About Leo Expertise I was born in the form. USSR. I`m a native Russian speaker and have a first-hand experience in Russian language, culture, and customs.
Question thanx for the repply. Evelina is a good name, but i fear it might confuse readers as one of my other books as already a female character named "evangelina". As for this:
"6. Here is the opening for you. You may chose a patronym and a surname/last name which could carry additional meaning and "ringing"... I can, DEFINITELY, help you with that:))"
if could help me with this i would really be thankful.
As for the character to give you some idea of what the character is, here's a bit of her backstory:
She is trying to run away from her country, by inlisting into the army(because of special conditions) and go to war(it's not necessarily russia or a specific country, since in the book i never mention places or years, i'm trying to make it a bit intemporal). In that war, she falls in love with a guy, and she gives her life for him. That's why i was trying to use yeva faina, "Free one" and "Gives life" for the name. She tries to become free by going into war, and she gives her life for another person. Hope it doesn't sound silly.
regards
fabio m.
-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
Hi, I am a writter, and in this story i'm writting I have this girl of russian origins Since i don't know much about the russian culture i was thinking of studying a bit of it.
The first problem i found was that the name I wanted to give her was "Yeva Fayina" which if i am not mistaken means "Gives life, and, Free one" in russian. the problem i encountered was that apparently Russian names are always First name plus "otchestvo"(as i've read somewhere) plus last name. and that the last names always end in INA-OVA for girls. So it's kind of a problem, since the name i had was perfect for the character's personality, situations she lives, and above all it had a nice ringing. If you can think of something that might help me on this issue please do.
thank you for your time.
oh yes, if u help me, i'll surely put your name(if u want) in Special thanx of the book.
Answer -
Hello, Fabio, thank you very much for your question.
I equally enjoy both reading and writing and responding to questions on this site partially satisfy my writing pleasures:)-
1. Yes, Eva=EVELINA: means "life." This name, however, is from Hebrew(Remember Old Testament story of Adam and Eva).
2. And yes,Faina means "free one".
3. In general, a good portion if not an overwhelming majority of names called "Russian", are, in fact, aquired from other cultures: Greek(Leonid), Roman(Valery), French(Nataly), German, Hebrew(Popular name IVAN, for example, is a modified Hebrew name...), Tatar, and many others...
4.The structure of Russian names is described pretty well by you, I just want to make a remark that traditionally, "otchestvo"=patronym, or father's name, played and still playing a huge role in Russian culture and communication totally unknown to 99% of foreigners who don't understand its meaning. Patronym reflects patriarchy, male domination in Russian culture. It reflects enormous respect and deference to the figure of the father and through him to the person carrying father's name... It's a common place in everyday Russian life to hear both men and women addressing each other by their patronyms ONLY!..
5. Personally, I like EVA=EVELINA better than FAINA, it has much higher recognition and popularity due to connection to the biblical text and known by almost anyone, there're many more women with this name compare to those with another one...
6. Here is the opening for you. You may chose a patronym and a surname/last name which could carry additional meaning and "ringing"... I can, DEFINITELY, help you with that:))
7. As for last name, they're quite diverse among Russians. While those ending with -INA/OVA prevail, there's equally huge number ending with -EVA. In Siberia common last names ending with -YKH. A significant number of ethnic Russians carry typical Ukrainian names ending with -KO, -BA, etc. There're many Russians with ancestors, close or distant, who had a mixed origin and who carry German, Armenian, Georgian, and many other names from other ethnic groups...
8. As you can see, the topic "Russian names" is quite complex and is connected to historic and cross-cultural issues to a great degree...
Fabio, feel free to ask any follow-on questions.
Thank you.
Leo.
Answer Hello, Fabio.
1. Well, if we talk about patronyms, this woman MUST be born somewhere in the former USSR only since it was the country where patronyms were used by all nationalities living there, not by Russians only...
2. If you are not taking Eva, or Evelina as a first name, then ZOYA, or ZOE which also means "life" should be considered. But... I think that Eve=Eva is much closer to your idea of giving life than other names..
3. As a patronym such names like "Evgenyevna" or "Alekseevna" which derived from "Evgeniy", or Eugene meaning "noble", and "Aleksei" meaning "defender of man" could be used. I couldn't find names closer to words "give or sacrifice" which you're trying to use...
4. Surname "Fadeeva" or "Fadeeva" derived from Fadei/Faddei meaning bold/brave I think is appropriate as reflecting character of the heroine...
