Same Name, Again? (Draft 3)

這篇是Same Name, Again? How do the Russian name their children?的第三稿

如果您願意幫我批改，指出不清楚、錯誤、用字不精確、失當的地方

感激不盡

 

作文題目類型要求寫「Division」，我選擇分割俄羅斯取名的三個重要時期，說明為何俄羅斯人撞名機率非常高。

 

(我還沒想到conclusion寫什麼，直接複製第二稿的結論，不好意思)

 

     Have you ever met anyone who has a same name as yours and you as well as that person are always confused about who is called when someone yells out your names? Fortunately, you don’t have to confront such confusion as frequently as Russian people if you are not born as them, because Russia would be the place for you to find one of the largest namesake populations in the world. For example, according to a Chinese article on the Internet[1], in 1950s there were 153 men called Alexander (Александр), 131 women called Yelana (Елена) and 124 women called Tatiana (Татьяна) in every one thousand Muscovites. This means if you yell out “Александр” on a crowded street in Russia, there might be approximately 10 ~15 people look at you in doubt and question you on something like “Are you calling me?”. This condition results from three main Russian history periods: the era of the ancient Slavic (-4 C.E) before Orthodox Church introduced in, the era dominated by Orthodox Church (10-1917 C.E), and the era after the The October Revolution (1917 C.E.-).

 

     Before the 4th century, ancient Russians, who were part of the Slavic population, used to name their children after the children’s appearance and personalities. Besides, according to “On the Basic Features and National Situation Value of Russian Names,” Chinese research written by a Foreign Languages professor from China[2], the Slavic people also translated foreign names into Slavic and used them to name their children. For example, Alexander (Александр) originated from Greece means a protector; Valeriy (Валерий) from Rome means might; and Anna (Анна) from Hebrew means kindness. Sometimes the place they lived and family expectations would be also their choices to name babies, like Boris (Борис) which means “to fight for honors.” However, after Orthodox Church was introduced in Eastern Europe, Christian names had replaced ancient Slavic names little by little. The revival of ancient Slavic names must wait until 1917 The October Revolution to revive.

 

     In the second period, after Eastern Orthodox Church was dominating eastern Slavic regions and in particular in 989 A.C, Vladimir I of Kiev announced Orthodox Church as their state religion so as to marry Princess Anna who came from Eastern Roman which is the origin of Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Slavic used to have two names. One was the ancient Slavic names for daily life, and the other was the Christian name such as Ivan (Иван) which implies the boy would be loved by God and Maria (мария) which represents love. Christian names were only written in the birth and death certificates to prevent Demons or the evil from claiming one’s life (At that time the Slavic people believed there was a great relation between one’s name and his or her destiny. If their full names were known, they might be cursed or even doomed). After the 17th century, fewer and fewer Christian Slavic people followed the tradition on giving their children with two names. At last, their Christian names replaced the ancient Slavic names as the first names on account of Orthodox Church’s domination in Slavic regions. Therefore, Christian names were never a secret to the public. As a result, it increased the possibilities that people share the same names in public owing to the regulations of communion on naming children.

Following the regulations of communion, every infant born in an Orthodox Slavic family must be baptized with a saint’s name recorded on the church calendar after a week of their birth by priests so that he or she will be blessed and protected by that saint. However, it’s unlucky for priests to find no saints commemorated on some dates if a baby needs a Christian name. Thus, priests always choose the saint of the day which is the nearest to the infant’s birthday. Before The October Revolution took place, Russian priests usually ignored the wills of the parents of infants and followed their own thoughts to name babies. As a result, a family might have two sons sharing the same name like Ivan (Иван) because this name is written 79 times on the Slavic church calendar! Although Russian parents finally had the right to name their children by themselves after the The October Revolution, Christian names still have their privilege on the list of names owing to their long-term history.

 

     Since November 1917 did the Soviet government, the new government, terminate Orthodox Church’s influence on politics and return the right of naming children to Russian parents, numerous people have created plenty of new names around the October Revolution to commemorate it. For instance, names like “Revolution (Революция) and “Oktiabrina (Октябрина)”are from the letters of the October Revolution (Октябрьская революция). Moreover, since the October Revolution was dominated by the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, a Communist Party, names around communism were also popular such as Communard (Коммунар), or Kim (Ким) which abbreviation stands for Communist Youth International (Коммунистический Интернационал Молодежи) et cetera. Despite the new trend on naming children after new names, Russians still highlight the background history of names. They are more used to calling children after traditional names than new names. Hence, people not only choose the Christian names as their names because they have been used for sixteen centuries in the Russian region but also select ancient Slavic names again. The latter has longer history than the former does, although ancient Slavic names were used less than Christian names in the era dominated by the Orthodox Church.

 

     Nowadays, most Russian parents still give a traditional name to their children, especially Christian names and ancient Slavic names. As far as I’m concerned, no matter what names people give to their children, all meanings behind names are unique and protective, for people cannot emphasize too much the love from parents.