Ksanka's Personal Name List

This is the Hebrew word for "man". It could be ultimately derived from Hebrew אדם (ʾaḏam) meaning "to be red", referring to the ruddy colour of human skin, or from Akkadian adamu meaning "to make".

According to Genesis in the Old Testament Adam was created from the earth by God (there is a word play on Hebrew אֲדָמָה (ʾaḏama) meaning "earth"). He and Eve were supposedly the first humans, living happily in the Garden of Eden until they ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As a result they were expelled from Eden to the lands to the east, where they gave birth to the second generation, including Cain, Abel and Seth.

As an English Christian name, Adam has been common since the Middle Ages, and it received a boost after the Protestant Reformation. A famous bearer was Scottish economist Adam Smith (1723-1790).

Russian form of Joachim.

Alternate transcription of Russian Алексей (see Aleksey).

From the Greek name Ἄλεξις (Alexis) meaning "helper" or "defender", derived from Greek ἀλέξω (alexo) meaning "to defend, to help". This was the name of a 3rd-century BC Greek comic poet, and also of several saints. It is used somewhat interchangeably with the related name Ἀλέξιος or Alexius, borne by five Byzantine emperors.

In the English-speaking world this name is more commonly given to girls. This is due to the American actress Alexis Smith (1921-1993), who began appearing in movies in the early 1940s. It got a boost in popularity in the 1980s from a character on the soap opera Dynasty.

Polish and Belarusian form of Anatolius.

Spanish and Portuguese form of Hannibal.

French and Catalan form of Herman.

Modern form of Arminius.

Armenian and Ossetian form of Arsenios.

Ukrainian form of Artemios. It is also an alternate transcription of Russian Артём (see Artyom).

From an old Indo-Iranian root meaning "Aryan, noble". In India, this is a transcription of both the masculine form आर्य and the feminine form आर्या. In Iran it is only a masculine name.

Bulgarian and Macedonian form of Athanasius.

Medieval Danish form of Absalom.

Czech, Slovak and Ukrainian form of Bogdan, as well as a Polish variant.

From the Greek name Δαμιανός (Damianos), which was derived from Greek δαμάζω (damazo) meaning "to tame". Saint Damian was martyred with his twin brother Cosmas in Syria early in the 4th century. They are the patron saints of physicians. Due to his renown, the name came into general use in Christian Europe. Another saint by this name was Peter Damian, an 11th-century cardinal and theologian from Italy.

Possibly derived from the Slavic elements danŭ "given" and mirŭ "peace, world". Otherwise, it might be of Turkic or Russian origin (see Damir 2). It was popularized by a character from Marija Jurić Zagorka's novel Gordana (1935).

Short form of Bogdana, Yordana or Gordana.

Russian form of Diomedes.

Alternate transcription of Russian Дмитрий (see Dmitriy).

Russian and Ukrainian form of Daumantas.

Derived from the Slavic element dorgŭ (South Slavic drag) meaning "precious".

Derived from the Old German name Hariwini, composed of the elements heri "army" and wini "friend". It may have merged somewhat with the name Eberwin. A notable bearer was Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961), an Austrian physicist who made contributions to quantum theory.

Alternate transcription of Arabic فيصل (see Faysal), as well as the form in several other languages.

Variant of Gunther.

Bosnian, Urdu and Indonesian form of Harith, as well as an alternate transcription of the Arabic name.

Chechen, Ossetian and Kyrgyz form of Ibrahim. This is also a Russian form, used to Russify native versions of the name in countries that were once part of the Soviet Union.

Possibly means "interpreter, teacher" in Arabic, related to the root درس (darasa) meaning "to study, to learn". According to the Quran this was the name of an ancient prophet. He is traditionally equated with the Hebrew prophet Enoch.

Russian and Bulgarian form of Ignatius.

Ukrainian form of Igor.

Bulgarian diminutive of Iliya. Since the 1960s it has been in occasional use in German-speaking countries.

Russian and Belarusian form of Elijah.

Russian form of Hippolytos.

Variant transcription of Iskandar

Scandinavian, Macedonian and Serbian form of Joachim.

Serbian and Macedonian form of John.

Spanish and Manx form of Iohannes (see John). Like other forms of John in Europe, this name has been extremely popular in Spain since the late Middle Ages.

