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ArchivesRe: Never mind, there is a connection to Russia after all! (m)
in reply to a message by elbowin
The modern Greek form is actually Selini. There are two Greek letters used for the 'e' in the name, namely the epsilon and the eta. Of the two of them, only the eta becomes an 'i' in modern Greek.
But yes, that has indeed occurred to me, as Selene, Selini and their variants Selena and Selina (both used in Russian) are visually rather similar to Silona. I even considered that Silona might be related to Silenus, which is also the name of a character from Greek mythology. But then I thought: "Hmm, the jump from Greek Sel- to Sil- in Russian might be a bit too much, especially if you consider that Russian tends to stay very faithful to Greek names, in that the names (often in their modern Greek form) will be almost perfectly preserved in Russian, at least vowel-wise. As for Silenus: he is not a famous/important enough character for parents to want to name their daughter after."
Just to make sure, I have also checked whether in Greek there has ever been the name Silon (can be spelled as Σίλων and Σίλον) or Sylon (can be spelled as Σύλων and Σύλον), as both would become Силон (Silon) in Russian. But alas, no such name has ever existed! The closest possible name is Κύλων (Kylon), which becomes Cylon in Latin and Килон (Kilon) in Russian. There is also the lesser known Κίλων (Kilon), which would also become Килон (Kilon) in Russian, but Cilon in Latin.
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