A Slavic classic, as common as Jane or Joan here. If you live in an Anglophone culture and you want it pronounced with a Y sound at the beginning, use the Y spelling.

Used as the modern Greek form of Eugenia and as an alternative transcription of the Russian Yevgeniya, and the Bulgarian Evgeniya, this name is pronounced differently depending on location and language. In Bulgarian, it would be ehv-GEH-nee-yuh (with a hard G sound) while in Russian, it would be either yiv-GYEH-nih-ya or iv-GYEH-nih-ya. In mordern Greek, however, the sound would be slightly softer: ehv-yeh-NEE-uh.

Popular Russian name, familiar here via author Svetlana Stalin, the dictator's daughter.

Vasilisa is the feminine form of Vasili, the Russian translation of Basil.

Nadezhda is more familiar in the English-speaking world by its short forms, Nadia or Nadya. Well-used through the Slavic countries and Russia, Nadezhda was the name of Lenin's wife. Viewers of The Americans learned that this was the original Russian name of the spy known as Elizabeth Jennings, played by Keri Russell.

This Slavic classic name might begin to make its mark with American parents, what with the growing popularity of the short form Mila. Borne by a tenth century saint who had been a princess from Bohemia, Ludmila is widely used in Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria.

Commonly used in Russia, has an Old World Slavic feel. The original Galen can be used for girls as well as boys.

Ukrainian figure-skating champion Oksana Baiul made it known here.