Michael, Ilya, Anna and many other similar names have long become the most common for any resident of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. But not everyone knows that such familiar names have Jewish roots or at least lead us to them. So it has been for many years, and even now, in seemingly Slavic names, it is not so easy to find the echoes of the Jews. But you can

There are many reasons for this phenomenon. Undoubtedly, the very first thing to call is that for many years and even centuries the Jewish community has lived on the territory of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. This was how natural assimilation took place and first the surrounding people adopted Jewish names, and then they adapted them more and more to the peculiarities of the local language and culture. So, for example, Boruch became Boris.

Also you can not fail to mention the Soviet period. Here, in connection with the political mood in the Union, the Jews were forced to change their names to "more Slavic" variants, or simply give their children Russian names. At the same time, many of them did not want to lose their cultural roots. So, as a result of all these reasons, the following replacements (perhaps the most famous of them) occurred:

Zachary - Zahar;

Joachim - Akim;

Johannan - Johan, Ivan;

Isaiah - Isai;

Jeremiah - Eremey;

Eliyahu - Ilya;

Elisha - Elisha;

Elisheva - Elizabeth;

Lazar is Leonid;

Levi - Leonid, Lev;

Moshe - Moses, Michael;

Matateiu is Matvey;

Miriam is Mary;

Natanahu - Nathan;

Rivka - Rita;

Hana - Anna;

Shimon - Semen.