Svetlana

Svetlana
Svetlana is often used in reference to the Samaritan woman at the well in the Biblical Gospel of John. It is the Russian version of the Greek saint name Photini, meaning "enlightened".
GenderFeminine
Origin
Word/nameRussia
Meaning"light"
Other names
DerivedSveta, Svetlanka, Svetulya, Svetunya, Svetusya, Svetukha, Svetusha, Veta, Svetka, Lana
Related namesSvitlana, Sviatlana, Svjetlana, Świetlana
Popularity of the name Svetlana

Svetlana (Cyrillic: Светлана) is a feminine given name of Russian origin, deriving from the Slavic word svet (Cyrillic: свет), meaning "light".[1][2][3] Derived forms include Sveta, Svetlanka, Svetulya, Svetunya, Svetusya, Svetukha, Svetusha, Veta, Svetka, and Lana.[3][4]

Particularly unique among similar common Russian names, this one is not of ancient Slavic origin but was coined by Alexander Vostokov in 1802 and popularized by Vasily Zhukovsky in his eponymous ballad "Svetlana", the latter first published in 1813. It was adopted as the vernacular equivalent to the Greek name Photini, which was borne by a saint who has been identified with the Samaritan woman mentioned at Jacob's well in the Bible (John 4).[3]

The name is also popular in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine, with a number of occurrences in non-Slavic-speaking countries.[5]

Semantically similar names to this are Lucia (of Latin origin, meaning "light"), Claire ("light" or "clear" in French, equivalent to Spanish and Portuguese Clara), Roxana (from Old Persian, "little shiny star, light"), and Shweta (Sanskrit, "white, pure").[6]

Variants

The Ukrainian equivalent of the name is Svitlana (Світлана), the Belarusian is Sviatlana (Святлана), the Polish variant is Świetlana, and the Czech is Světlana. The Serbo-Croatian speaking area has three pronunciations: Ijekavian Svjetlana (Свјетлана), Ekavian Svetlana (Светлана) and Ikavian Svitlana (Свитлана) are used according to local customs.

Diminutives

Russian-language diminutives and short forms include Sveta (Света), Svetlanka (Светланка), Svetulya (Светуля), Svetunya (Светуня), Svetusya (Светуся), Svetukha (Светуха), Svetusha (Светуша), Veta (Вета), Svetka (Светка), and Lana (Лана).[4]

Sveta also means "saint" in Bulgarian. The Slavic element Svet means "blessed, holy, bright".

Serbian language diminutives of the name are Sveta (Света), and Ceca (Цеца, pronounced Tsetsa).

People

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hanks, Patrick; Hodges, Flavia (2003). "Svetlana". A Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press. p. 311. ISBN 978-0-19-860764-9. Russian: vernacular loan translation (from the Slavonic element svet light) of the Greek name Photine (from Greek photos light).
  2. ↑ Pickering, David (1999). "Svetlana". The Penguin Dictionary of First Names. Penguin. p. 329. ISBN 978-0-14-051423-0. Russian first name ultimately derived via the Slavonic svet ('light') from the Greek Photine, itself from photos ('light').
  3. 1 2 3 Hanks, Patrick (1991). A Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press. pp. 380, 383. ISBN 978-0-19-861060-1.
  4. 1 2 Petrovsky, Nikandr Aleksandrovich (2005). "Светлана". Словарь русских личных имен: более 3000 имен (in Russian). АСТ. p. 249. ISBN 978-5-98010-018-6.
  5. ↑ "Baby Names, Name Meaning, Popularity". BabyCenter. Archived from the original on February 11, 2010.
  6. ↑ Monier-Williams, Monier (1899). A Sanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymologically and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European Languages. Oxford: Clarendon Press. OCLC 685239912.
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