Most of the famous personal names are of Greek, Latin, or Jewish origin. Therefore, the same name can be distributed in different countries. Its sound and spelling changes depending on the peculiarities of the language - sometimes you can easily recognize a Russian name in another country, but sometimes it looks like solving a puzzle.
Names from the Book of Books
The most popular Russian male name Ivan comes from the Hebrew John, which means "gift of God." In other languages, this name is also widespread: in English John, in French - Jean, in Italy - Giovanni, in West Slavic countries - Jan, Janos. The feminine form of this name is John, Jan, Jeanne, Giovanna.
French Jacques, English Jack and Italian Giacomo in our country are not so famous Jacob ("born second").
The most popular female name in Russia, Maria also has Hebrew roots. Mary, Marie - this is the name in England and France. Another common name is Anna (from the Hebrew "grace"), its counterparts Ann, Annette, Ankhen.
The name Elizabeth ("worshiping God") is known in England as Elizabeth, Beth, Betty, in Russia as Lisa, in Germany as Lieschen.
Slavic names usually have no analogues in other languages: Bogdan, Yaroslav, Vladislav, Stanislav.
Names from the eternal city
Translated from Latin, the name Anthony means "entering the battle." Since the Romans, at the end of the empire, marched with fire and sword throughout modern Europe, every country has Anthony, Antoine and Antonio. From the Roman Sergeus ("highly esteemed") came Sergei, Serge and Sergio.
The Russian Julia, who sounds the same in Latin, is familiar to us as Julia in London, Julie in Paris and Juliet in Verona.
We look at the calendar
Greek names are very popular in Russia, since it was from there that Christianity and the church calendar came to us. Eugene (Greek for "noble") unexpectedly turns out to be Eugene in English-speaking countries and Eugene in France.
The name Catherine - "purity" in Greek - was often given to girls of royal descent in Spain, where it sounded like Catarina. But in other countries it was not without Kat, Katty, Katharine, Katrin and Katyusha.
The interpretation of the name Helen is unclear, and its origin is possibly still pre-Greek. In Russia it sounded like Alena, in medieval England Elaine, and now Helen and Helen.
There are names phonetically different, but semantically similar. Svetlana, Clara, Lucia mean the same thing - "light".
Some names sound the same in all languages. These are, first of all, Alexander and Alexandra, Valentin and Valentina, Victor and Victoria.
Interesting are the names that have passed into our everyday life from the culture of already extinct peoples. The name Daria (from the ancient Persian "winner") in English turned into Dorothy and Dolly. On the contrary, the name Arthur came from foggy Albion. From the language of the ancient Celts, it is translated as "bear" and sounds the same everywhere, with the exception of the stress that the English put on the first syllable.
