# Forum Learning Russian Language Resources for Studying Russian Russian Names  is Yana russian?

## russkayalove

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.

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## Propp

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...  ::

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## Gollandski Yozh

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...

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## Jasper May

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.

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## Gollandski Yozh

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   ::

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## russkayalove

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

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## roxfan

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)."

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## Gollandski Yozh

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

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## Victor

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.

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## Jasper May

English also has the name Jan, short for Janice. ::

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## mike

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

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## Jasper May

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

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## 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.

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## al

> 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'.

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## mike

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.

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## pookie123

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

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## Pravit

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

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## Mile-O-Phile

> English also has the name Jan, short for Janice.

 Maybe the English version of Yana is Jane or Joanna.

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## ezhikvtumane

> 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.

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## Wowik

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.

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## charlestonian

To ezhikvtumane and Wowik:
You guys are more than 3 years late with your answers. Look at the dates of the previous posts, and especially, original question.  ::

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## nadavvin

> 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.

 Why does Ivan is jewish name? I don't know any Israeli with that name, and I don't about anyone in the bible with name like that?

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## Оля

> and I don't about anyone in the bible with name like that?

 How about "Евангелие от Иоанна" (Gospel of John)? Or John the Baptist?

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## charlestonian

> To ezhikvtumane and Wowik:
> You guys are more than 3 years late with your answers. Look at the dates of the previous posts, and especially, original question.

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## chaika

A college sweetheart was a girl born in  Czechoslovakia, and her name was Jana, pronounced yana.

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## charlestonian

Jana (Yana) is a Slavic name, it can be Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Serbian, etc.

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## Remyisme

> Originally Posted by nadavvin  and I don't about anyone in the bible with name like that?   How about "Евангелие от Иоанна" (Gospel of John)? Or John the Baptist?

 You might be right Olya, but just because it is from thr bible, doesn't exactley mean it is Jewish, it is just from the bible.

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## Оля

> Originally Posted by Оля        Originally Posted by nadavvin  and I don't about anyone in the bible with name like that?   How about "Евангелие от Иоанна" (Gospel of John)? Or John the Baptist?   You might be right Olya, but just because it is from thr bible, doesn't exactley mean it is Jewish, it is just from the bible.

 "it is just from the bible" - that is exactly what I said: *there are* people with this name in the Bible (whereas nadavvin said "I don't know about anyone in the bible with name like that").

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## Remyisme

[quote=Оля] 

> Originally Posted by "Оля":276xr1xj        Originally Posted by nadavvin  and I don't about anyone in the bible with name like that?   How about "Евангелие от Иоанна" (Gospel of John)? Or John the Baptist?   You might be right Olya, but just because it is from thr bible, doesn't exactley mean it is Jewish, it is just from the bible.

 "it is just from the bible" - that is exactly what I said: *there are* people with this name in the Bible (whereas nadavvin said "I don't know about anyone in the bible with name like that").[/quote:276xr1xj] 
You're right. I am pretty sure I know why he said that. You gave him an example from the new testament, but Israelis/unless they're christian, usually don't know it. He meant probably that he doesn't know anyone with this name in the Old testament. 
I just checked in wikipedia, for _John the baptist_ and it came as *יוחנן המטביל* -  that's for nadavvin. I'm sure that you have to recognize this name in Hebrew. 
The Gospel of John as well as John the Baptist are parts of the New testament, I am sure that's why nadavvin never herd of them.

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## nadavvin

OMG!!!!! 
יוחנן המטביל is not appear jewish bible but in christian  bible: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_the_Baptist Russian Version

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## Ramil

The Jews don't have the New Testament. It's Christian only. And as far as I know, there are no Johns mentioned in the Old Testament (Torah).

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## Оля

Ясно.   ::

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## Ramil

And - Яна (Янина) is a derivation from Иоанна (Йоханна)
It's Jane (Jean) in English, or Johanna. 
Other derivatives:
Jaina, Janna, Janne, Jane, Janet, Janka (Bulgarian), Janina (Polish), Janita, Jantina, Janka (Hungarian), Janica, Jaana (Finnish), Janine, Jeanne. 
Although:   

> For some it is the name of the Roman goddess Diana, who was often called Jana... 
> ...
> In India however, Jana is a shortform for the Hindu God Janardhan.

