View Message

In the U.S., I think these are your best bets:

---

Alexandrina
Alla
Alyona
Arina
Darya
Galina
Irina
Larisa
Tamara
Yana
Yulia

---

I know that a fair number of these are pretty archaic in Russia. My personal favorites are Yulia, Zinaida, Alyona, Ekaterina, Elizaveta, Irina, Larisa, and Vasilisa. Even some of these are considered old in Russia, though, and I would probably not use them on my own kids. I speak Russian decently, and I feel like the pronunciations of many of these names would get mangled in the U.S. I'm going to assume, бабочка моя, that you have some knowledge of the language yourself. :) I think that a few are just not really right for use in the U.S. Margarita, for example, would be laughed at for being an alcoholic beverage. Vera would be pronounced wrong every single time and would be thought of as dated in the U.S., although it's a perfectly lovely name when pronounced VYEH-ra.

---

I'd probably use some of the easier ones (Yulia, Galina, etc.) as first names and then some of the more specifically Russian ones (Zinaida, Olesya, Ekaterina, etc.) as middle names.