Thread: is Yana russian?

is Yana a russian name? There is a girl in one of my classes named Yana, and I think she's russian, she has an accent. My russian boyfriend swears its not a russian name, but I looked under the popular names link and sure enough, there it was! He still swears its not russian. What do you guys think? Just curious.

It is definitely not Russian in origin (Polish, Ukranian or Belorussian?) but quite a lot of girls are named Yana in Russia nowadays. It is the question of usage. The name "Hamlet" is not Dagestanian or Georgian too, but I know that some Dagestanians and Georgians have this name...

Well, I'm Dutch and my name is John...

Jasper is also Dutch (sort of anyway ), but his name is Persian (it means "treasure keeper" or something, really cool!)

So why would you think a Russian has to have a Russian name? My Russian gf's grandmother is called Nelli...

How did you know my name means "treasure keeper"?;0 I think it's a nerdy name. Especially when pronounced in a posh Amstelveen accent. Yahspurrrr...
Beh.

A friend of mine is called Jasper, that's why I know...

And yes, in Heemstede Aerdenhout it sounds like Yaspurrrrrrrrrrr, i.e. awful. But the meaning of the name is

So if Yana is not a russian name, then I wander why is it under the russian girl names link?

Яна is short from Янина, but the short form is quite often used more than full one, even in official matters. It's not very widespread, but is not ultra-rare either.
"Женская форма от имени Ян (западнославянской и прибалтийской форм имени Иоанн, Иван). По другой версии, возникло, возможно, от латинского Янус (древнеиталийское божество, бог солнца и света)."

Jan is not just a Western-Slav and Baltic name. In Dutch and German we have the same name (maybe in Scandinavia too...)

Яна - this is a russian name. As frequent as Ольга, Света, Таня, Катя etc.

PS. Talking about origin of the names they sometimes turn out to be striking. Иван - this is a jewish name though this is probably the name which has strong association with Russia.

English also has the name Jan, short for Janice.

Or Janine, which brings us back to Yanina in Russian.

Ah, they're all just variations on John/Johannes etc. anyway.

Well I met that girl named Yana today. She is actually from Czech Republic. The strange thing is she spells her name Jana, even though it's pronounced Yana.

Originally Posted by russkayalove

Well I met that girl named Yana today. She is actually from Czech Republic. The strange thing is she spells her name Jana, even though it's pronounced Yana.

I think she just spells it like in Czech. 'Ja' in Czech sounds like 'ya'.

This is how most Europeans use the letter "J." I used to use it when transliterating Russian, but I am tired of having to say, "NO, I don't mean ж" when talking to Americans.

jsut cause the name isnt russian doesnt mean she isnt russian...there are americans with russian names and russians with american names...and why do names have to from a certain culture..? thats dumb i think only llast names are either "russian" or "spanish" or whatever kind of name

True, but you'd be hard pressed to find a white guy with the name "Somsak."

Originally Posted by Jasper May

English also has the name Jan, short for Janice.

Maybe the English version of Yana is Jane or Joanna.

is Yana a russian name? There is a girl in one of my classes named Yana, and I think she's russian, she has an accent. My russian boyfriend swears its not a russian name, but I looked under the popular names link and sure enough, there it was! He still swears its not russian. What do you guys think? Just curious.

I believe Yana is traditionally thought to be a Russian Jewish name. At least, that was what I was told by a Russian friend.

In any case, Yana is definitely a name that is used in Russia. I met several Yana's while I was living there.

Yana is not traditional Russian name. All traditional Russian names are names of saints of orthodoxal crunch and are listed in святцы (http://www.pravoslavie.tj/index.php?...d=24&Itemid=42)

But Yana is frequently enough used in Russia now.

Sometimes Yana is diminutive from different Russian names as Ульяна.