Russian Name Meanings

you know one thing i love about the russian language? i love their names. there are two unique things about russian names. they have a patronym which basically means, they bear their father's name. and it doesn't just stop there. the patronym as well as the last name have a female and male version. i find it fascinating.

for example, the last empirical family:

Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova: Anastasia was her name, Nicholas was her father, of the Romanov family and she takes the feminine version whereas her brother...

Alexei Nikolaevitch Romanov: His name is Alexei, Same father and family but he takes the masculine version

so, what a typical russian name tells you is this:

- whether you are male or female

- what family you belong to

- who your father is in that family (so which nuclear family you belong to)

- your specific, individual name

boom. knowledge dropped. you can all consider yourself smarter.