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Perrine, I forgot to mention... (m)
QuoteNow lots of German sites claim that this is a Russian nickname for Helena or Elena (it's usually Helena).As far as I know Helena isn't even commonly used in Russia?
Perhaps you should seriously consider the possibility that when German sites say that Lenja is a Russian nickname for Helena, they do not mean to imply that Helena is used in Russia. They might simply use Helena instead of Elena/Jelena/Yelena because Helena is the most familiar to a German audience. After all, those websites are first and foremost intended for German visitors - not Russian visitors.Behind the Name tends to behave similarly in how it presents its information (though much more so in the past than nowadays), although here the focus is on an English-speaking audience rather than a German one. Take this example of Bartel, for instance:https://www.behindthename.com/name/bartelThe description does not imply that Bartholomew is used in the Dutch-speaking world. Bartholomew is only used in the description (instead of Bartholomeus) to make everything easier to understand (and also more relatable) for an Anglophone.

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Yes, that's true! Thank you!I have made slightly different experiences but I met Russian people mostly through friends and not in a business context so maybe that is the difference?They always introduced themselves by the nickname and used it pretty much exclusively and often I only found out later what it was short for.
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