Origins and meanings of Russian names

Russian personal names do not amount to orthodox Christian names, though the latter constitute a fair proportion of Russian names. Personal names form a distinct body within the Russian language with some unique features.

History of Russian personal name is usually divided in three stages:

• pre-Christian, period of pagan names, created by means of Old-East Slavic language.

• Christian, foreign Christian names began to replace old pagan names; small proportion of traditional names became canonical;

• modern, starting from October Revolution, characterized by elimination of difference between canonical, calendar and non-calendar names, active borrowing and active name construction.

In pre-Christian traditions, a child less than 7–10 years old would bear a "substitutional name" (e.g. Niemój "Not mine", Nielub "Unloved"), the purpose of which was to deflect attention from the child and thereby to protect it from the curiosity of evil powers. The practice was largely the effect of the high mortality rate for young children at the time. A child who survived to 7–10 years was considered worthy of care and was granted adult status and a new adult name during a ritual first haircut.

Before adoption of Christianity till the end of the 10th century, eastern Slavs (ancestors of modern Russians, Ukrainians  and Belarusians) used almost exclusively Slavonic names which were given at birth. No distinction between first name and nickname was made during this period. Personal name in Old East Slavonic language (nickname, epithet, handle) is similar to appellation after a particular episode. Pre-Christian names were used in Rus several centuries after adoption of Christianity. They were commonly used alongside Christian names till the end of 17th century.

Old Slavonic names are exceptionally diverse. Dictionary of Old Slavonic names by N. M. Tupikov, printed in 1903, comprised 5300 masculine and 50 feminine names. Old Slavonic names fall in several categories:

• Numerical names representing birth order in a family: Perva, Pervoy (the first), Vtorak (the second), Tretyak (the third), Chetvertak (the forth) and so on. Due to biological limitations, those names wouldn't go far beyond 10 (Desyatko).

• Names based on individual characteristics, like hair and skin color. Names like Chernysh, Chernyai, Chernyava, (=black one) Bel, Belyai, Belyak, Beloukha (=white one) were widely used. Constitution features also could be reflected in a name: Mal (Small), Malyuta (Малюта), Maloy (Малой “Smaller”), Dolgoy (Долгой “Tall”), Sukhoy (Сухой “thin one”), Tolstoy (Толстой “Fat one”), Golova (Голова “Head”), Golovach (Головач), Loban (Лобан “forehead”), Bespaloy (Беспалой “Fingerless”).

• Names describing personality, habits and behaviour. Among them Забава (fun or game), Истома, Крик (scream), Скряба, Молчан (silent one), Неулыба (one who does not smile), Булгак (restless), Смеяна (one who laughs) и Несмеяна (one who does not laugh).

• Names, reflecting attitude toward child, whether she was longed for: Богдан (gift of God) и Богдана, Бажен (желанный), Голуба, Любава (loved one), Ждан (awaited one) и Неждан (unexpected one), Хотен, Чаян и Нечай.

• Seasonal names: Veshnyak Вешняк (spring one), Zima Зима (winter), Moroz Мороз (frost).

• Animal and plant-related names: Bull (Russian: Бык, Byk), Волк (wolf), ворон (raven), Щука (pike), Кот (cat), Кошка (she-cat), Жеребец (Stallion), Корова (cow), Щавей (from щавель, rumex), Трава (grass), Пырей. It is believed that this kind of name is a relic of totem beliefs.

• Names related to beliefs that "bad" words can deflect evil spirits, deceases and even death: Горяин, Немил, Некрас (ugly ine), Нелюба (loveless one), Неустрой, Злоба (Anger), Тугарин (from туга — печаль, sorrow).

• Names related to other nations : Chudin Чудин (after Chud people, чудь), Karel Карел, Tatarin Татарин, Kozarin Козарин (от названия хазар), Ontoman Онтоман (after Turks people, оттоманы).

Increasing influence of the Russian Orthodox church on social life led to gradual elimination of pagan nicknames. However, they didn't become completely extinct, as they served as basis for major part of Russian surnames (the first stage of surname formation took place in the 15th century).

Adoption of Christianity led to introduction of completely new, foreign names that were tightly connected to baptism ceremony: according to Christian tradition baptism presumes giving Christian name. Names were given according to special books – minei (Месячные минеи), which described religious services, ceremonies for each day, including which saint to praise. Religious tradition dictated that children should be named in honor of a saint, praised on the day of baptism (Sometimes on birthday, sometimes any day between birth and baptism). Minei were extremely expensive, so some churches couldn't afford them. One possible solution was to use menologia (Месяцеслов, святцы) - calendars with brief listing of religious celebrations and Saints days.

Minei were among the first books to be translated into Russian from Greek. With a rare exceptions names were not translated, preserving their original pronunciation. Their meaning was completely obscure for vast majority of people and they were perceived as alien. This state of things led on the one hand to long coexistence of Christian and pagan names and to active assimilation and transformation of Christian names.