The name is borne by Don Juan, a character from Spanish legend who, after killing his lover's father, is dragged to hell by the father's ghost. The story was adapted into plays by Tirso de Molina (1630) and Molière (1665), an opera by Mozart (1787), and an epic poem by Byron (1824), among other works.

Dutch, Czech and Slovene form of Charles.

Short form of Kliment.

Archaic Polish form of Conrad.

Contracted form of Korneliy. Also compare Corné, which this name could be considered to be a cognate of.

A well-known bearer of this name was the Russian children's poet Korney Chukovsky (1882-1969).

Means "lion" in Russian, functioning as a vernacular form of Leo. This was the real Russian name of both author Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) and revolutionary Leon Trotsky (1879-1940).

Belarusian form of Leon.

Russian and Ukrainian form of Lucianus.

Russian, Belarusian and Macedonian form of Maximus, as well as an alternate transcription of Ukrainian Максим (see Maksym).

Transferred use of the surname Marat.

Ukrainian form of Marcianus.

Romanian, Russian and Polish form of Myron.

Russian, Bulgarian and Macedonian form of Nahum.

Russian, Ukrainian, Turkmen and Armenian form of Nazarius.

Means "returner, homecomer" in Greek, from νέομαι (neomai) meaning "to return". In Homer's Iliad this was the name of the king of Pylos, famous for his great wisdom and longevity, who acted as a counselor to the Greek allies.

Ukrainian form of Eleutherius. Olefir (or Olifer) Holub was an early XVII-century Cossack hetman.

Russian form of the Old Norse name Helgi (see Helge). The Varangians brought this name from Scandinavia to Eastern Europe: it was borne by a 9th-century Varangian ruler who conquered Kyiv and made it the capital of the state of Kievan Rus.

Polish form of Algirdas.

Croatian, Russian and Ukrainian form of Orestes.

Ukrainian form of Eustathius.

Ukrainian and Esperanto form of Peter.

Russian form of Ῥοδίων (Rhodion), a short form of Herodion, referring to Saint Herodion of Patras.

From the Late Latin name Romanus meaning "Roman". This name was borne by several early saints including a 7th-century bishop of Rouen, as well as medieval rulers of Bulgaria, Kyiv and Moldavia.

Form of Yeruslan used by Aleksandr Pushkin in his poem Ruslan and Ludmila (1820), which was loosely based on Russian and Tatar folktales of Yeruslan Lazarevich.

Form of Rostam in various languages.

Georgian form of Sergius.

From South Slavic sloboda meaning "freedom".

Form of Spartacus in several languages.

Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian form of the Greek name Ταράσιος (Tarasios), which possibly means "from Taras". Taras was an Italian city, now called Taranto, which was founded by Greek colonists in the 8th century BC and was named for the Greek mythological figure Taras, a son of Poseidon. Saint Tarasios was an 8th-century bishop of Constantinople. It was also borne by the Ukrainian writer and artist Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861).

Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian form of Theodore.

Meaning uncertain. It is used as a Russian form of the saintly name Bademus. Alternatively it may be derived from Slavic vaditi "to accuse, to argue" or from an Old Norse source. According to legend, this was the name of a legendary leader of the Ilmen Slavs who fought against the Varangians.

Short form of Voldemārs and other Latvian names containing the Baltic/Germanic element vald "rule".

Russian form of Basil 1.

Form of Victor used in various languages.

From the Old German elements walt "power, authority" and mari "famous", also used as a translation of the Slavic cognate Vladimir.

Russian diminutive of Yakov.

Russian form of Ephraim.

Russian form of Aemilianus (see Emiliano).

Name of unclear origin. It may have been a folk form of Hermes via its canonical forms Yerm or Yerma, Hermas via Yermiy, Hermolaos via Yermolay or another canonical name beginning with herm-, such as Hermogenes, Hermokrates or Hermippos. Other possible origins include Yeremey and German. It may have had Tatarian origin, being thus a variant of Yermek. Finally, it may have been a nickname derived from irmak (ирмак) meaning "millstone of a hand-mill". Yermak Timofeyevich was a 16th century Muscovian conqueror of Siberia.

Ukrainian form of Eugene.

Russian form of Zacharias.