A curious fact: how much of what we consider to be native, ours, by origin, is borrowed. Take, for example, such “original Russian” names as Olga (Scandinavian), Catherine (Greek), Mary (Hebrew) or Vadim (borrowed from Arabic), Paul (Latin) … The fact is that with the adoption of Christianity in
Russia has changed and the tradition of naming. And before that, the Vikings influenced the composition of the names - hence the large number of Scandinavian descent (Igor, Oleg).
True Slavic names have long been forgotten. After all, children after the baptism of Russia were not called arbitrarily, not by choice, but according to the clergy. The original Russian names were supplanted by the "newfangled" Christian - Greek, Latin, Jewish. And only recently the tradition of naming children "in Slavic" began to revive. What are these original Russian names? First of all, they contain a "transparent" etymology. That is, their meaning is clear to us without additional interpretations. For example, Lyudmila, Svetlana, Vladimir, Velimir. With the root "-glory" (famous, glorious) there are a large number of names. This is not only the familiar Vladislav, Svyatoslav, Yaroslav. This is Wenceslas, Izyaslav, Ratislav, Pereslav. And women’s: Miroslava, Putislava, Bohuslav, Vedislava. Russian names contain other significant roots. For example, “yar” is from the Slavic god of the sun Yarila: Yarina, Yaroslav, Yaromir (s), Yaromil, Svetoyar, Yaropolk. With the root "light", such primordially Russian names (East Slavic) are known: Svetopolk, Svetozar, Svetomir, Svetogor, Peresvet, Svetolika, Svetoslav …
Calling the baby, our distant ancestors tried to emphasize
any hell. Therefore, the kids had temporary names - rather, nicknames, which later - after many centuries - became surnames: Silent, Nezhdan, First, Tretyak. Only later, during the ritual of cutting hair, that is, when the baby was one year old, three years old, he was called again. There were also traditions of changing the name. For example, after reaching adulthood, after recovery, after marriage in adulthood. It was believed that the name carries fate. In addition, there were certain prohibitions. It was impossible to name a child by the name of family members living in the house or of older children who died. It has long been a tradition to call "grandfather", as it was believed that the share is transmitted through the generation. What other original Russian names can I recall? Of course, with the root "god" ("god"): Bogdan, Bozhen, Bogolyub, Bogumil (s), Bozhidar … There were many names with the element of "blessings": Blessed, Blagomir, but more often with the Eastern Slavic "good-": Dobroslava, Dobromir, Dobromil, Dobronrav, Dobrynya. The root "lyub" was also widespread: Lyubomir, Lyuboslav, Lyubomysl, Lyubim, Lyubava.
The original Russian names carried a positive message, brightly positive connotations. Therefore, the roots (words) with a good, bright meaning were most often chosen. Full Russian names most often consisted of two parts. One should recall such wonderful anthroponyms as Radoslav, Radmir, Radosvet, Lada, Milan, Milena, Milorad, Milovan. And also later (since they contain the Old Slavonic disagreement) Zlatomir, Zlata, Zlatoyar, Zlatogor. The original Russian names Ruslan or Rostislav are still popular today, but such forgotten ones as Zabava, Boyan, Siyan, Dobrava are also worthy of attention.
