China News Service, June 15 (Zhang Naiyue and Kong Qingling) Did you know?

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky turned out to be heads of state with "same names and different surnames", and both have "Vladimir" in their names.

　　Why did they invariably choose this name?

What's so special about this name?

Is "Vladimir" a first name or a last name?

　　This starts with the names of the Slavs in Eastern Europe.

　　Usually, people's names here are made up of three parts: first name, paternal name, and last name.

The first name is each person's own name, the paternal name is a variant of the father's name, and the surname usually represents the family name.

　　Taking Russian President Putin as an example, in his full name "Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin", the first part "Vladimir" is the first name, the last part "Putin" is the surname, and the middle part is "Vladimir". "Vladimir", which is very similar to "Vladimirovich", is the paternal name.

FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

　　Through this father name, we can know that Putin's father's name is also "Vladimir".

　　In fact, "Vladimir" is a common male name in Eastern Europe.

Unlike the ever-changing Chinese names, there are only a few hundred commonly used names in modern Russian, and therefore, the catchy name "Vladimir" is frequently used.

　　And, literally, "Vladimir" sounds very "domineering", and its origins can be traced back to the ancient Church Slavic, which is usually read as "the one who holds the world."

How powerful is "Vladimir"?

　　In addition to the head of state at the beginning, Lenin, the famous leader of the October Revolution and the founder of the former Soviet Union, is also a "Vladimir" in history.

　　Also named "Vladimir": Former Russian Navy Commander Korolev, former Shanghai Cooperation Organization Secretary-General Norov, Russian TV "Famous Mouth" reporter Solovyov, the late Russian Liberal Democratic Party Former Chairman Zhirinovsky and so on.

　　In addition, cosmonaut Aksyonov, who twice won the "Hero of the Soviet Union" medal, is also called "Vladimir".

　　In the literary and art circles, the Soviet drama actor and musician Vysotsky, known as "one of the best Hamlet actors in the world in the 1970s", the Russian-American writer Nabokov, and one of the most popular Soviet poets A Mayakovsky, etc., also have the name "Vladimir".

　　In Ukraine, the faces of the two "Vladimir", Grand Duke Vladimir and Vernatsky, have also appeared on the currency with a face value of 1 and 1,000 hryvnia, respectively.

　　The former is an ancient statesman and ruler who introduced the Orthodox Church to Kievan Rus, and the latter is one of the founders of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

　　In addition to the names, near the Russian capital Moscow, there is also the Vladimir Oblast, the capital of which is Vladimir City.

This area was once an important political, economic and cultural center of ancient Russia, and now it is one of the most popular tourist destinations near the Russian capital.

Data map: Russian nuclear submarine "Prince Vladimir".

Image source: CCTV News/Russian Red Star TV

　　Even in the Russian naval array, there is a strategic nuclear submarine named "Prince Vladimir", which was once called "the foundation of future Russian sea-based nuclear power" due to its superior performance...

"Vladimir" is also very common

　　In addition to these shining names, the word "Vladimir" is not always associated with celebrities.

　　It might just be the name of a library in Belarus, a riverside park in Ukraine, or a subway station in Russia.

　　"Vladimir" was widely circulated in the Slavic region for cultural and religious reasons, and was later remembered with a celebrity named "Vladimir", and then slowly receded with the tide of history and stayed on the street in the name of the alley.

　　Statistics show that "Vladimir" as a name once climbed to the peak of popularity in the 1930s and 1940s, and once became the most popular boy name.

After the 1980s, the name gradually fell out of the top ten "most common names".

　　Today, new-born boys in Russia are increasingly being named "Alexander", "Artem" and "Mikhail".

(Finish)