Russian Boy Names

Russian boys' names are closely tied to the Orthodox church calendar, so most of them are local forms of saints' names shared across Christian Europe. Mikhail, Nikolai, Dimitri, Andrei and Yakov will look familiar once you see the English equivalents behind them, while Ivan has become almost a symbol of Russian naming in general. Vladimir, Yuri and Lev add names with a stronger local character, and Lev, meaning lion, is known in English through the novelist Tolstoy.

In Russia, a man's full name has three parts: his given name, a patronymic formed from his father's name, and a surname. Everyday speech leans heavily on diminutives, so friends rarely use the formal version. Nikita, which looks like a diminutive to English eyes, is actually a full boys' name in Russia, even though it is sometimes used for girls elsewhere.

Spelling is the main choice you will face, because these names are transliterated from Cyrillic and have no single correct form in English. Maxim and Maksim, Dimitri and Demetri, Viktor with a k and Alexi without a final s all appear on birth certificates. Choose the version that reads most naturally with your surname, and keep in mind that some spellings suggest an English pronunciation while others signal a Russian one.