It can no longer be called the Soviet Union. After the Soviet Union collapsed, it was divided into a dozen independent countries.
Naming habits vary around the world.
When the Soviets name their children, they also pay more attention to the meaning of the name and whether the pronunciation is loud. Every Soviet citizen's passport contained his full name. The full name consists of three parts, which are the surname, the given name and the patronymic.
The first is the last name. When a man marries a woman, the woman takes her husband's surname. Their children also take their father's last name. So the whole family has the same last name.
The second part is a person's name. The Soviets did not much create new names, but chose from existing ones. Generally, when choosing a name, Soviet people pay attention to the loud sound and choose whatever sounds good. Usually, a name has two names: one is the formal name, which is usually used in formal situations; the other is the nickname, which is called by relatives, classmates, and friends. A formal name is longer than a nickname, and a nickname is cuter than a formal name.
The third part is the patronymic. The Soviets added their father's name after their own name. This is a characteristic of Soviet names. If you know a person's full name (first name and patronymic), you can know the name of his father; if you know his father's full name, you can know the name of his grandfather, and so on. If the speaker wants to show respect to the other person, he uses the other person's first and patronymic names.
Because the surname and patronymic are fixed, only the first name can be given to the child at will. And because both the surname and the patronymic name come from the father, people often say that, for the sake of fairness, the mother can decide the name for the child. But in fact, naming is often discussed together by the whole family.
There are some different ways to choose a child's name:
The simplest way is to choose according to the popularity of the name. Some parents prefer trendy names, while others prefer unique names.
Traditionally, Soviet people can have the same name as their elders. For example, if a famous elder passes away, in order to commemorate him, a new child can be named after him. Nowadays, some people also like to name their children after their lovers. For example, name your son after your husband, and name your daughter after your wife. According to them, because they love each other very much, they had to name their children after their lovers.
When someone chooses a name, choose it based on the ancient meaning of the name. Most of the names of Soviet people come from ancient Greek or Latin. So find the ancient Greek or Latin translation of your name and you'll know the original meaning of your name. Ordinary names contain nature, personal characteristics and blessings.
Some people like to study the correlation between names and personalities. According to them, names can affect a person's personality, living habits, and even a person's life. Therefore, before naming their children, some parents read special books to design their children's future personality traits and future, and then choose a suitable name for their children.
Nowadays, few people name their children according to religious rules. According to the tradition of the Orthodox Church, when parents name their children, they should look at which saint the child's birthday falls on or around the day commemorated by that saint, and then name the child after that saint. It is believed that the saint will always help a child after his baptism.
In short, the Soviet methods of naming children can be roughly divided into two types: the first is to choose whatever sounds good, which is natural; the second is a method of serious research and thinking, full of ideals. But which method is better, each parent can decide for himself.