Russian boy names
Most Russian names are Greek. Rus took its Christianity from Constantinople in 988, and the Byzantine church calendar came with it, so Mikhail, Nikolai, Vasily and Dmitri are Greek saints living in Slavic mouths. The names that are Slavic to the root — Vsevolod, Yaroslav, Vladimir — are the older layer, and they sound different once you know to listen for it.
One note before the lists. Russian and Ukrainian are two separate stocks of names, not one stock in two spellings. Volodymyr is not a variant of Vladimir; it is the Ukrainian name, and Ukrainians use it. The Ukrainian names page covers that side properly.
Russian names in the U.S. top 100
Exactly one, and Russians would call it the least Russian name in the set — it belongs to half of Slavic Europe.
- #85LukaLOO-kahSlavic
Man from Lucania. The Slavic form of Luke, shared with Croatian, Serbian, Slovenian and Georgian, which is where most of its American momentum comes from.
Traditional names: the Greek layer
These arrived as saints and stayed as ordinary men. A few are Roman rather than Greek — Anton, Pavel, Sergei — but they travelled the same road, through the Byzantine calendar and into the Slavonic one.
- Alexeiah-lek-SAYRussian
Defender; one who wards off harm. Built on the Greek verb alexein, the same element hiding inside Alexander.
- Andreiahn-DRAYRussian
Manly, courageous, from Greek andros, of a man. Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev is named for the icon painter.
- AntonAHN-tonRussian
From the Roman clan name Antonius, whose meaning is lost. Chekhov's first name, and among the most portable Russian names abroad.
- DmitriDMEE-treeRussian
Devoted to Demeter, the harvest goddess. Dima to anyone who knows him; Shostakovich and Mendeleev both answered to it.
- FyodorFYOH-durRussian
Gift of God — Theodore, wearing an f where the Greek had a th. Dostoevsky's.
- Grigorygree-GO-reeRussian
Watchful, awake. An instruction rather than a description; Grisha at home.
- Kirillkee-REELRussian
Lordly. St Cyril and his brother Methodius gave the Slavs a written language, and his name is on the alphabet.
- Konstantinkon-stun-TEENRussian
Steadfast, one who stands firm. Kostya in every Russian kitchen.
- Leonidlee-uh-NEETRussian
Lion-like; more exactly, son of the lion. Greek Leonidas with a Slavic ending.
- Nikolainik-uh-LYERussian
Victory of the people. St Nicholas is the most heavily venerated saint in Russia, which is why the name never went out of use.
- PavelPAH-vyelRussian
Small, humble — a Roman nickname that outlived Rome by two thousand years.
- Sergeisir-GAYRussian
From the Roman clan name Sergius, probably Etruscan and now unrecoverable. Seryozha is the everyday form.
- Stepanstee-PAHNRussian
Crown — specifically a wreath, twisted from leaves. Styopa for short.
- Vasilyvuh-SEE-leeRussian
Royal, from Greek basileus, a king. St Basil's cathedral on Red Square carries it.
- Yevgenyyiv-GYEH-neeRussian
Well-born — a pedigree word put to work as a name. Zhenya is the short form, and it serves women too.
- YuriYOO-reeRussian
Farmer, earth-worker; the Russian George. Yuri Gagarin left the planet with it in 1961.
Hebrew names, by way of Greek
The Old Testament reached Russian through the Septuagint and the Slavonic Bible, not from Hebrew directly, which is why the shapes are Greek even when the meanings are not.
- Daniildah-nee-EELRussian
God is my judge — a whole sentence in two Hebrew words. Currently one of the most-registered names in Russia.
- Ivanee-VAHNRussian
God is gracious. Hebrew Yohanan became Greek Ioannes and then Ivan; Vanya is the form his family uses.
- Matveymut-VYAYRussian
Gift of Yahweh — Matthew, reshaped until the seams do not show.
- Mikhailmee-kha-EELRussian
Who is like God — a question, not a boast. Misha to everyone, including Gorbachev and Baryshnikov.
- Semyonsim-YONRussian
He has heard. Simeon, by the same Greek road, and a name about being listened to.
- Zakharzuh-KHARRussian
The Lord has remembered — a promise kept. Shared, unusually, with Ukrainian.
The Slavic and Norse layer
Older than the church calendar. Two-element Slavic compounds of the kind Poland and Bohemia also built, plus the Scandinavian names the Varangian princes brought down the river roads to Kyiv and Novgorod.
- Vladimirvlah-DEE-meerSlavic compound
Great in rule, from volod- rule plus an old element meaning great; later reheard as ruler of peace, because mir now means peace.
- VsevolodFSYE-vuh-lotSlavic compound
Ruler of all: vse- all plus the same volod-. Borrowed from nobody; Seva to his friends.
- Yaroslavyah-ruh-SLAHFSlavic compound
Fierce glory. Yaroslav the Wise put the first written law of the Rus on parchment.
- Borisbah-REESRussian
Traditionally read as fighter, though the derivation is unsettled and the name looks Bulgar before it looks Slavic. Borya for short.
- Olegah-LYEKNorse root
Holy, blessed — Old Norse Helgi in Slavic dress. Ukrainian says Oleh, and the difference is a sound law rather than a preference.
- IgorEE-gorNorse root
Ing's warrior, from Norse Ingvarr. The most Russian-sounding name in Russia is a Viking import.
- Ruslanroos-LAHNTurkic root
Lion, from Turkic arslan — neither Greek nor Slavic. Pushkin's poem Ruslan and Lyudmila naturalised it.
- LevLYEFRussian
Lion — the plain Russian noun, worn as a name. Tolstoy was Lev, not Leo; Leo is what translators did to him.
How Russian naming works
A Russian has three names, and the middle one is not a middle name. It is a patronymic, built from the father's name with a fixed suffix: the son of Pavel is Pavlovich, the son of Nikolai is Nikolayevich. In any setting more formal than a kitchen table, the polite way to address someone is given name plus patronymic — Ivan Sergeyevich, never Mr Ivanov — and a Russian schoolchild learns to say a teacher's patronymic before learning much else. It also means the pool of first names can stay small without confusion, and it has: the same three dozen names have covered most of the country for a thousand years, refreshed by the church calendar rather than by fashion.
What does the work of variety is the diminutive. Every Russian name has a short form that is nothing like it — Grigory becomes Grisha, Konstantin becomes Kostya, Mikhail becomes Misha, Dmitri becomes Dima, Alexander becomes Sasha — and then that short form takes suffixes of its own, so Misha yields Mishka, Mishenka and Mishanya, each with a different temperature. None of these is a legal name; the passport says Mikhail. Choosing a Russian name for a child abroad means choosing the long form and knowing that the family will almost never use it.