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RUSSIAN BABY NAMES

russian_doll_ If you’re a fan of cool nickname names, you’ll find Russian baby names a treasure trove of possibilities. Some of them have already entered the American mainstream–Sasha and Mischa (both unisex), Talia, Katya–but there are many more Russian baby names that are less familiar but equally appealing, as are some of the full names.

Russian nomenclature in general is quite unique, in that each person has three personal names: a Christian name, a middle patronymic taken from the father’s given name, and a surname that reflects gender, so that a son of Ivan would have the last name Ivanovich, while a daughter would use Ivanovna. At birth, a child is given a formal name known as a “passport name,” but usually is called through childhood by his or her pet name. It is at the age of 16 that a person begins to be addressed by the formal first name and patronymic, so that, for example, Piotr’s daughter Olenka would overnight become Olga Petrovna. The nickname often survives well into adulthood though–as in the case of Misha Baryshnikov, for example.

The list of Russian baby names below follows the name with its most common pet forms–many of which have an abundance of wintry charm.

GIRLS

ALEKSANDRA Sasha, Shura, Sashenka
ALENA Alenka
AMILIYA
ANASTASIA Nastya, Stasya
ANNA Annuska, Anouska, Anya Annika
ANTONINA Tonya
DANILA Dasha
DEVORA
DOMINIKA Domka, Mika
DUSCHA
EKATARINA/KATERINA Katya, Katyenka, Katyuska
ELENA Lena
ELIZAVETTA Liza
FANYA
FYODORA
GALINA Galenka, Galinka, Galka, Gasha, Galya
ILIA
INESSA Inka
IRINA
IVANNA
IZABELLA
JELENA
KAROLINA
KIRA
LARA/LARISSA
LENORA Lena, Lenka, Leka
LIDA Lidka
LILIA
LUDMILLA
LUIZA
MARA Marinka, Marisha, Maruska, Marya, Masha
MARIANNA Masha
MARINA
NADIA Nadka
NATALYA Natasha, Natalka, Talia, TAsa, Tasha, Tashka
NATASSIA
NIKA
NINA Ninochka
OKSANA
OLGA Olenka, Olya
PASHA/PAVLA A fitting name for an Easter baby
SOFYA Sofka
SONYA Sofia, Sofiya
STEFANIA Panya, Stesha
SVETLANA
TAMARA Tasha
TATIANA Tania, Tanya, Tanka
THEODOSIA Feodora, Theda
VALENTINA Tina
VANYA
VARVARA Varya, Varenka
VERA Verasha, Verinka, Verka
VIERA
YALENA
ZENAIDA Zena
ZOYA Zoi, Zoyenka

boys

AKIM
ALEK/ALEKSANDR Sanya, Sasha, Shura
ALEXEI Alyosha, Lelja, Lelya, Lesha
ANATOLI Tolya, Tolenka, Tosha, Tulya
ANDREI Adja, Adya
ANTON/ANTIN Tosha, Tosya, Tusya
ARKADI Arik, Arkasha
ARMAN
AVEL
BODHAN Danya
BORIS Boba, Borya
BURIAN
CHRISTOV
DIMITRI/DMITRI Dima, Dimka, Mitya
EFREM Rema
FABIYAN Fabi
FYODOR Fedya
GAVRIL Ganya, Gav, Gavya
GEORGI Egor, Gorya, Jhora, Jura, Yuri
IGOR Iga, Gorik, Gosha
ILYA
IVAN Vanya
KASSIAN Kasya
KONSTANTIN Kostya
LAVRO
LEON/LEONID
LEV Levka
LUKA
MIKHAIL Mika, Misha
MORIZ
NIKOLAI Koka, Kolya, Nika, Nikita
OLEG
PAVEL Pasha, Pashka, Pava
PETR/PYOTR/PIOTR Petya, Petru
ROMAN
SAVVEL Sava
SERGEI Serzh
STANISLAV Slava, Slavik, Stas, Stasi
TOMAS
VALENTIN Valja, Valya
VASILI Vasja, Vasya, Vaslik
VIKTOR Vika, Vitya
VLADIMIR Dimka, Vimka, Viva, Vladja, Volya, Vova
YAKOV Jasha
YURI
ZIVEN/ZIVON Ziv

Tags: Add new tag, exotic baby names, Mischa, nickname names, Russian baby names, Russian names, Sasha

