What’s in a name?

First Russian names

There are a lot of beautiful male and female names in Russia. Most common Russian names have Slavic origin, there are also traditional ancient names and the names of Jewish descent.
In Russia, the Orthodox Church forbade the use of Slavonic names and insisted on names that had been borne by saints of the Eastern Church.In modern Russia there are only a few native Slavic names. These include men's names Boris and Vladimir, and also women's names are Faith, Love, Lyudmila and Svetlana. 
Each day of the year in the calendar is allocated to a particular saint and many people take their first name after one of these saints. In fact, in such countries, celebration of one's saint day is often an occasion of more significance than celebration of one's birthday. 
In Russia especially, there is a very large number of pet names of first names, many of them differing markedly from the base form - consider Dunya and Dunyasha from Avdotya or Sasha and Sashura from Aleksandr. There are more than twenty forms of Maria in Russian. The full form - Mariya - is used in official papers, in formal relationships and with unfamiliar people. The shortened form Masha is neutral and used in relationships with friends, while there is a form of affection Mashenka and intimate, tender forms such as Mashunechka, Mashunya and Marusya. The unceremonious/vulgar form - Mashka - is quite impolite but acceptable within the family or between children or adult friends. 
In Russia, naming practices have been very influenced by political developments. Until the October revolution of 1917, Russian names were limited to those sanctioned by the Orthodox Church. After the revolution, the communists encouraged parents to give their children names reflecting the new political order - sometimes with quite startling results. Examples include Mels (an acronym of Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin), Rem (an acronym for revolution, Engels and Marx) and Vladlen (from Vladimir Lenin) plus - more prosaically - Traktor ('tractor') and Elektrifikatsiya ('electrification'). Since the 1980s, Russian nationalist and Orthodox religous feelings have been revived and many parents are choosing traditional Church-sanctioned names, especially older ones not commonly heard for a century. Some of the most popular boy's names now are Nikita ('to be victorious'), Daniil ('divine judge'), and Grigori ('alert'), while popular girls' names include Darya or Dasha ('owning'), Anastasia ('resurrection') and Ksenya ('guest'). 
For both genders, names starting or ending in 'a' are very popular at the moment (2013): Artem and Alexander are the top two boys' names (another five in the top 10 include the letter 'a'), while Sofia, Maria, Daria, Arina, Anastasia, Varvara, Victoria and Anna take the top eight places. (Appendix 3)
Many parents believe that it can have an impact on their child’s life. Not only it is an angle at which the other people see the child, but Russians also believe it may affect his or her destiny. By destiny Russians mean a certain predetermined set of events and turns that awaits the person, and which cannot be changed. No matter which way a man or a woman goes, they will face challenged or rewards allocated to them since birth, locals believe.
In Russia nowadays many parents pick traditional Slavic monikers, which sound rather ancient.
Some people take into account popularity—the possibility of having too many namesakes among peers is frown upon. There is a trend to choose unusual names.
Since Russians are known for being highly superstitious, it makes sense. It’s not that fathers and mothers truly believe it will matter, but just in case: What if it does work?!

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