Baby names - Beautiful Russian names - how to pronounce and transcription

When you are looking for baby names, consider Russian names. They are uncommon among non-Russians and extremely beautiful. And they can add your kid some extra income. Sounds unreal and fabled? You bet! Did you know about correlation between name for baby and his future income? There is interesting finding about it discovered by Blake Flannery in his article Best Baby Names To Give Your Baby A Good Start:

Levitt and Dubner (2005) found that rich parents name their children differently than poor parents. Interestingly they concluded that it seems the most popular names originate as less popular names from the upper class, who are also more educated. "There is a clear pattern at play: it starts working its way down the socioeconomic ladder (p.185)."

This means that unusual, original name makes your kid more likely to become a millionaire. Okay, I really don't believe in it very much, but who knows.. Anyway, it's good feeling to know that you gave your baby upper income name, not low income name, right?

Thus, I suggest you to take a look at original Russian baby names. They are beautiful, unique names with awe-inspiring meanings. What about to take name for a boy, which means "who owns the World"? One more good point is that there are many variants of each name, so you can choose really unique name. It means, you can be pretty sure that your kid won't be 3rd Jacob in the class (Jacob is most popular boy name in 2010, according to list of most popular baby names in USA for 2010).

As I said, all Russian names have many variants for different occasions, full name for formal calls, short variants for relatives and friends and also rude and teasing variants. For example, Russian variant for name Ann is Anya (first A is stressed). I like this name, it is strong and soft in the same time. To make it sound stronger, you could use formal variant, which is Anna. Softer variants, which are probably difficult to pronounce are Anechka and Anuta. Teasing one is Anka. It is not really rude, teasing variants are usually used by peers to call each other. To have authentic Russian pronunciation of name you should pronounce first letter A as in the word arm. To find out all authentic pronunciations of Russian names you could use Google Translate, just type the name there, choose translate from English to Russian and click Listen button.

Here I listed popular and easy-to-write names for boys and names for girls. I don't want to bother you with such popular Russian baby names as Evgeniya or Alexey which nobody would be able to pronounce and remember. Please keep in mind that lists below are only my own preferences. But it is based on my deep knowledge of subject, because I am Russian. So I chose names that I think are easy, beautiful and appropriate for English spelling. And they are popular in Russia baby names.

• Anya

Meaning: God's grace

Formal name: Anna \'aːnnʌ\ (here is chart of International Phonemic Alphabet (IPA) I used to make transcriptions)

Casual name: Anya \'aːnjʌ\

Diminutive name: Anechka \'aːniʧkʌ\

Teasing name: Anka \'aːnkʌ\

• Sasha

Meaning: People' defender. It is both female and male name.

Formal name: Alexandra \ʌliks'aːndrʌ\

Casual name: Sasha \'saː∫ʌ\

Diminutive name: Sashenka \'saː∫inkʌ\

Teasing name: Sashka \'saː∫kʌ\

• Lena

Meaning: Specially chosen, bright, shining.

Formal name: Elena. \je'ljænʌ\ This name with second name Beautiful is often used for princesses in Russian fairy-tales.

Casual name: Lena \'ljænʌ\

Diminutive name: Lenochka \'ljænʌʧkʌ\

Teasing name: Lenka \'ljænkʌ\

• Ira

Meaning: Peace

Formal name: Irina \i'riːinʌ\

Casual name: Ira \'iːrʌ\

Diminutive name: Irochka \'iːrʌʧkʌ\

Teasing name: Irka \'iːrkʌ\

• Natasha

Meaning: Native, close, dear

Formal name: Natalya \nʌ'taːljʌ\

Casual name: Natasha \nʌ'taː∫ʌ\

Diminutive name: Nata \'naːtʌ\

Teasing name: Natashka \nʌ'taː∫kʌ\

• Vova

Meaning: who owns the World. This name in its formal version Vladimir was very often used for Russian ancient princes.

Formal name: Vladimir \vlʌ'di:mir\

Casual name: Vova \'vɔ:vʌ\

Diminutive name: Vovochka \'vɔ:vʌtʃkʌ\

Teasing name: Vovka \'vɔ:fkʌ\

• Dima

Meaning: it goes to ancient Greek time with meaning "who is dedicated to Demeter, the goddess of fertility and agriculture"

Formal name: Dmitriy \'dmi:trij\

Casual name: Dima \'di:mʌ\

Diminutive name: Dimochka \'di:mʌtʃkʌ\

Teasing name: Dimka \'di:mkʌ\

• Roma

Meaning: Rome citizen

Formal name: Roman \rʌ'mɑ:n\

Casual name: Roma \'rɔ:mʌ\

Diminutive name: Romochka \'rɔ:mʌtʃkʌ\

Teasing name: Romka \'rɔ:mkʌ\

• Misha

Meaning: who is like God

Formal name: Mikhail \mihʌ'i:l\

Casual name: Misha \'mi:ʃʌ\

Diminutive name: Mishenka \'mi:ʃenkʌ\

Teasing name: Mishka \'mi:ʃkʌ\

• Denis

Meaning: named after Dionis god of joy and wine-making

Formal name: Denis \dje'ni:s\

Casual name: Denis \dje'ni:s\

Diminutive name: Deniska \dje'ni:skʌ\

Teasing name: none

If you find this article useful, I will appreciate if you let me know! Is the list of names enough or you want more?