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 10:46 pm and is filed under ethnic baby names, exotic baby names, international baby names, nicknames . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

11 Responses to “RUSSIAN BABY NAMES”

KatieScarlett Says:

April 28th, 2009 at 11:58 pm

What a beautiful collection of Russian names! Thankyou Nameberry! I adore them. Another couple of names I found in Tolstoy’s classic masterpiece ‘Anna Karenin’ are Daria for a girl and Stiva for a boy.
I also like Nastassja for a girl, inspired by the actress Nastassja Kinski.

peach Says:

April 29th, 2009 at 3:17 am

How fun to see all these names together. They take me back to teaching school in Ukraine. I’ve never heard of the Ukrainian name Ilya on a girl. You left off one of my favorites Olenna, nn Lena, also Ukrainian, as well as Yevgenia, nn Zhenya! Some more nns include Luda for Ludmilla, Vika for Viktoria, Ira for Irina, Nata for Natalya, Sveta for Svetlana, Valya for Valentina. And for boys Yevgeniy, nns also Zhenya, Zhenka. Bodhan should be either Bogdan (Rus.) or Bohdan (Ukr.). Kirill is an Orthodox classic with such a wonderful sound. More nns include Andrusha for Andrei, Serozha for Sergei. What fun!

Lola Says:

April 29th, 2009 at 8:53 am

Oh Peach, Kirill is my favorite!
I love Russian names and have a ton of them in my family tree. They all sound a bit funny with my Scottish surname, but I keep trying them out in the middle.

Zoya’s one that greatly appeals for girls, as does Lilia. Both simple enough in English, they also work in Russian.

I love Russian names so much, my other half teases me with Boris & Olga for twins! I just may take him up on it. Olga is gorgeous in Russian.

What a fabulous list Nameberry! Thanks so much!

JNE Says:

April 29th, 2009 at 1:33 pm

I LOVE Russian names – I’ll never get to indulge, since they’re “too exotic” according to my other half, but they’re gorgeous, I think!

This list is fantastic – some of my favorites are there: Svetlana, Vera (sounds gorgeous in Russian), and Olga (also much more beautiful in Russian). Thanks for the post. I hope you’ll let me humbly add a few more names.

Additional to what is listed/mentioned above:

Lyubov nn Lyuba means “love”
Nadyezhda (Nadezhda) nn Nadya means “hope” (this is a favorite of mine!)
Raisa nn Raya (this one seems fairly wearable for english speakers)
Zhana (diminutive: Zhannochka)

Nicknames to add:
Ksyusha for Oksana (another I love)

For boys:
Maksim (quintessential!) nn Maks
Gennadiy nn Gena (the Gs are hard not soft in this name)
Vadim nn Vadik

Nicknames to add:
Yura for Yuri

That’s all I can think of right now.

Rose.sio2 Says:

April 29th, 2009 at 7:58 pm

You can also add our sons name to the list- Artem.

Christina Fonseca Says:

April 30th, 2009 at 12:07 am

Ah, Zenaida – my grandmother’s name! And Olga was my sister.

I like so many girls names from this post: Anna, Danila, Elena, Irina, Ivanna, Lilia, Mara, Marianna and Svetlana are awesome and absolutely usable in the U.S.

Lyubov Says:

April 30th, 2009 at 9:55 am

My name is Lyuba, I was born in Russia to an american mother and a russian father. My full name is Lyubov Fyodora, because my father is Fyodor. My daughters names are Daria (Dasha) and Zoya (Zoyshka- we add shka to a lot of names to turn them into nicknames). We named our son Fyodor Luka, and he loves being the only kid around with that name!

Lili Says:

May 2nd, 2009 at 1:22 am

Isn’t it funny how every girl’s name ends in an “A”?

Laura Says:

May 13th, 2009 at 5:15 am

Marat and Dinara are Russian names (Tennis players). I quite like Dinara its got a nice sound to it

stephanie-elizabeth Says:

June 17th, 2009 at 1:09 pm

I’ve loved Katya and Anya for years, so I was happy to see those names on this list. I also like the Russian variation Roksana…and I have to say that Stefania is prettier than my French version of the name.

Yuliya Says:

July 4th, 2009 at 5:43 am

My name is Yuliya. This is very popular and common name among Russians and other nationals on the territory of the former USSR countries. It is like Julia, but this first letter [ju:] makes it sound Slavonic. I think this name should be added to the list.