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HelpMisha question
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 given 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. I'm sure you can imagine. You've all such comments in the comments sections.
In light of this, I want to make it clear that I love -a ending names for boys, and also that I would never 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 do know (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.
My question is this: if a girl was called Michelle or Mikaela and knew Russians/lived with Russians/went to live in Russia, would she be given the nickname Misha?
From what I know, it only seems logical.
They get very angry about it. I'm sure you can imagine. You've all such comments in the comments sections.
In light of this, I want to make it clear that I love -a ending names for boys, and also that I would never 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 do know (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.
My question is this: if a girl was called Michelle or Mikaela and knew Russians/lived with Russians/went to live in Russia, would she be given the nickname Misha?
From what I know, it only seems logical.
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