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## Ширин

I know a girl nick-named Yana and she is Bulgarian.  ::

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## TATY

> The Jews don't have the New Testament. It's Christian only. And as far as I know, there are no Johns mentioned in the Old Testament (Torah).

 John is derived from Jonathan, which is the Hebrew name יְהוֹנָתָן / יוֹנָתָן Yonatan / Y'honatan. Jonathan is a longer form of the Nathan, incidentally (etymologically). I'm sure there is at least one Jonathan in the Torah...  
Most names come from the Bible. Just because a name is from the Bible doens't mean it's a Jewish name. Most Saint's names orignated from Hebrew names. 
Many names that are from the Bible, such as Mark, in Russia may be considered Jewish because mostly Jews have that name. But in English speaking countries Mark is a very common name with all people.

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## tyomitch

> John is derived from Jonathan, which is the Hebrew name יְהוֹנָתָן / יוֹנָתָן Yonatan / Y'honatan. Jonathan is a longer form of the Nathan, incidentally (etymologically). I'm sure there is at least one Jonathan in the Torah...

 I believe those two are distinct and unrelated names; the consonants romanized as "h" correspond to two different Hebrew letters (compare: יהונתן  Yə*h*

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## TATY

[quote=tyomitch] 

> John is derived from Jonathan, which is the Hebrew name יְהוֹנָתָן / יוֹנָתָן Yonatan / Y'honatan. Jonathan is a longer form of the Nathan, incidentally (etymologically). I'm sure there is at least one Jonathan in the Torah...

 I believe those two are distinct and unrelated names; the consonants romanized as "h" correspond to two different Hebrew letters (compare: יהונתן  Yə*h*

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## Aisik

hey, my name is Jana.xD   ::  I spell my name Jana, pronounced Yana. I'm not from Russia. I'm from the Czech republic and Jana is derived from the Hebrew name. Origin: Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, English. My family is not just from the Czech republic. They are from the Czech republic, Greece, Germany, Poland (and Poland belonged to Russia for many years xD).. Does not matter. You can think that's Russian name. It's popular in Russia now.=) But it's very popular name in the Slovakia, Serbia, Poland, Russia, Czech republic... Jana is a form of male name Johannes (Ioannes in Greece) and English form is Jane. Yana is a Russian from. Maybe you know Yannick, Jean, Jenica, Yoanna, Janet, Jaana (Finnish), Gianna, Giovanna, Jenny.. Every single one is form of Jana. I don't know.. Maybe they use this name in Russia because it sounds similar like Anna or Hana.. My mom's Hana.xD   ::   Check something about name Jane here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_%28given_name%29

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## Ленивец

Well, my wife's name is Yana. Her mother told me that she had heard a song being sung by a Polish fermale singer whose first name was Jana (or however they spell it in Poland). She liked the song that much so named her daugther Яна some months later. According to the Russian transliteration rules it's written Yana.

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## Hanna

Russian nicknames are confusing, but surely there is some form of Russian name or nickname like Yanka / Janka? There was a 1990s singer called that and she was definitely Russian. Plus there are definitely Polish, Czech and Baltic people called Jana.  
The J is pronounced softly, like it was an "i" or "y". It's just a spelling thing. Literally all of Europe apart from England and France spell it this way - the hard English pronouncation of J causes all names (including mine) to sound very different in English.  
I agree with Olya; the name is PROBABLY a derivation from a very excellent name   ::  "Johanna", "Joanna", Jeanne, etc. This was the name of a person in the Gospel of Luke in the Bible. She came to Jesus' grave with some other women and discovered that the grave was empty after he was resurrected. She was Jewish obviously but the name has since become a Christian name.   *I wonder what this woman is called in Russian bibles? That would be the ACTUAL translation of my name into Russian.*  
Anyway if you are so curious about this classmates origin, then why don't you just ask her? She's probably from Eastern Europe although not necessarily Russian - most Slavic accents sound pretty similar so the accent that you heard proves nothing.

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## Ленивец

It's quite predictable - Иоанна.

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