About fifteen years ago I had some students from Tajikistan who insisted that they knew elderly Russian women named
Yesenia after the Russian poet
Sergei Yesenin (1895-1925):
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/sergei-yesenin
I have found several claims that there were boys given Yesenin as a first name after the poet, but so far no actual examples.
Yesenia is certainly used as a name in Russia today. But that could be from the Mexican character -- I have recently discovered that in addition to the two telenovelas based on
Yolanda Vargas Dulche's graphic novel "
Yesenia", there was a 2 hour theatrical film of "
Yesenia" in 1971 which was amazingly popular in Russia, being one of the highest grossing films there of all time. I have not yet found clear examples of a woman named
Yesenia in Russia before 1971.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yesenia_(film)
Does anyone on this board know of examples of children in Russia named Yesenin or
Yesenia after the poet before 1971? If so is it possible that the Russian name actually influenced the use of the name in Latin
America? Or did some residents of the old Soviet Union just wrongly assume that the name of the character in the Mexican film was derived from the name of the poet?