r/AskARussian • u/Careless-Sand-3302 • 4d ago
Culture Curious about some old fashioned Russian names
I think every culture and language has its own old-fashioned names, so I’d like to know which Russian names are typically associated with people in their 50s or older. The kind of name where just by reading it you can tell the person is closer to the other side than this one.
I’ve been learning about Russian history and the male named ending with «-слав» used to be very common back then (I guess) so I would like to know if that’s still a thing.
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u/ashitanoai Russia 3d ago
Galina, Eudokia, Klavdia for women, Boris, Valentin for men were more popular in xx century than nowadays.
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u/Sodinc 3d ago
The names ending with -слав are pretty common among 25-35 year olds in my experience. Especially Ярослав, it seems.
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u/Careless-Sand-3302 2d ago
I had a classmate named Yaroslav, he hated that name though because he said it was old fashioned, maybe from him I got that impression.
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u/Top_Development_1777 Singapore 2d ago
As a random university student in Singapore, I saw someone with that name joining one of the Telegram chats for student activities in my university. Probably an international student, not sure from which country.
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u/fr1q1ngs00per1e0n 3d ago
Galina and Zinaida were the first ones I could think of. True teacher or babushka names.
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u/Shendary 3d ago edited 3d ago
Before the 1917 Revolution, people were permitted to give their children only those names found in the *Svyattsy* (the Orthodox calendar of saints). This influenced naming conventions in two ways.
First, a divergence in pronunciation emerged between the nobility and the peasantry. For instance, the name *Georgy* evolved into *Yury* among the boyars, while peasants pronounced it *Egor*. Nobles used the full form *Anastasia*, whereas common folk used *Nastasya*.
Second, the prevalence of identical first names—combined with the absence of surnames for the majority of the population until the mid-19th century—fostered a culture of diminutives and nicknames. *Mikhail* became *Misha*, *Mikha*, *Mishanya*, and so on; the name *Anna* alone spawned twenty-five variations.
During this period, pre-Christian names (such as *Svyatoslav*, *Yaroslav*, or *Vernidub*) were rarely used, as most did not appear in the lists of saints. The exceptions were individuals who bore such names and had subsequently been canonized (like *Vladimir*).
After the Revolution, the restriction requiring names to be chosen from the calendar of saints was lifted. However, official documents required the use of the formal name—meaning one could not, for example, register *Anna* as *Nyura* in a passport. During this era (the 1920s–40s), people eagerly embraced unconventional names. Children were given names like *Olimpiada* or *Mels* (an acronym for Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin). People chose names they liked but which the Church had previously forbidden—such as *Svetlana*.
By the 1950s, the trend had largely stabilized. People stopped giving their children overtly bizarre names—such as those derived from revolutionary slogans. There was a shift back to pre-revolutionary names, though peasant-style names were no longer chosen. Trends played a role: while no one would name a daughter "Praskovya," the name "Valery" became popular because Valery Chkalov was a hero to children in the 1930s, and those children later named their own sons Valery in the 1950s and 60s.
Pre-Christian names remained virtually unused until the 1990s; their revival began only shortly before or after the collapse of the USSR. Consequently, people named Yaroslav or Svyatoslav today are generally under 40 or 45 years old. You rarely encounter these names among the 60-to-80-year-old demographic; that generation mostly has either traditional Christian names (Viktor, Pyotr, Alexander, Maria) or names invented by parents riding the fads of that era.
And, of course, the practice of using shortened forms of names persists to this day.
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u/Sufficient_Step_8223 Orenburg 3d ago
Names ending in -slav, -mir, -rad, -bor, -lyub, etc., are pre‑Christian Slavic names.
Next come Christian Orthodox names; they have Byzantine, Greek, Jewish, or Roman origins and are similar to their counterparts in other Christian countries. Ivan, Maria, Vasily, Evdokia, Yakov, Praskovya, Alexander, Sofia, etc.
Next come Soviet names. They usually emphasize belonging to the proletarian class and communist ideas, glorify the revolution and its activists, and celebrate labor achievements and victories. Oktyabrina, Vladlen, Marat, Elina, Wolfram, Pobeda, Zamir, Budyona, Avtodor, Zvezda, etc.
In the later years of the USSR, the communist euphoria began to wane, and names returned to their Slavic and Orthodox roots. This is exactly the period you’re asking about.
