The most curious fact: how much of what we consider to be our own, ours, by origin appears to be borrowed. Take, for example, such "primordially Russian" names as Olga (Scandinavian), Catherine (Greek), Mary (Hebrew) or Vadim (borrowed from Arabic), Paul (Latin) ... The fact is that with the adoption of Christianity on Russia has changed and the tradition of naming. And before that the names of the names were influenced by the Varangians - hence the large number of Scandinavian by origin (Igor, Oleg).
Truly Slavic names remained for a long time forgotten. After all, children after the baptism of Rus were called not arbitrarily, not by choice, but by the saints. Original Russian names were replaced by "modern" Christian - Greek, Latin, Jewish. And only recently the tradition of naming children "in Slavic" began to revive. What are these primordially Russian names? First of all, they contain a "transparent" etymology. That is, we understand their meaning without additional interpretations. For example, Lyudmila, Svetlana, Vladimir, Velimir. With the root "-slav" (known, glorious) there are a large number of names. It is not only Vladislav, Svyatoslav, Yaroslav who we know. This is Wenceslas, Izyaslav, Ratislav, Pereslav. And women: Miroslava, Putislava, Boguslava, Vedislav. Russian names also contain other significant roots. For example, "yar" - from the Slavic sun god Yarila: Yarina, Yaroslav, Yaromir (-a), Yaromil, Svetoyar, Yaropolk. The root "light" is known for such primordially Russian names (Eastern Slavic): Svetopolk, Svetozar, Svetomir, Svetogor, Peresvet, Svetolika, Svetoslav ...
Calling the baby, our distant ancestors tried to emphasize Some feature. Therefore, the kids had temporary names - rather, nicknames, which later - through many centuries - became surnames: Molchun, Nezhdan, First, Tretyak. Only later, with the ritual of hair cutting, that is, when the baby was a year old, three years old, he was called anew. There were also traditions of name change. For example, after reaching adulthood, after recovery, after marriage at adulthood. It was believed that the name bears a destiny in itself. In addition, there were certain prohibitions. It was impossible to name the child by the name of the family members living in the house or the deceased older children. Tradition has long been called "grandfather", since it was believed that the share is passed through a generation. What other native Russian names can you remember? Of course, with the root of "God" (Bog): Bogdan, Bozhen, Bogolyub, Bogumil (-a), Bozhidar ... There were many names and with the element of "blessings": Blessed, Blagomir, but more often with the East Slavic "good" - ": Dobroslava, Dobromir, Dobromil, Dobronav, Dobrynya. The root "lyub" was also widespread: Lyubomyr, Lyuboslav, Lyubomysl, Lyubim, Liubava.
Aboriginal Russian names bore a positive message, brightly positive connotations. Therefore, most often the roots (words) were chosen with a kind, bright meaning. Full Russian names often consisted of two parts. One should also recall such wonderful anthroponyms as Radoslav, Radmir, Radoslavet, Lada, Milana, Milena, Milorad, Milovan. And also later (because they contain the Old Slavic incompleteness) Zlatomir, Zlata, Zlatoyar, Zlatogor. The original Russian names Ruslan or Rostislav are also popular today, but such forgotten ones as Zabava, Boyan, Siyan, Dobrava are worthy of attention.