Unusual russian names
Most new names appeared in the USSR after the Great October Socialist Revolution in 1917. After this revolution the power of workers and peasants broke the tsar regime and started to build a new country. Lenin was an ideology inspirer of the Revolution and became soon the most adorable leader of the country. To make it clear imagine North Korea today. Level of love of population to Lenin was almost the same as that in N. Korea now.
Like it always happens in a history of humanity every new power makes many new things. The Revolution broke the capitalist society and ruined the country in a direct meaning of the word. Two antagonist's classes', namely, poor workers and peasants vs. intelligence, landlords, and industrial magnates were fighting for many years. Civil war of the 1918 – 1920 killed millions of people from both sides. Private property and the capitalist society were totally eliminated. The power of workers and poorest strata's of the country won.
Most simple people said: all belongs to everyone, so it all belongs to me as well and stole everything they could. People of the USSR loved Lenin, the Communist Party was their dream and the Soviet ideology was the main and the "most correct" ideology of the country.
Many people wanted to give their children such names which would show how much they love the country and the Soviet power. In the first years of Revolution it was a result of inspiration by revolutionary ideas. Later, in the 40th it was a way to show their loyality to the Commuist Party and Josef Stalin. People invented new names. It may say nothing to a foreigner, but believe me if you knew Russian just a bit, the names would sound awkward and strange.
Onomastic is a science devoted to learning names. The name is given to a person at the moment of birth and in future it determines the person's life. Professional linguists learn sources of names and try to find how the name influences our future. I wonder what would they say about such artificial names invented in the Soviet Union.... New names were based on the names of political leaders, names of state authorities, communist party slogans and historic events.
All names below were created in a result of abbreviation of words in Russian language.
Names devoted to significant dates in the Soviet history.
Velior (Велиор - Velikaya Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya) - Great October Socialist Revolution.
Dazdrasen (Даздрасен -Da Zdravstvuyet Sedmoe Noyabrya) – long the live the seventh of November. The seventh of November 1917 was one of the most loved holidays in the Soviet Union. This is a day of the Great October Socialist Revolution.
Dazdraperma (Даздраперма - Da Zdravstvuyet Pervoe Maya) Long live the First of May. This is another holiday of national importance. The First of May is a day of solidarity of working class all over the world. Of course people loved this holiday in the USSR. Both the seventh of November and the First of May were always national holidays and days of great celebration in the history of the USSR. Each year demonstrations were held in every city, town and village. People were marching, waving slogans and red banners. Numerous concerts were devoted to these events and thus these holidays were loved in the USSR.
Names devoted to political leaders.
These names were especially popular. Somehow everyone thought that this will make their child happier in the future Communist life.
Melor (Мэлор) – Marx, Engels, Lenin, October Revolution.
Vilorik (Вилорик) - Vladimir Illich Lenin Osvoboditel Rabochikh i Krestyan) V.I.Lenin-liberator of workers and peasants.
Vladlen (Владлен ) Vladimir Lenin.
Vilen (Вилен ) Vladimir Illich Lenin. All three names above still exist. My friends gave their child name Vladlen in 1996. They said it sounds well.
Ledrud (Ледруд -Lenin Drug Detei) Lenin – a fried of children.
Lorierik (ЛориЭрик) – Lenin, October revolution, industrialization, electrification, ratificaion and communism. This name reminds me fantasy books devoted to elves. Any of them would be proud to have name sounding like this one.
Luigi (Луиджи - Lenin Umer Idei Zhyvy) is not an Italian name in this context. It is Lenin is dead but ideas are alive.
Niserha (Нисерха ) - NikitaSergeevich Khrushchev.
Pofistal (Пофистал- Pobeditel Fashizma Iosif Stalin) – winner over fascism Josef Stalin.
Dalis (Далис ) Long live Lenin and Stalin.
Bestreva (Бестрева ) Beria – the guard of the Revolution.
Some names were devoted to national heroes of the Soviet Union
Lapanalda (Лапанальда - Lager Papanina na Ldine) The Camp of Papanin on the Ice.
Lagmishvara (Лагшмивара- Lager Shmidta V Arktike) – Camp of Schmidt in Arctic.
Oushminalda (Оюшминальда ) Otto Yuli Schmidt on the Ice. These names were devoted to first soviet travellers and world explorers Otto Schmidt and Ivan Papanin. They both were well known in the USSR for their expeditions.
Uryurvkos (Урюрвкос - Ura, Yura V Kosmose)- Hooray, Yuri is in space.
Yuralga (Юралга)- Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin. Evidently these names appeared at a time of the first astronaut space launch. Yuri Gagarin was not just a national hero. He became an international hero. Of course many people wanted to follow him and to be like him.
I can offer you some more names devoted just to “heroic life and work of Soviet people”
Artaka (Артака) - Artillery Academy
Gertruda (Гертруда- Geroy Truda)- The Hero of Labor
Dotnara (Дотнара - Doch Trudovogo Naroda) – the daughter of working people
Kid (Кид )- Communistic Ideal
Kukutsapol (Кукуцаполь - Kukuruza Tsar Poley) -Corn is the Tsar of fields. This name was devoted much more to Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Communist Party who came to power after Stalin. Khrushchev was famous for his agricultural projects. He visited USA couple of times and was deeply impressed by big corn fields of Iowa. Soviet Union had many empty lands which could be well used for growing corn. A tremendous, giant program was started to grow corn everywhere. Corn was supposed to feed the people still hungry after the WW2 and to be an export culture.
Raitia (Райтия- Rayonna Tipografia) District Publishing house
Trikom (Тpиком ) Three “K” – Komsomol, Comintern and Communism.
Now we came to my favorite:
Vaterperzhekosma (Ватерпежекосма - Valentina Tereshkova – the first woman cosmonaut. The encryption of the name says itself. Valentine Tereshkova was as popular in the USSR as Gagarin. The idea of this name is very modern taking tendencies of equality of rights between man and woman, but the name itself sounds so ugly in Russian, that I would never call my daughter Vaterperzhekosma. Even for the sake of equality of rights between genders.
The epoch of Socialism and Leninism has ended. Now we live in another time and people choose their names basing on other criteria. Those names stated above became obsolete and it is very unlikely that they will ever be used again. But they are part of our history and we have at least to understand what happened with the world some 50 -100 years ago. These days new names also appear. May be some 100 years after us people will also wonder why such name like Dotcom appeared.
