Over a century after the the French revolution influenced French baby names, the Russian Revolution (and socialist ideology) inspired a handful of Russian parents to give their babies similarly patriotic names.
Here are some examples of those patriotic baby names. Most were bestowed in the 1920s and 1930s, though some (like Uryurvkos) popped up decades later.
| Name | Significance/Translation |
|---|---|
| Ateist | Atheist |
| Arvil | “Army of V. I. Lenin” |
| Avangarda | Avant-garde |
| Barrikada | Barricade |
| Bastil | The Bastille, Paris fortress stormed during the French Revolution |
| Bebel | August Bebel, German Marxist |
| Buntar | Rebel |
| Danton | Georges Jacques Danton, French revolutionary |
| Dinamit | Dynamite |
| Dinamo | Dynamo, originally a type of electrical generator |
| Donbass | Donets Basin, coal-mining area in the Ukraine |
| Elekrifikatsiya | Electrification |
| Engelina | Friedrich Engels, co-creator of Marxism |
| Genii | Genus |
| Gertruda | “heroine of labor” (geroinja truda) |
| Giotin | Guillotine |
| Idea | Idea |
| Ilich; Ilina | Based on Lenin’s patronym, Ilyich |
| Industriya | Industry |
| Iskra | Spark |
| Kazbek | Mount Kazbek |
| Kommuna | Commune |
| Krasnyi | Red |
| Lagshmivara | “Shmidt’s Arctic camp” (lager Shmidta v Arktike) |
| Lentrosh | “Lenin, Trotsky, Shahumyan“ |
| Lentrozin | “Lenin, Trotsky, Zinoviev“ |
| Libknekht | Karl Liebknecht, German socialist executed in 1919 |
| Lyuksemburg; Roza | Rosa Luxemburg, German socialist executed in 1919 |
| Marks | Karl Marx, co-creator and namesake of Marxism |
| Marlen | “Marx, Lenin” |
| Marseleza | La Marseillaise, national anthem of France |
| Mels | “Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin” |
| Melor | “Marx, Engels, Lenin, October Revolution” |
| Molot | Hammer |
| Ninel | Lenin, backwards |
| Oktyabrina | Based on October, signifies the October Revolution |
| Oyushminald | “Otto Yulyevich Schmidt on the ice floe” |
| Parizhkommuna | Paris Commune |
| Proletarii | Proletarians |
| Pravda | Truth; Communist Party newspaper |
| Radium | Radium, the element |
| Razin | Stenka Razin, 17th-century Cossack rebel |
| Revdit | “Revolutionary child (ditya)” |
| Revmir | “Revolution, peace” |
| Revolyutsiya; Lyutsiya | Revolution |
| Revvola | “Revolutionary wave (volna)” |
| Robesper | Maximilien Robespierre, French revolutionary |
| Roblen | “born to be a Leninist” (rodilsia byt’ Lenintsem) |
| Serpina | Based on Sickle |
| Smena | Shift |
| Smychka | Smychka, “collaboration in society” |
| Spartak | Spartakusbund, Germany’s Spartacus League |
| Stalina | Joseph Stalin |
| Svodoba | Freedom |
| Tekstil | Textile |
| Traktor; Traktorina | Tractor |
| Uryurvkos | “Hurray, Yura’s in space” (ura, Yura v kosmose) – reference to Yuri Gagarin |
| Vilora | “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, organizer of the revolution (organizator revolyutsii)” |
| Vilen; Vilena | V. I. Lenin |
| Vladlen; Vladilen | Vladimir Lenin |
| Volya | Will |
| Zikatra | “Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky” |
Other baby names of the era weren’t as political as they were fanciful, e.g., Atlantida, “Atlantis”; Monblan, “Mont Blanc”; Traviata for the Verdi opera; Zvezde, “star.”
It’s also interesting to note that a portion of these parents went in the other direction entirely. Instead of opting for progressive names, they went for “pre-Christian Slavic names such as Mstislav or Sviatopolk that had fallen into disuse in modern times.”
Sources:
- Harvard Ukrainian Studies 19 (1997): 272.
- Komsomolskaya Pravda, via World Press Review 30 (1983): 14.
- Stites, Richard. Revolutionary Dreams. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
- White, Stephen. Political Culture and Soviet Politics. New York: Macmillan, 1979.