New Post
Search
Help
ArchivesRe: Pondering female Russian names
in reply to a message by Lillian
The only one I can think of is Lyubov (stands for 'love').
The reason is quite simple: the majority of Russian feminine nouns end in A, no wonder the story's the same with fem. names.
The tendency is to make anything that is feminine end in A. When it comes to foreign women, we still add an A wherever missing, otherwise it would not sound feminine to us. Napoleon's wife was named Josephine, and she's widely known as Josephina in Russia.
Coming back to Lyubov, the nn is Lyuba, with the A!
By the way, the two names you mentioned are out of use nowadays. Esfir is old-fashioned; Ninel used to be popular, but not anymore. Thus, Lyubov is the only Russian female name without the A that is still widely popular.
___________________________________________
Pureness rules the world
The reason is quite simple: the majority of Russian feminine nouns end in A, no wonder the story's the same with fem. names.
The tendency is to make anything that is feminine end in A. When it comes to foreign women, we still add an A wherever missing, otherwise it would not sound feminine to us. Napoleon's wife was named Josephine, and she's widely known as Josephina in Russia.
Coming back to Lyubov, the nn is Lyuba, with the A!
By the way, the two names you mentioned are out of use nowadays. Esfir is old-fashioned; Ninel used to be popular, but not anymore. Thus, Lyubov is the only Russian female name without the A that is still widely popular.
___________________________________________
Pureness rules the world
1