Galina

Galina comes from the Greek galene, "calm, stillness," the kind of quiet that settles on a harbor after a storm. In Russia the name peaked mid-twentieth century, carried by ballerinas, Olympians, and kind aunts in every village. Galina Ulanova, the Bolshoi's defining dancer of the Soviet era, made the name synonymous with poise. Three syllables, vowel-forward, it moves with the steadiness its meaning promises. The diminutive Galya softens it further without losing its shape. Less fashionable in contemporary Russia than its siblings, but never out of circulation, Galina offers an old-fashioned serenity increasingly hard to find on a birth certificate.