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ArchivesRe: Use of Nikita in India
in reply to a message by Lumia
The latter, though (1) I do not know the exact cultural genealogy (i.e., the event or events that made it popular may not have involved a Russian: e.g., I do not think Nikita Sergeyevich Krushchev is directly responsible for the feminine Indian name) and, (2) in particular, I do not think that use as feminine started in India: for example, La Femme Nikita, I believe, has no Indian antecedents, and, it is very likely that when Indian parents used the name, it was already feminine in the source culture.
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Names like Nikita, Natasha, Monica, Sonya sound like Indian names and they have become popular too among Indians. Indian feminine names usually have a suffix which gives the sound "a" to them, therefore it's possible that Nikita in spite of being a masculine name in Russian language is used as a feminine name, though it's very much possible that people are not aware of it being Russian and masculine. Similar is the case with name Sonam which I found is a Tibetan masculine name, but in India it's used as a feminine name. It's the sound which makes people to decide whether it should be a feminine or masculine name. The name Savita means Sun and Shashi means Moon, both being considered as Indian gods , but these names are considered suitable for girl. Recently, people have been deducting "a" from some names and forming masculine names like priyank from priyanka, anit from anita, arpit from arpita.
This message was edited 6/21/2009, 8:30 PM
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