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I posted this about a month ago on the opinions board and now trying again in name facts, in the hope that I'll get some accurate answers rather than people's feelings. If this double-posting is annoying, I apologise.
Misha, as I am sure you know, is a nickname for Mikhail. In the comments section for Misha there is a lot of people saying how terrible it is to use this as a first name for a girl, because it is a Russian nickname, so very masculine, and just because Misha ends in a -a doesn't mean it's a girl's name, etc etc etc.
They get very angry about it, as I'm sure you can imagine.
In light of this, I want to make it clear that I love -a ending names for boys, and also that I wouldn't give a Russian nickname as a full name for either a boy or a girl. But I want to know if Misha would be an acceptable nickname for a girl in certain circumstances.
My reasoning is thus:
I understand (very basically) how Russian nicknames are formed: take a syllable from the full name and add a diminutive suffix like -sha, -ya, etc. Eg. NiKOLai -> Kolya | MAria -> Masha
In the same way, Aleksander becomes Sasha. But so does Aleksandra. Which makes me wonder if there in nothing about Misha that is inherently masculine sounding (to Russians or Russian speakers), it only seems that way because (as far as I know, and would love to be corrected if this is wrong) there is no Russian feminine version of Mikhail.
So, my question is this: if a girl was called Michelle or Mikaela and knew Russians/lived with Russians/went to live in Russia, would the nickname Misha be appropriate?
Misha, as I am sure you know, is a nickname for Mikhail. In the comments section for Misha there is a lot of people saying how terrible it is to use this as a first name for a girl, because it is a Russian nickname, so very masculine, and just because Misha ends in a -a doesn't mean it's a girl's name, etc etc etc.
They get very angry about it, as I'm sure you can imagine.
In light of this, I want to make it clear that I love -a ending names for boys, and also that I wouldn't give a Russian nickname as a full name for either a boy or a girl. But I want to know if Misha would be an acceptable nickname for a girl in certain circumstances.
My reasoning is thus:
I understand (very basically) how Russian nicknames are formed: take a syllable from the full name and add a diminutive suffix like -sha, -ya, etc. Eg. NiKOLai -> Kolya | MAria -> Masha
In the same way, Aleksander becomes Sasha. But so does Aleksandra. Which makes me wonder if there in nothing about Misha that is inherently masculine sounding (to Russians or Russian speakers), it only seems that way because (as far as I know, and would love to be corrected if this is wrong) there is no Russian feminine version of Mikhail.
So, my question is this: if a girl was called Michelle or Mikaela and knew Russians/lived with Russians/went to live in Russia, would the nickname Misha be appropriate?
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