artem) Eastern European names, you wouldn't see people using them now, but I have started to think they are actually quite nice sounding?

Artem - nn Artie
Anatoly - nn Toly
Arkady - nn Arky?

What do you honestly think of those?

I don't like them. At all.

I really like Anatoly, Artem is ok but not sold on Arkady.

Dont listen to all the people twittering on about heritage, call your kid any name you like. My daughter has a very Italian name. We’ve never been asked if there’s any Italian heritage.

Just came to say the same thing about Toly 🫣

OP, please don’t take this the wrong way, but if you really want Anatoly then please reconsider the nickname 😬

For what it's worth - Arkady feels specifically Russian to me (although Polish Arkadiusz is a cognate), and kind of old fashioned - I'd expect even a Russian Arkady to be 50+. It also makes me think, from an English-language perspective, of the word "arcade" - kind of unfamiliar as a name (although not unheard of) in the UK/Western Europe.

Anatoly feels more pan-European, but in the UK I might use the French form Anatole instead.

I like Artem a lot; it feels like a contemporary Finnish name to me, so maybe a bit of the same feel in Estonian? I also like the connection with Artemis - it's rare to find a traditionally feminine name that also has a really strong use for boys - Greeks used to call their children Artemis after the goddess so that they would grow up to be intrepid hunters, which I think it pretty cool. I'd feel comfortable using this one, more than the other two, in an English-speaking country.

Greek classic alternatives are much nicer and don’t have an affiliation with culture of murders and terrorists. All 3 of these names have classical Greek roots, and even the Russian forms of them have a history throughout the once-USSR and in some cases neighbouring countries which is not specifically tied to the Russian government and polity of the present. (A lot of native Russian speakers are also fighting against the murderers and terrorists, for example in eastern Ukraine.)

edited because I can't spell!!

In Scotland, a toly is a poo.

Oh right, I get it now.

People who are replying with nasty comments, you are thinking:

I am Estonian = Eastern European = friends with Putin = I am responsible for your COL crisis.

To the helpful responses: thank you. I have a lot of thinking to do now, and it's nothing to do with names 😀

'Your Estonian heritage was a massive drip feed.'

But why? Why do we have to stick with names of the country we are from?

I know an American Connor who has zero Irish links; I know an Australian Seamus. Apparently people are not allowed to use a name Cohen if they have no Jewish links.

Sofia is a Greek name (also Italian/Spanish) and you see them everywhere in England - is that wrong too?

@Snorlaxo

If you go with Toly as a nickname, be aware that it sounds like Toalie - a Scottish word for a lump of excrement.

Didn’t see that this was already pointed out, sorry!

Well OP good luck with your names, but will all due respect you are clearly not Estonian, you are Russian who lived in Estonia. A lot of people on here (like myself) are from Eastern Europe, and are aware of the situation. I know a few "Estonians" who cant speak a word of the language.

No one makes you responsible for Putin and his wars btw. We are all aware that a lot of Russians are against it.

Artem is a great name, very handsome sounding.

Everybody will assume they have russian heritage. If that's what you want, those 3 names are all grand.

Stupid comment.

I like Artem. There's a writer who uses Arkady, Arkady Martine, I love it. Also a dragon in Naomi Novik's Temeraire books. :-) Slightly less keen on Anatoly.

It's not like that at all.
Why so conservative? Why so closed-minded?
If you're British use British names innit.
Just so narrow. Little England.

@Hereslookinatyoukid yes, you're ignorant, and showing it.

Hahahaha. Why not Bob? Or Tommy Atkins?

Picking foreign names when you’re from that country is obviously fine but sometimes people on here pick foreign names because they want to appear more special/unique.

If people knew that you were Estonian then there would be fewer posts which said that your child will be faced with having to explain why he’s British but has a EE name when he has a no specific link to EE.

These conventions are more blurred with established names for example, it’s not unusual for an English child to have an Irish name but would expect the nationalities of Jakob and Jacob to be different. Sometimes there are trends eg French girls names but EE names haven’t been a trend here yet so people would expect an EE name to belong to an EE child.

why Saddle your child with a random name from a country giving them a life time of explaining to do.

not little England. Simply thinking of the child.

If OP had been clearer about her origin then none of this need have been posted, so it’s on the OP for not being clearer.

100% this. OP should have been clearer from the start. Wasted a lot of people’s time.

Because they don't begin with an A?

And you are rude.

@sillydecision asked for our options and impressions. I gave mine. How have you helped anyone today?

^opinions obviously!

I think it was always obvious from her post that OP had an international background.
At least to anyone who doesn’t live in Little England. And it was also obvious she has russian speaking roots.
None of that is weird or remarkable, really.

My kids are in Central London schools - and majority of kids here have mixed backgrounds, with a fully british monolingual family a rarity.

So - i hope OP finds a name that she can relate to in her language - and that isn’t hard to pronounce/spell for the Westerners, so as to not complicate the kid’s life