You may have noticed by now that I'm fascinated by names. It started almost as a dare, a few years ago, when I was very active in the Society for Creative Anachronism. People wanted Russian names, but all they knew were modern names. Thus I dove into research on medieval naming practices. The results float about the web, easily located through Google and from the SCA web page, and of course from my Non-Fiction page.

Of course, this fascination could also be attributed to the fact that I have this tiny little problem remembering names. Just ask my students. It's not that I mix them up, I just call them by the wrong name. In class. When I look at them. On the spot. It is particularly vexing when one's mother has a perfect memory for names and faces. Naturally, her daughter is supposed to inhearit the trait. Well, NOT!

So what is the result of all this angst and obsessing? A neat little Javascript table of Russian first names with their main variants. In English. And as soon as I figure out what's wrong with the Cyrillic version, students of Russian (and anyone else, of course) will be able to enjoy a Russian version of the same table.

And then, I have the multi-lingual table of first names. On the same page, you can find web links to names resources, and a list of solid, old-fashioned, hard-copy books on names I'm not afraid to recommend.