Russian names seems to quite interesting. The Russian language is supposed to be very rich and that should reflect on the names. A long time ago, I had a couple of names from a Russian novel translated and the results inspired me to look further into Russian names. However, certain things do not get done at once and it took until about now to do it. At a first glance, Russian names seems to follow about the same pattern as British. Occupation, habitation and descriptions of persons are popular sources of inspiration for names.
I started with the famous chessplayer Spasski and found it in Hank's and Hodges's Dictionary. There were two ways to get this name. Either you lived in one of the many places called Spasskoe. In the Spasskoe places, the church was dedicated to the Saviour. To "save" is "spasti" in Russian. The other way started with Orthodox priests adopting the name to show their dedication to Jesus Christ - the Saviour.
Religious connections to family names seems to be quite common in Russian. Another example comes from the Oxford Companion. They explain that the not so handy name Blagoveshchenski is derived from the Feast of the Annunciation, celebrated on 25 March. It works exactly the same way as Spasski. Either you came from a place called Blagoveshchensk or one of your ancestors was an Orthodox priest, having taken that name.
I started with the famous chessplayer Spasski and found it in Hank's and Hodges's Dictionary. There were two ways to get this name. Either you lived in one of the many places called Spasskoe. In the Spasskoe places, the church was dedicated to the Saviour. To "save" is "spasti" in Russian. The other way started with Orthodox priests adopting the name to show their dedication to Jesus Christ - the Saviour.
Religious connections to family names seems to be quite common in Russian. Another example comes from the Oxford Companion. They explain that the not so handy name Blagoveshchenski is derived from the Feast of the Annunciation, celebrated on 25 March. It works exactly the same way as Spasski. Either you came from a place called Blagoveshchensk or one of your ancestors was an Orthodox priest, having taken that name.
PS The picture of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow is from Shutterpoint.
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