Christian and pagan names coexisted up to the 17th century. One of the reasons is that parents could not choose a name for a child freely - a newborn was baptized according to menoligium. Sometimes several children in one family would bear one name. Furthermore total number of names in menologium at the time didn't exceed 400. Pagan nicknames being more diverse and less restrictive provided a convenient way to distinguish people bearing one name.

A practice established in XIV-XVI supposed giving two names: a baptismal name (usually modified) and a nick. For example: Trofimko Czar (Torpes the Czar), Fedka Knyazets, Karp Guba, Prokopiy Gorbun (Procopius the Humpback), Amvrosiy Kovyazin, Sidorko Litvin. This practice was widespread in all stratas. Boyar Andrei Kobyla (lit. Andrew the Mare) a progenitor of Romanov dynasty and some other boyar families man serve as an example as well his sons' names: Semyon Zherebets (Semyon the Stallion), Aleksandr Yolka (Alexandre the Spruce), Fyodor Koshka (Fyodor the Cat). Craftsmen did name their children in the same manner. For example, Ivan Fyodorov the first man to print a book often signed as Ivan Fyodorov, son of Moskvit (Иван Фёдоров сын Москвитин).

Influence of Russian Orthodox church steadily grew in 11th-14th centuries, its influence as a consolidating religious force after Mongol invasion of Rus and during period of feudal fragmentation in Kiev Rus became especially important. Unification of Russian feudal states also contributed to the rise of church's influence on policy and society. Under the influence of the church many knyazes, descendants of Rurik, began to abandon their pagan names in favor of Christian names.

In XVII names divided in the three distinct forms: popular (spoken), literary and baptismal (church form). This process was boosted by Patriarch Nikon's reform. One of the ventures he undertook was to correct religious books, which had accumulated a lot of errors and misreading as they used to be copied by sometimes illiterate scribes. As a result religious services differed in different parts of the country. Patriarch Nikon set goal to unify service in Russia and to correct errors in religious books (including menologia). New translations from Greek were made to achieve this goal. Corrected versions were printed in 1654.

Modern era begins right after October Revolution. The decree "On Separation of Church from State and Schools from Church" outlawed connection of any public and social acts with religious ceremonies. Since that baptism ceased to be a legally binding act. The right to register names was handed to civil authorities, namely civil registry. As a result the whole conception of name changed. Naming no longer depended on religious traditions and rules. Direct and tight connection with orthodox saints’ names was lost. Any citizen was free to choose a name he wished for himself and his children. As a matter of fact, any word could be used as a name; function of civil registry was reduced to proper registration of citizens. Thus Russian naming tradition became similar to Protestant one.

Social innovations gave incentive to develop "new names for new life". Mikhail Frunze, a high-ranked soviet officer, Civil war veteran was among the first to use a new name, naming his son Timur. Another example is the case of Demyan Bedny, a well-known atheistic activist who named his son Svet. Daughter of soviet writer Artem Veseliy got name Volga.

Since 1924 Gosizdat started issuing calendars similar to those that had existed prior to the Revolution. This new kind of calendars included traditional but rare names given without reference to saints as well as new names. New names comprised non-baptismal names, both Russian and Slavic, borrowed names and newly formed names. Calendars of 1920-30 being a good reference wasn't the only source of names. As mentioned above, parents were free to pick any name they wished, and this freedom led to active name formation, which later was dubbed "anthroponymic bang".

During the days of revolutionary enthusiasm, as part of the campaign to get rid of bourgeois culture there was a drive to invent new, revolutionary names. This produced a large number of Soviet people with bizarre names. Commonly the source were initialisms. Даздрапертрак Dazdrapertrak, Даздраперма Dazdraperma, Вил, Вилен, Владлен, Владлена, Vil, Vilen, Vladlen (m) / Vladlene (f), Мэл, Баррикада Barricade.

After the Revolution various forms of one name started being considered as different names. Names from the example above - Georgy, Yegor and Yuriy became legally different names after the Revolution. Generally, names are considered to be different if they during assimilation acquired significant differences as in following cases:

• Names have different initials: Elena and Alyona, Irina and Arina, Anastasia and Nastasya, Iosif and Osip, Yuliania and Ulyana.

• Differing in stem: Georgiy and Yuriy, Cyprian and Cupryan, Evstafiy and Ostap.

There are names which, being legally different, are considered the same in common usage and share short forms, like Nataliya and Natalya (short form - Natasha).

The common trend is that names like mentioned above are rare for now and sound bizarre for an Eastern Slavonic language speaker. They are tattoed upon the language which can be considered as social mirror reflecting the evidences of the processes in the East Slavonic society during the Early Soviet Era. People with dissonant names were the subjects of mockery which frequently made them change given names.

Nowadays the list of modern names is very vast, though there are very few traditional Russian names in it. The majority of names in that name-list originate from ancient languages: Greek, German, Egyptian and so on.