Vasnetsov “Bogatyri (Heroes)” (Three Heroes) 1898

(Илья Муромец, Добрыня Никитич, Алеша Попович - Ilya Muromets, Dobrinya Nikitich, Alesha Popovich)

The history of Russian given name is usually divided in three stages:

Pre-Christian, period of pagan names, created by means of Old-East Slavic language.
Christian, foreign Christian names began to replace old pagan names; small proportion of traditional names became canonical;
Modern, starting from October Revolution, characterized by elimination of difference between canonical, calendar and non-calendar names, active borrowing and active name construction.

Before adoption of Christianity till the end of the 10th century, eastern Slavs used almost exclusively Slavonic names which were given at birth. No distinction between first name and nickname was made during this period. Given names in Old East Slavonic language (nickname, epithet, handle) are similar to appellation after a particular episode. Pre-Christian names were used in Rus' several centuries after adoption of Christianity. They were commonly used alongside Christian names till the end of 17th century.

Old Slavonic names are exceptionally diverse. Dictionary of Old Slavonic names by N. M. Tupikov, printed in 1903, comprised 5300 masculine and 50 feminine names.

Not all pre-Christian names were equally popular. Only some tens of several thousand names were actively used. Popularity of pagan names resulted in formation of various diminutive forms: Bychko from Byk, Zhdanko from Zhdan, Puzeika from Puzo and so on. The most popular names had many forms. For example root -bel- produced a wide range of names like Bela, Belka, Belava, Beloy, Belonya, Belyay, Belyash. Root -sem- produced 33 names, including Semanya, Semeika and Semushka.

Increasing influence of the Russian Orthodox church on social life led to gradual elimination of pagan nicknames. However, they didn't become completely extinct, as they served as basis for major part of Russian surnames (the first stage of surname formation took place in the 15th century).

Adoption of Christianity led to introduction of completely new, foreign names that were tightly connected to baptism ceremony: according to Christian tradition baptism presumes giving Christian name. Names were given according to special books - minei Месячные минеи, which described religious services, ceremonies for each day, including which saint to praise. Religious tradition dictated that children should be named in honor of a saint, praised on the day of baptism (Sometimes on birthday, sometimes any day between birth and baptism). Minei were extremely expensive, so some churches couldn't afford them. One possible solution was to use menologia (Месяцеслов, святцы) - calendars with brief listing of religious celebrations and Saints days.

Minei were among the first books to be translated into Russian from Greek. With a rare exceptions names were not translated, preserving their original pronunciation. Their meaning was completely obscure for vast majority of people and they were perceived as alien. This state of things led on the one hand to long coexistence of Christiana and pagan names and to active assimilation and transformation of Christian names.

Christian and pagan names coexisted up to the 17th century. One of the reasons is that parents could not choose a name for a child freely - a newborn was baptized according to menoligium. Sometimes several children in one family would bear one name. Furthermore total number of names in menologium at the time didn't exceed 400. Pagan nicknames being more diverse and less restrictive provided a convenient way to distinguish people bearing one name.

Icon of Chetyi-Minei (calendar of saints).In the very center is the Resurrection of Christ surrounded by scenes from Holy Week and the feasts of the Paschal cycle. Around them are twelve groupings of saints: one for each month of the calendar year. In the border are icons of the Theotokos (Mother of God), each of which has a feast day during the liturgical year.