Living in the US. However, my husband is Russian and would like a name for our second son that works in his language. We have used [name]Nikolai[/name] for our first born and I am not fond of the remainder of the traditional Russian names. Thoughts on:
[name]Rodion[/name]
[name]Arkadi[/name]
Vitali
Radek or Radak
Ronak
???
Thanks.
[name]Rodion[/name] - I think this would fit in OK. [name]Ro[/name] or [name]Rod[/name] could be nicknames. With [name]Orion[/name] and [name]Ronan[/name] tending up, it’s not so far-flung. But it kind of sounds like a chemical or something? Radium, [name]Ion[/name], something. It doesn’t rule it out, it just gives me pause. It feels a lot less familiar than [name]Nikolai[/name].
[name]Arkadi[/name] - This is really pretty frigging cool, and the nickname Ark could be fun. I’m assuming it’s Arr-kah-di, but you could still do nn [name]Kade[/name] if you like. I’d wonder about people pronouncing it like “Our [name]Katie[/name]”, though, which could get girly.
Vitali - I love this! [name]Vit[/name], [name]Vito[/name] - good nn options. It’s familiar. Full of life. You might struggle a bit on Veet vs Vite for the first syllable, but I think it’s a good option.
Radek or Radak - feels unfamiliar and strange, but I think it could work. I think Radek’s a little more wearable.
Ronak - nn’s [name]Ro[/name], [name]Ron[/name], and Nox (?) could make it work. Feels a little clunky though.
Have you seen this list of names used in Russian? ([name]Even[/name] if not Russian in origin)
To me, some of the more wearable are:
[name]Abram[/name]
[name]Aleksandr[/name]
[name]Andrei[/name]
[name]Anton[/name]
[name]David[/name]
[name]Feliks[/name]
Filipp
[name]Isaak[/name]
[name]Lazar[/name]
Leonty
[name]Lev[/name]
[name]Luka[/name]
[name]Mark[/name]
[name]Martin[/name]
[name]Mikhail[/name]
[name]Pavel[/name]
[name]Robert[/name]
[name]Rolan[/name]
[name]Roman[/name]
Ruslan
Tikhon
Timur
Vadik
[name]Vadim[/name]
[name]Vasili[/name]
[name]Viktor[/name]
[name]Yakim[/name]
Thanks! Great input. Right on with the pronunciation of [name]Arkadi[/name].
[name]LOVE[/name] Vitali!
From your list, I like [name]Arkadi[/name]. But I don’t think the others go well with [name]Nikolai[/name].
What about [name]Alexei[/name], nn [name]Alec[/name]? [name]Alexei[/name] and [name]Nikolai[/name], and [name]Alec[/name] and [name]Niko[/name], seem flow in a similar way (to me, anyways).
I like Vitali the best from your list.
My maiden name is [name]Marek[/name] and I’ve always liked that as a first name, it just doesn’t go very well with my married name.
We have family that has already used [name]Alec[/name]. Other than Vitali and [name]Arkadi[/name], we have pretty much decided against the other traditional Russian names. We had the same thoughts as jesba on [name]Rodion[/name]. We threw out [name]Rurik[/name] because of the double “r” and tends to sound odd in English and Russian.
Radek is Czech, so it sounds somewhat natural to the Russian speakers in the family. We discussed [name]Marek[/name] as well, for the same reason.
Ronak is an [name]Indian[/name] name that I think just sounds good.
I am not really a fan of your name choices. I am so not an expert on Russian names. I do like [name]Alexei[/name].
Thanks. What about [name]Vladimir[/name], nn [name]Vlad[/name], Vladic?
[name]Vladimir[/name]/[name]Vlad[/name] is OK in that it’s familiar, but I think it’s clunky / lots of Americans only associate it with Putin, which isn’t exactly positive. The VL is kind of weird in English, too.
I’d go with [name]Dimitri[/name] or [name]Fyodor[/name] over [name]Vladimir[/name]…
[name]Fyodor[/name] I really kind of like. I do think people would get confused with [name]Theodore[/name], but it is familiar a bit because of Dostoyevsky.
Could [name]Leo[/name] work? Like Tolstoy?
[name]How[/name] about [name]Sasha[/name]? It’s the Russian diminutive form of [name]Alexander[/name].
I like [name]Nickolai[/name] and [name]Sasha[/name] or Nicko and [name]Sash[/name].
Or [name]Anton[/name]? Or [name]Abram[/name] (Russian form of [name]Abraham[/name])?
All three should be easy to pronounce and read/spell in both Russian and English. Which I think is probably very beneficial.
My faves are
Radek or Radak
Ronak
I think they’ll age well and they are very masculine, which I like.