The saint whose name the child received at baptism will guard him throughout his life. The question is how to choose the name of the saint, if not all modern names are reflected in the holy calendar.
Instruction manual
1
With the adoption of Christianity in Russia, children began to be called by the name of a saint whose day was closest to the date of birth of the child. The list of saints was small, at first it did not exceed 80 names, hence the huge number of Ivanov, Mari, Ann. To avoid confusion, pagan names for a long time remained as domestic ones, and the Christian name was used in worship, as a result, the child had a double name. An example is a fairy-tale character - everyone's beloved Ivan the Fool, the name "Fool", according to tradition, was given to the youngest son in the family and did not carry the slightest negative meaning. Over time, the month expanded, representing a much larger selection of Christian names. Until the beginning of the 20th century, children were named after the clergy, and there were no problems with the baptized name.
2
Problems arose with the integration of Western and Eastern cultures, with an increase in the share of educated people in society, and, of course, with revolutionary transformations. A fashion for names appeared, children began to be called by the names of literary characters, there was a practice of artificial names. The censure of the clergy for a long time was irrelevant. They returned to the clergy at the end of the last century and faced a rather serious problem.
3
Many names have appeared that are phonetically attractive, but not reflected in the calendar, so the problem of naming a Christian name arises quite often. Even such original Russian names as Yaroslav, Svetlana, Milan, Bogdan are absent in the calendar. What can parents do, who want to give their child a sonorous, non-trivial name, and at the same time give the child a holy patron in heaven?
4
At baptism, the priest offers parents a choice of several names that are appropriate in sound. Alin’s name is not in the list of Christian saints, but there is a fashion for him, it’s understandable - the name is beautiful and unusual. As a rule, the names of Alevtin, Angelina, Alexander, Anna are called to secular Alins, Alice. Slavic names Svyatoslav, Yaroslav, Rostislav are not in the Orthodox clergy, they can be baptized with similar names in sounding Mstislav, Vyacheslav, Svyatoslav. There are 15 ancient Russian names listed in the Orthodox churches - Boris, Boyan, Vadim, Vladimir, Vladislav, Vsevolod, Vyacheslav, Zlata, Kuksha, Mstislav, Razumnik, Svyatoslav, Lyudina, Lyudmila, Yaropolk.
5
One of the options to name the child according to the holy calendar is to choose the Christian name of the saint, whose memory falls on the day closest to his birthday, the path will not be in tune with the secular name. Some Christians believe that no one except the closest people and the priest should know the baptized name - this is just the case to give the child a middle name. As a result, we get a variant of early Christian Russia, when a person had two names - one for use in the world, the second - the name of the guardian angel.
