Russian Names for Boys

This common Russian name has a somewhat effete pencil-thin-moustached image here.

What a difference a couple of letters make: Old World version of most popular name never quite made it out of the shtetl.

For lovers of Pasternak's great doctor, a lively middle name choice, one made by actress Nia Long.

Shura is a unisex Russian nickname for Aleksandr or Aleksandra, themselves forms of Alexander. Less known in the English=speaking world than Sasha, it's also more assertive -- probably because of that "sure" sound.