Help Naming My Eastern European Character

Writers' Corner
1

I need help naming a book character. She is in her mid thirties and has two children (a boy and a girl who will also need names). The setting is during the early 1970s. Her parents are from Eastern Europe and her name should be related to a name from the [name]New[/name] Testament. She is very proud and thinks of herself as a underdog. Thanks in advance.:smiley:

2

I don’t know about biblical, but here’s some Eastern European names:

[name]Oksana[/name]
[name]Natalia[/name]
[name]Anastasia[/name]
[name]Marta[/name]
[name]Alina[/name]
[name]Claudia[/name]
[name]Joanna[/name]
Svetka
[name]Liza[/name]
[name]Magda[/name]
[name]Marya[/name]
[name]Sasha[/name]
Reka

What’s she look like? Personality?

3

She has a small frame and a delicate figure. She has light hair and blue-grey eyes. She is a about average height. Her husband is also Eastern European as well as biblical so names for him would be helpful, I was thinking [name]Paul[/name] originally. For their names I think it is less important that their names be Eastern European than be biblical. The woman is also very girly and loves to shop.

4

“Eastern European” is a bit broad. It might help to be much more specific - is the character Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Romanian? All of these countries have completely different languages, cultures, and naming practises (for instance, the name “[name]Paul[/name]” isn’t used in any of these countries - it should be [name]Pavel[/name], Pál, or [name]Pawel[/name]).

A nice tip would be to go to Wikipedia and look up people from the nationality you want who were born in the 1970’s. That way your character would have a realistic name.

5

[name]Magdalena[/name] - Biblical and works across multiple European countries. It’s fairly traditional in many of them, and often times, a full name would be [name]Maria[/name] [name]Magdalena[/name], if she comes from a religious family. Nicknames would be tied to specific cultures of Eastern Europe, but might include Madga, [name]Lena[/name], Lenka. However, she could choose the more English sounding [name]Maggie[/name] as well.