Same Name, Again? How do the Russian name their children?

     Russia would be the place for you to find one of the largest namesake populations in the world. For example, in 1950s there were 153 men called Alexander (Александр), 131 women called Yelana (Елена) and 124 women called Tatiana (Татьяна) in every one thousand Muscovites. This means if you yell out “Александр” on a crowded street in Russia, there might be approximately 10 ~15 people look at you in doubt and question you on something like “Are you calling me?”. This condition results from three main Russian history periods: the era of the ancient Slavic (-4 C.E) before Eastern Orthodox introduced in, the era dominated by Eastern Orthodox (10-1917 C.E), and the era after October Revolution (1917 C.E.-).

     Before the 4th century, the ancient Russian, who were part of the Slavic, used to name their children after the children’s appearance and personalities. Sometimes the place they lived and family expectations would be also their choices to name babies. However, after Eastern Orthodox was introduced in Eastern Europe, Christian names had replaced ancient Slavic names little by little. The revival of ancient Slavic names must wait until 1917 October Revolution.

     In the second period, while Eastern Orthodox was dominating eastern Slavic regions, the Orthodox Slavic had had two names. One was the ancient Slavic names for daily life, and the other was the Christian name only written in birth and death certificates to prevent Demons or the evil from claiming their life (At that time Slavic people believed there was a great relation between one’s name and his or her destiny. If their full names were known, they might confront doom. That was why ancient Slavic people had two names at that time). After the 17th century, less and less Christian Slavic people had followed the tradition on naming their children two names. At last, their Christian names replaced ancient Slavic names as first names on account of Eastern Orthodox’s domination in Slavic regions. Therefore, Christian names were never a secret to the public. As a result, it increased the possibility of sharing same names in public owing to the regulations of communion on naming children.

     Following the regulations of communion, every infant born in an Orthodox Slavic family must be baptized a saint’s name recorded on the church calendar after a week of their birth by priests so that he or she will be blessed and protected by that saint. However, not all the days are to memorize saints. Thus, priests always choose the saint of the day which is the nearest to the infant’s birthday. Before October Revolution took place, Russian priests usually ignored the wills of the parents of infants and followed their own thoughts to name babies. As a result, a family might have two sons sharing with same names like Ivan (Иван) because this name is written 79 times on the Slavic church calendar! Although Russian parents finally had the right to name their children by themselves after October Revolution, Christian names still have their privilege on the list of names owing to their long-term history.

     Since in November 1917 did Soviet government, the new government, terminate Eastern Orthodox’s influence on politics and return the right of naming children to Russian parents, numerous people have created plenty of new names around October Revolution to memorize it. For instance, names like “Revolution (Революция) and “Oktiabrina (Октябрина)”are from the letters of October Revolution (Октябрьская революция). Moreover, since October Revolution was dominated by Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, a Communist Party, names around communism were also popular such as Communard (Коммунар), Kim (Ким) which abbreviation stands for Communist Youth International (Коммунистический Интернационал Молодежи) etc. Despite the new trend on naming children after new names, the Russian still highlight the background history of names. They are more used to calling children after traditional names than new names. Hence, not just Christian names consolidate their positions because of their sixteen-century history in the Russian region but also ancient Slavic names. The latter has longer history than the former does, although ancient Slavic names were used less than Christian names in the era dominated by Eastern Orthodox.

     Nowadays, most Russian parents still give a traditional name to their children, especially Christian names and ancient Slavic names. As far as I’m concerned, no matter what people give names to their children, all meanings behind names are unique and protective, for people cannot emphasize too much the love from parents.