Most Common Russian Female Names

First of all, most of currently commonly used in Russia and Russian speaking ex-USSR countries names are not nativelly Russian. For some reason old slavic names are almost forgotten and most of popular names have Greek, Latin, Hebrew and German roots. Another thing that I want to tell you - most of the names cannot be correctly spelled in Eglish. They use kind of French spelling for names in Russia, which was also corrupted long ago, but it has almost nothing to do with English spelling from the very beginning. Honestly, nobody know how to express some of the names in English at all, because there are sounds that are quite different from anything that native English speaker can pronounce. Because of that there is a lot of alternative English spellings, meaning the same and only name. And indeed almost all the names have diminutive form, often several of them. I think I will add mp3 files later with pronunciation examples, but not right now. So here are some of the commonly used names, if you are interested in some other names, please leve me a message on my discussion board. ALEKSANDRA, ALEXA, SANDRA, SASHA: "Defender of man" ALINA - "noble" ancient german ALLA: greek "Sunday","First Day" ANASTASIA, STASYA, NASTYA: reborn (greek) ANTONINA, TONYA: feminine form of Anton, latin "assailant" ANNA, ANYA, ANIA: graceful, grace (greek) EKATERINA, KATARINA, KATYA, KATIA: Russian form of Katherine (pure) EVGENIA, ZHENYA: Russian form of Eugenia (noble) GALINE, GALYA: God has redeemed GALINA: "unanxious" greek GANNA - Ukrainian form of ANNA ELENA (JELENA), LENA: Russian form of Helen - shining light INNA - "outrush","roaring stream" (greek) IRENA, IRINA, IREN: peace (greek) JANA, YANA: hebrew "given by god" KARINA: form of Karen KIRA: femnine form of greek name Cyrus (lord) KATYA, KATIA, KATERINA (EKATERINE): pure, , innocent (greek) KRISTINA, KRISTA - "Christian" LADA: ancient slavic "beloved" LARA, LARISA: "sweet" (greek) LIDIJA, LIDIA, LIDIYA, LIDOCHKA, LIDA: from Lydia (asian territory) LILIA, LILYA: form of Lilac, having a bluish color LUDMILA, LYUDMILA, LUDA: love of the people (the one who loved by people) LYUBOV, LYUBA, LUBA: Russian equivalent of the virtue, "love" MARGARETE, MARGARITA: Russian form of Margaret (pearl) MARINA: from the sea, marine MASHA,MARIA: ancient hebrew "beloved" NADEZHDA, NADIA, NADYA, NADIA, NADINE: Russian equivalent of the virtue, "hope." NATALY, NATALYA, NATASHA, TASHA: born at Christmas. NINA: "youth" (georgian) OKSANA: Ukrainian form of Russian KSENIA equvalent to ancient name XENA ("hospitality") OLENA, ELENA: light; bright one OLESYA, OLESIA, LESYA, LESIA: greek roots probably means "protect" OLGA, OLYA: holy RAISA, RAYA - greek "docile" SACHA, SASHA, ALEXANDRA, ALEXA: defender of man SOFIYA, SOPHY: wisdom (greek) SONIA, SONYA, SONJA: wise SNEZHANA - unknown, probably from "snow", "snowy" SVETLANA, SVETA: luminescent, clean (ancient slavic) TAMARA: palm tree (ancient hebrew) TANYA, TANIA, TATYANA: from ancient greek meant "founder" TAYA, TAISIA - from ancient egyptian "wise" VALERIA - Russian form of Valery (latin "strong") VALYA, VALIA,VALENTINA: latin "healthy" VERA: Russian equivalent of the virtue, "faith." VIKTORIA, VIKTORYA, VIKA - Victory VIOLETTA - Russian equivalent of Violet (flower) VLADA, VLADISLAVA - slavic "power", "glorious" YULIYA, JULIA, JULYA: Russian form of Julia (from latin masculine Julius) YANA, JANA: hebrew "given by god" ZENYA, EVGENIA: Russian form of Eugenia - "noble" (greek) ZOYA: life (greek)