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Russian given names are provided at birth or selected during a name change. Orthodox Christian names constitute a fair proportion of Russian given names, but there are many exceptions including pre-Christian Slavic names, Communist names, and names taken from ethnic minorities in Russia. Given names form a distinct area of the Russian language with some unique features.
The evolution of Russian given names dates back to the pre-Christian era, though the list of common names changed drastically after the adoption of Christianity. In medieval Russia two types of names were in use: canonical names given at baptism (calendar or Christian names, usually modified) and non-canonical. The 14th century was marked by the elimination of non-canonical names, that ended by the 18th century. In the 20th century after the October Revolution the whole idea of a name changed. It was a completely new era in the history of Russian names, marked by significant changes in common names.
The names of popular saints are known as "calendar names" from their occurrence in the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar. A common custom is to name the baby for the saint who is the patron over their birthday. Such names include Ivan (Иван, "John"), Andrei (Андрей, "Andrew"), Yakov (Яков, "Jacob"), Yuri (Юрий, "George"), Tatyana (Татьяна, "Tatiana"), Maria (Мария, "Mary"), Avdotia (Авдотья, "Eudocia"), Elizaveta (Елизавета, "Elizabeth"), Margarita (Маргарита, "Margaret"). The group of calendar names includes traditional names that used to be listed in orthodox menologia prior to the October Revolution and in popular calendars of the Soviet era that had been printed since the second half of the 19th century. In the Soviet Union in the 1980s, 95% of the Russian-speaking population had calendar names.
Ancient Slavic names include Stanislav (Станислав), Rada (Рада) and Radomir (Радомир), and Dobromila. Old Russian names include Zhdan (Ждан), Peresvet (Пересвет), Lada (Лада), and Lyubava (Любава). Soviet-era names include Vilen (Вилен), Avangard (Авангард), Ninel (Нинель), and Era (Эра). Names borrowed from other languages include Albert (Альберт), Ruslan (Руслан), Zhanna (Жанна), and Leyla (Лейла).
The number of currently used names is relatively small. According to various estimations no more than 600 masculine and feminine names more or less regularly appear in modern generations: the main body of given names does not exceed 300–400.