Men's Names
The list of "most frequently used" men's given names was compiled from the lists of given names, patronymics, and women's names in the form "wife of ..," since patronymics and "wife of..." forms are based on the names of specific men.
As we have mentioned above, men's names, unlike women's, appear in three forms: as simple given names, as patronymics (meaning: "son (or daughter) of..."), and in the form meaning "wife of..." Therefore the number of occurrences of a name is much greater for men than for women, and repetitions are more likely. In addition, the pool from which Christian names are chosen is relatively small, hence it is possible to establish a table of frequency for the 22 most commonly used men's Christian names:
| Names | Total occurrences |
Date/BBL | Names | Total occurrences | Date/BBL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ivan | 54 |
XII/80 |
Sidor | 15 |
XIII/141 |
|
| Semen | 24 |
XII/105 |
Dmitrii | 13 |
XII/443 |
|
| Georgii | 32 |
XII/165 |
Kuz'ma | 13 |
XII/163 |
|
| Grigorii | 23 |
XII/69 |
Zaxarii | 12 |
XII/553 |
|
| Stepan | 23 |
XI/241 |
Boris | 12 |
XII/237 |
|
| Mixail | 22 |
XII/69 |
Maksim | 12 |
XIII/290 |
|
| Foma | 21 |
XII/82 |
Aleksei | 11 |
XII/118 |
|
| Fedor | 21 |
XII/153 |
Iosif | 11 |
XII/508 |
|
| Vasilij | 21 |
XII/160 |
Pavel | 11 |
XI/745 |
|
| Iakov | 16 |
XII/515 |
Andrei | 10 |
XII/724 |
|
| Matfei | 16 |
XII/222 |
Nikita | 10 |
XII/548 |
This table follows very closely the one compiled by A. Baecklund from different sources and included in her monograph (see bibliography). In her list as in ours, Ivan takes the first place, by far. The two names included in Baecklund's, but not in our table, are Aleksandr (it appears only 6 times in the Birch-Bark Letters, and one of them is questionable) and Ignatii, which appears 8 times in the Birch-bark letters. Conversely, the names Foma, Zakharii and Boris are included in our table, but not in Baecklund's. In other words, the differences are almost negligible.
Patronymics based on Christian Names
The table below shows the patronymic form(s) derived from the 22 most common
men's Christian names. A (*) indicates patronymics derived according to naming
practices and grammatical rules, but not directly attested in the Novgorod
birch-bark letters. The feminine form of these is indicated in parentheses.
Note that these forms are not the only possible: I have provided the simplest
form where none appears in the birch-bark letters.
| Names | Bynames (patronymics) | Names | Bynames (patronymics) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aleksei | *Alekseev (Alekseeva) | KuzÕma | Kuz'mich (Kuz'mina) | |
| Andrei | *Andreev (Andreeva) | Maksim | *Maksimov (Maksimova) | |
| Boris | Borisov (Borisova) | Matfei | Matfeevich (Matfeeva) | |
| Dmitrii | *Dmitriev (Dmitrieva) | Mixail | Mikhailovich (Mikhailova) | |
| Fedor | *Fedorov (Fedorova) | Nikita | *Nikitin (Nikitina) | |
| Foma | Fomin, Fominich (Fomina) | Pavel | *Pavlov (Pavlova) | |
| Georgii | *Georgiev (Georgieva) | Semen | *Semenov (Semenova) | |
| Grigorii | *Grigoriev (Grigorieva) | Sidor | *Sidorov (Sidorova) | |
| Iosif | Iecifovich (Iosifova) | Stepan | Stepanov (Stepanova) | |
| Ivan | Ivanov, Ivanovich (Ivanova) | Vasilii | Vasilievich (Vasilieva) | |
| Iakov | Iakol' (Iakova) | Zaxarii | *Zakhariev (Zakharieva) |
There are nearly 430 instances of men's Old-Russian names (combining all three categories indicated above), and only a few occur more than once. The diversity of Old-Russian names makes it difficult to categorize them and therefore to establish a table of frequency. In addition, it is not always possible to determine the root of a name, and hence to ascertain whether several forms may be derivations of the same name, or distinct names. This is particularly true where dithematic names are concerned. For instance: the names "Mestok," "Mestiata," and "Mestila" appear several times, but it is difficult to determine whether they are three separate names, variants of a simple name based on the root "mest-," or variants of the dithematic name "Mestislav." The fact that the spelling is sometimes inconsistent only adds to the problem.
However, the very diversity of Old-Russian names found in the Birch-Bark Letters allows us to form a good picture of the use of non-Christian names in period. We can distinguish the following types (the names are followed by the date of the earliest occurrence, and the number of the birch-bark letter where they appear):
1) Dithematic names (28 altogether). Names conforming to this structure are the most familiar since the Old-Russian names of Rurikid princes are mostly of this kind (Sviatoslav, Viacheslav, Mstislav, etc.). Some appear more than once in the Birch-Bark Letters :
Domaslav (3 times; XII/155) [house + glory], Domazhir (5; XII/233) [house+wealth], Miloslav (2, maybe 8; XIII/320) [dear/merciful+glory], Miroslav (5, maybe 7; XII/334) [world/peace+glory], Radoslav (3; XIV/50) [glad+glory], Sbyslav (4; XII/550) [to happen/glory], Stanimir (2; XII/630) [stand/become+world/peace], Tvorimir (2; XII/82) [create+world/peace], Voislav (2; XII/509) [war/warrior+glory], Zhiroslav (3; XII/573) [wealth+glory], Zhiznobud (2; XII/607) [life+to be in future tense].
2) Some animal or bird names:
Drozd (XI/526; thrush, blackbird), Kozel (XIII/410; goat), Volchok (XI/336; wolf cub or little wolf), Zaiats (XIV/92; hare), Shchuka (XV/310; pike), Sobol' (as "Sobol'tsev," XIV/124; sable), Kuritsa (as "Kuritsev," XIV/264; chicken).
3) Some food names: Kisel (XIV/570; fools6), Orekh (XII/581; nut).
4) Miscellaneous names: Bolda (XV/568; idiot), Buiak (XII/219; wild, unruly person), Chernek (XII/113; black [person]), Chort (XIV/4; devil), Grechin (XII/502; the Greek), Guba (XIV/697; lip), Mal (XIII/348; little, short), Mil (XII/SR19; nice, congenial), Shuba (fur coat).
5) Occasionally a name appears more than once (as names of different people):
Nezhek (8 times; XI/526) [tender], Zavid (7; XII/103) [envious], Zub (3; XIII/750) [tooth].
The table below shows examples of patronymics derived from the Old Russian names mentioned in this section (feminine patronymics are in parentheses).
| Name | Patronymic | Name | Patronymic | Name | Patronymic | Name | Patronymic | |||
| Bolda | *Boldin (Boldina) | Guba | *Gubin | Nezhek | *Nezhkov | Tvorimir | *Tvorimirov | |||
| Buiak | *Buiakov (Buiakova) | Kisel | *Kiselev | Orekh | *Orekhov | Voislav | *Voislavov | |||
| Chernek | *Chernekov (Chernekova) | Kozel | *Kozlov | Radoslav | *Radoslavov | Volchok | *Volchkov | |||
| Chort | *Chortov | Kuritsa | *Kuritsev | Sbyslav | *Sbyslavov | Zaiats | *Zaitsev | |||
| Domaslav | *Domaslavov | Mal | *Malov | Shchuka | *Shchukin | Zavid | *Zavidov | |||
| Domazhir | Domazhirov | Mil | *Milov | Shuba | *Shubin | Zhiroslav | *Zhiroslavov | |||
| Drozd | *Drozdov | Miloslav | Miloslavov | Sobol' | SobolÕtsev | Zhiznobud | *Zhiznobudov | |||
| Grechin | *Grechinov | Miroslav | *Miroslavov | Stanimir | *Stanimirov | Zub | *Zubov |
Editted and published by Arval Benicoeur