A name is the first thing a child receives from his parents when they are born. The importance of this moment in human life is great. Today no one argues with this. Therefore, parents approach the choice of the name of the child with all responsibility. This has been the case at all times. And the names for men (whether Russian, Georgian or Armenian) were chosen from any people with special care.
Since ancient times, the boy was the future protector of the clan, its successor. It was believed that the well-being and prosperity of the family largely depended on well-chosen male names. In our life, most people tend to observe the customs and traditions of their people, therefore, knowledge of the history of the origin of surnames and names, their meanings can be very useful.
As called in pre-Christian Russia
The naming dictionary in pre-Christian Russia was rich and diverse. And this is not surprising. The most fantastic origin were Russian Slavic names. Male title forms could indicate, for example, the serial number of the appearance of the child in the family - Tretyak, Shestak, Chetvertak and others.
The external characteristics of a person also influenced the choice of a name for him. The color of hair, eyes, skin, physique was taken into account. From here came the names Chernysh, Belyak, Tolstoy, Sukhoi and others.
Character traits, habits, and behavior of the child also did not escape the attention of adult family members. The result of observations of children was the appearance of the names Creek, Scriaba, Nesmeyan, Bulgak (restless).
Totemic beliefs of the ancient Slavs gave rise to special names. Male Russian nicknames could indicate the names of revered animals and plants, for example, Wolf, Bull, Wheatgrass, Sorrel.
What is the name of the children?
In pre-Christian Russia, the words that people were called could indicate the time of year of birth of the child, his desired or unwanted appearance in the family. The belief that a person’s name is capable of averting evil spirits could also influence choices.
Crafts, social status, origin, the desire to live with neighbors in friendship and harmony - everything could reflect the word that the baby was called. In this regard, the list of Slavic names in modern man can cause a smile. And sometimes we can’t even understand what guided our ancestors.
Historians know many pre-Christian names. Men's (Russian, Old Slavonic, Old Russian) titles - Zhdan, Peresvet, Bogdan, Nezhdan, Veshnyak, Nemil, Tugarin, Chudin, Tatar - were also widely used among people of that time. And this is not the whole list.
There were few restrictions on the choice of names. But they still were. This concerned primarily the names of the Rurik dynasty. Each of its branches had a certain set of titles that were most often worn by representatives of this particular family.
The names of the ruling nobility differed in sound from the words that ordinary people called. They had a double base and carried a certain semantic load. For example, the names Vladimir, Svyatoslav, Yaroslav, Svyatopolk, Vsevolod had an elevated meaning and indicated power, valor, and glory.
Many believe that Oleg, Igor, and Gleb are Russian male names. But this opinion is erroneous, since they were borrowed from the Scandinavian languages and at that time had a very wide distribution. They could be worn by representatives of noble families, as well as their descendants.
Christian names
What were they like? By the time of the adoption of Christianity in Russia, there was an established system of names that had deep historical roots. But Orthodoxy demanded submission to the new rules and norms.
The name was given to the person born by the church, using a special calendar of months, which was called the Saints. There were brought samples for gripe. Children were named after the holy martyrs who glorified the Christian faith. So the parents did not influence the choice too much.
At baptism, each person received a new name in honor of a particular saint. It became official for everyone. The priest gave parents the choice of only those names that were on the birthday of the child.
It is still believed that the saint, in whose honor the person is named, is his patron and protector for life.
Male names Russian Orthodox, as well as female, have a different origin. Some of them came from the Greek language, others have Jewish, Roman, Latin roots. In those nationalities where the names came from, they are endowed with a certain lexical meaning. For the Russian language, their sound was unusual, sometimes provoked hostility, ridicule.
Some of the names are found more frequently in Saints than others, therefore they are most widely used, for example, Vasily, Alexander, Andrey. Some of the samples for criticizing infants were completely forgotten due to their rare use.
New and old names
For a long time, tradition was preserved in Russia. According to her, a man had two names - one official, received at baptism, and the other, which was used in everyday life. This was due to the fact that each family, family had certain customs in criticizing children. Echoes of this tradition, we can observe in our time.
In addition, it was customary in the family to honor the elders - their authority was considered unquestioned. The ancestors bore pre-Christian names, and this demanded respect from the younger members of the family. Therefore, for the crowding out of everyday life of Old Slavonic names, it took more than one hundred years. Today, many of us are even hard to imagine what they were.
Subsequently, many Old Slavonic names began to be used as a family name.
Three forms - folk, literary, church
In the history of the formation of Russian names, there is a period when at the same time there were three forms. Each of them had a definite influence on certain groups of the country's population.
Most of the names were those that continued to be used by the people in everyday life, that is, pre-Christian patterns. Sometimes they were found in documents. This practice was eliminated by a special decree of Peter I, which stated that the only correct name is considered to be that which was given to a person by the church during the baptismal ceremony.
In the XVII century, serious changes affected the Orthodox Church. Patriarch Nikon decided to correct the inaccuracies that existed in her books. Corrections were also made to the Saints.
Innovations brought a lot of confusion to the norms of pronunciation and use of Christian names that had been established by that time. And then they were already considered literary.
Old (Russian) male names also underwent certain changes. For example, Ivan, familiar to us, was previously John. Those people who were called Kasyans began to be called the Kassians. Danil turned into Daniel, Sergey into Sergius, Alexei into Alexia.
As history shows, new Christian names did not take root among the people. They were used only in church vocabulary.
Full and short form of complaints
What are they like? The presence of a short and complete form of the name speaks of the originality of the Russian language. For many nations, this is unacceptable. The full form of the name is used in official speech, in documents. For everyday household use, such names are not always convenient, as they have a sound uncharacteristic of the Russian language. For example, Alexander, Peter, George and others.
The short form of the name was formed from the full, but its sound is adapted to the Russian language. So it’s more convenient for us to pronounce and perceive. The short form is used in informal speech, used by people who are in a friendly, family, close relationship.
Old male Russian names sounded in a new way. We still use them - this is Sasha, Seryozha, Petya, Natasha, Olya, etc.
Diminutive and affectionate names
Without them, we cannot imagine ourselves and our loved ones. A special group in the Russian language was made up of diminutive, affectionate and other names bearing an emotional coloring. These samples cannot be neutral. They express a certain attitude of one who addresses a person. Therefore, their use is limited. Under official conditions, scoring of such names is completely excluded.
What to name the newborn?
At the time when Russian male names for the child were offered by the church, their diversity was not great. The word by which a person was called depended entirely on the saint who was born or died on the day the baby was born.
Today, handsome male names (Russian, foreign), which have an old origin and are completely new, are “freely available” for parents when they select the option for criticizing the born boy. No one influences their choice.
You only need to think about the fact that this name will become a kind of calling card of a person for his whole life. With it, the child should be comfortable, it should please him and cause pride. And the boy’s name will someday become the basis of a middle name for his children. This must be remembered today, when parents are faced with a difficult choice.
Rare and fashionable names
It can be noted that a certain tendency develops periodically when choosing a sample for criticizing a child. At all times, there was a fashion for names. The frequency of use of some led to the fact that others became forgotten and were used extremely rarely. A certain time passed, and the positions of the names changed.
For example, there were times when Russian masculine names (modern and fashionable now) were considered dissonant, unattractive. These are such samples as Zakhar, Yeremey, Philip, Yegor and others. And today you can meet boys who are proud that their parents called them that.
Representatives of the ruling dynasties, literary characters, heroes of the fatherland, and historical figures could influence fashion in men's names. And this does not surprise anyone.
