Re: Svetlana
in reply to a message by lac
To supplement the theories already given, the name Svetlana was invented by philologist Alexander Vostokov for his romance story 'Svetlana and Mstislav' published 1802 (although it was the name's appearance later in Vasiliy Zhukovsky's ballad Svetlana that would popularise the name.)
Allegedly Vostokov liked to experiment with creating names and was a fan of studying place names (toponymy).
Sources:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Vostokov
Allegedly Vostokov liked to experiment with creating names and was a fan of studying place names (toponymy).
Sources:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Vostokov