My colleagues over at the Crisis Pregnancy Blog recently took a look at the top U.S. baby names for 2006, thanks to Baby Center's annual list.

Though I favor traditional names over trendy ones, I think lists like this can have value when you are weighing what to name a newborn. But if you are adopting internationally, you're adopting someone who already has a name. And if you're adopting from Russia, that name is likely to be long, hard to pronounce, and accompanied by what seems to be an endless string of nicknames. And if you adopt an older child from Russia, as I did on my second adoption, you may have a child who is very firmly attached to a Russian name.

Russian names follow the same pattern as American names, with a few twists: There's a first name, a middle name derived from their father's name (also known as the patronymic) and a last name. Boys' patronymics end in "evich" while girls' ends in "ovna". So the title character in my favorite movie about Russia, Dr. Zhivago, is named Yuri Andreievich Zhivago. (OK, Star Trek fans, I know you where hoping I'd use Pavel Andreievich Chekov as my example.)

Russians generally call each other by their first name and patronymic (count how many times you hear "Yuri Andreievich" the next time you watch Zhivago. But many orphanage children lack a patronymic because their birthfather's name is unknown or undeclared. Some orphanages give these children the patronymic Sergeievich, which is something like saying "son of John Doe".

So you've got a long Russian name on your referral, what next? Google "Russian baby names" and you'll likely land on a string of sites that seem to be brokering Russian brides instead. Skip that nonsense and head directly to the State University of New York at Fredonia, which has compiled an excellent directory of Russian names--complete with meaning and full-sound pronunciation !

But the SUNY directory has one more element that makes it absolutely indispensable to the new parents of Russian children: The nicknames for every given name. So even if it says Ivan on your referral, you won't be surprised to hear the orphanage staff call him Ivanko, Ivashechka, Vanek, Vanechka, Vanya, Van'ka, Vanyusha … you get the picture.

As for what to do next, I'll take that up in a later post.