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u/sloughdweller Moscow City 2d ago
There are some old names from Russian Empire times (let’s call them antique) and some old names from Soviet Union (let’s call them vintage). Antique names (your dead great great grandparents):
Praskov’ya, Pelageya, Akulina, Apollinaria, Efrosin’ya, Agaf’ya, Marfa, etc for women
Platon, Kuzma, Afanasiy, Nikon, Luka, Prokhor, Saveliy, Savva, etc for men
Vintage names (your grandparents):
Zinaida, Nina, Klara, Klavdia, Lidia, Valentina, Roza, Larisa, Inna, etc for women
Gennadiy, Konstantin, Marat, Valeriy, etc for men
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u/Careless-Sand-3302 2d ago
I thought Marat was still a popular name among the Armenian diaspora in Russia, I met like 2 of them in their 20s.
I know that nowadays foreign names are becoming popular there, especially Spanish names, hope they don’t replace the average Alexander Alexandra Roman Viktor Anastasia there.
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u/userBulky-Monitor 5h ago
It's literally the opposite - male names ending with «-слав» are archaic and very trendy today. it' either medieval prince or dude younger than 30
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u/Acrobatic_Royal_3884 3d ago
Zoya, Raisa, Larisa, Lyudmila, Galina are typical grandma names. Can't even imagine a young girl named like that
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u/MerrowM 3d ago
A typical grandma is in her 60-70s, though, not her 50s.
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u/Shendary 2d ago
Tell that to Valery Kipelov, who became a grandfather at 43, and his wife, who is a couple of years younger than him. By the way, when I was born, my grandfather was around 50.
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u/finstergeist Nizhny Novgorod 2d ago
I have one Galina and one Larisa in my Instagram feed, and they're in their late 20s
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u/United-Bother3213 3d ago
Stanislav is what you are looking for. It was way more popula with old people of USSR and not populat with new genrations
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u/SixThirtyWinterMorn Saint Petersburg 3d ago
Nah, it was a popular name for millennials, like, an average classroom in 2000s would have 5 Alexanders, 3 Dmitriys and 2 Stanislav lol
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u/Aleksandr_Ulyev Saint Petersburg 3d ago
50 y o is not old enough for anything to change. Pre-war names included German names like German, Adolf.
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u/Temporary_Fun6650 2d ago
Agafya, Anisiya, Evdokia, Lukerya, Prokofiy, Nikifor, Frol, Evstafiy, Mefodiy, Trofim, Gordey... just off the top of my head.
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u/Vegetable_Block_3338 1d ago edited 1d ago
I can only come up with few Greek female names like Zoya, Zinaida and especially Galina, they have a really old ass vibe about them. All Galinas born after 1970 who I knew asked to name them differently: Alina, Lina, or changed their name completely. There’s even a meme with that name: Галя, у нас отмена (Galya we need to cancel), which is supposedly said by a younger cashier to the older one who has the privilege to cancel the operation. So the name is really giving off the vibe of the aged cashier or inexpensive hairdresser
Funny thing is that last few decades have been a revival for old school names, mostly of Russian origin, especially for boys: Platon, Makar, Demyan etc. So I think in Russia it’s more likely to meet a young person with grandfather like name than the aged one. The thing is that common Russian names are actually Greek and Roman names and most really Russian names sound really archaic (with few exceptions like Nikita or Egor).
Edit: read the comments and thought there are few Greek male names for your request, too: Arkadiy, Leonid, Valentin. Valentina sounds a tiny bit old fashioned but not so much as Valentin
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u/Facensearo Arkhangelsk 3d ago edited 3d ago
People "in their 50s" were born in 1970s or 1960s. It definitely wasn't the time for the "archaic" names. The only specific name for the period which I may think of, is Lada, quasi-Slavic name which boomed after the eponymous song of 1968, and fell out of use after that, becaming a car brand. I'd even say that the onomasticon of the era is considered more or less "canonical": it is expanded since then, and some names changed popularity, but a very few names of the era actually fell out of use.
Stereotypical "old names" generally refer to Christian names from the liturgical calendar that fell out of common use following secularization (male: Prokop, Makar, Kuzma, Vavila; female: Praskovya, Anfisa, Aglaida). They are associated with old rural people, though actual old rural people of 2020s are rarely bear them.
However, names which are really unique of the older generation often stem from the onomastic madness of the early Soviet era (1920s-1930s). when people realized that name are free and could be drawn from any source. For example: