Thread: Names

So the first step in my daughters project (I posted in the introduction forum about it), would probably be how to correctly write her name in Russian. My daughter has an Arab/Hebrew name so this may be hard. Her name is: Amira Yasmine El Haloui (this translates into English along the lines of: Princess Jamsmine The Adored). For simplicity sake, in the United states, we put her last name Elhaloui (all fused together) on her birth documents. This was because her father and I always had problems with people writing "El" as a middle name on legal documents and it was just an irritating mess trying to find us in data bases). I am assuming that a transliteration for her name or how it would be pronounced from a English language point of view would be: ameer-ah yas-mean L-hal-O-wee. That is the best I can do I think!

I was wondering how it would probably be written in Russian?

Also, for more practice. I was wondering about the rest of my families 1st names. I already know my name is Russian, "Tanya." My garndmother told me I have the transliterate Roman alphabet spelling common to Ukraine (or she said something like that). She said a lot of Russian ladies sometimes usually spell it "Tania" in the Roman Alphabet. My Grandfather was Czech (and this slavic language does use Roman alpahbet), he said that a lot of Czech ladies would have their name spelled "Tanja." I have realized that a lot of slavic languages that use Roman Alpahbet use "j" and not a "y" for the "ya/yuh" sound. Does anyone know if that is because there is no "Y" technically in their alphabet. Anyway, what would be the correct way to write "Tanya" in Russian? And should it really be "Tania," instead?

My husband's name is James (which is a "J" sound so that is interesting to know how it is written? I assume the "J" would be read as a "Y" sound, right?)

My oldest son, is Daniel, but how would his name be in Russian? How would it written in Cyrillic and what form is the proper transliteration of Daniel? Daniyal? or Danyal? (It's confusing...)

My youngest son has a Russian name. Actually a Greek name, and we chose to spell it the Greek way, because that is the way Americans also spell his name, "Alexander." I know Russian it is Aleksandr or Aleksander. How does is look in Cyrillic? We also call him by a nick name "Xander." Pronounced with a "Z" sound, like: zan-der. Almost all little baby boys named Alexander are called Alex in the United States, so I wanted my baby to be different. How would you write "Xander" in Cyrillic? Some Russian family and friends call him Sascha, but my husband and oldest son think that sounds like a girls name. I tell them all the time that it is actually a boys name.

Our girl dog's name is Mischa and I also explained to them that Mischa is also a boys name. Why do Americans like to name girls- boy Russian names? Or is it that they are both boy and girl names? Is it that I just know or have known only Russian boys with those names?

My daughter's middle name means "Jasmine" not whatever I typed out.

Well, many questions...

Amira Yasmine El Haloui - Амира Ясмин Эль-Халуи (most probably)

Tanya - Таня. Actually it is diminutive from the name Татьяна (Tatiana). There is no tradition in Russia to use diminutives instead original names so you hardly can find name "Tanya" in official documents. According to the most accepted nowadays transliteration system Таня is Tanya. Though people can use different ways of transliteration.

No ideas why Czechs decided to use j for "short i" consonant sound. Poles apparently did that because they use letter "y" for another sound, which is equivalent to Russian "Ы".

Standard English James is normally transliterated as Джеймс. Not sure if I understood you correctly about your husband's name pronunciation.

Daniel - Дэниел or Дэниэл. There are Russian names of the same origin "Даниил"(Daniil) and "Данила"(Danila), both male, but they are considered not the same name as English Daniel.

Саша (Sasha) is the diminutive of either Александр (Aleksandr, male) or Александра (Aleksandra, female). If you like to transliterate "Xander", it should be Зандер or Сандер.

Миша (Misha) is the diminutive of Михаил (Mikhail, male only).

Tanya = Таня, that is a short variant for Татьяна

Originally Posted by it-ogo

No ideas why Czechs decided to use j for "short i" consonant sound. Poles apparently did that because they use letter "y" for another sound, which is equivalent to Russian "Ы".

Yes! I know this because one of my good friends is Polish. I can actually understand some Polish and she can understand some Czech. I think it is a similar language... being neighbors and all it is kind of understandable. I met a lady at work and she was Croatian and she understoons some Czech and Polish too.

Originally Posted by it-ogo

Standard English James is normally transliterated as Джеймс. Not sure if I understood you correctly about your husband's name pronunciation.

Daniel - Дэниел or Дэниэл. There are Russian names of the same origin "Даниил"(Daniil) and "Данила"(Danila), both male, but they are considered not the same name as English Daniel.

James: Forget that one... I don't know what I was trying to say either. I guess I was thinking if his name would be pronounced like "Yames"? I guess that was a question more for thinking about the Polish/Czech J=Y kind of thing... I don't know why I asked that here.

Daniel is actually a Hebrew/Biblical name. So is James (Both are very popluar names in the United States).

You know how you use the fathers name as the child's second name? Like Father = Vladimir then daughter's 2nd name = Valdimirovna (or something like this)? If my son or daughter's father name is James, how would you write it as their second name? (This is just a random question that I was just now wondering.)

Originally Posted by it-ogo

Миша (Misha) is the diminutive of Михаил (Mikhail, male only).

Ha! Ha! So my kids and husband gave our girl dog a boy's name. I knew it! I told them Masha would be cuter, but they didn't believe me. She is a very huge furry dog. Like a bear. She is part labador retriever and part chow! Very fluffy and strong! So, Sasha is boy or girl. I was kind of thinking that it probably was. Thank-You! Your answers are great!

Originally Posted by it-ogo

Tanya - Таня. Actually it is diminutive from the name Татьяна (Tatiana). There is no tradition in Russia to use diminutives instead original names so you hardly can find name "Tanya" in official documents.

I knew my name was a nickname. My mother (being the daughter of a Russian/Czech) actually wanted me to have an American name. She was going to give me the name "Nicole." My father (an Irish guy) wanted my name to be Tanya. He actually chose it. I do know "Tanya" in Czech Republic is used as a common first name though.

In Biblical context James would be Иаков. More common version of the name would be Яков, so a second name would be Яковлевич (male)/Яковлевна (female)

Names of the Kings and other monarchs are usually translated as opposed to common people in which case they are transliterated.
James I - Яков I, Charles I - Карл I, Henry VIII - Генрих VIII. Usual persons with that names would have been Джеймс, Чарльз and Генри.

No ideas why Czechs decided to use j for "short i" consonant sound. Poles apparently did that because they use letter "y" for another sound, which is equivalent to Russian "Ы".

The letter "j" was first invented to represent the short i sound. It is used for this purpose in many Germanic, Slavic and other languages. Letter "y" was invented to represent Old Greek sound "y" (like French u) and is used for this purpose in German, Swedish, Norwegian.

Thank-you that was very interesting. I didn't know that.

Originally Posted by MrsKlug

You know how you use the fathers name as the child's second name? Like Father = Vladimir then daughter's 2nd name = Valdimirovna (or something like this)? If my son or daughter's father name is James, how would you write it as their second name? (This is just a random question that I was just now wondering.)

While placed after the first name and before the last name the patronymic name is not a second name in any way.
You can read some earlier discussions on this topic:
1. I Need help With My Name :(
2. Russian Names
3. Using a patronymic in the United States

Transliteration rules differs from country to country. Transliteration means that sound is marked by latin letter. For example my surname Хомичук using belarussian transliteration rules will be "Khomichuk" as I know in English it is "Khomitchouk".
And about name. I prefer to write Dmitry, but i know people who prefer to write Dmitriy and even Dmitrii