Yevgeny

Yevgeny is the Russian form of Eugene, both descended from the Greek eugenes, "well-born, noble." Pushkin's verse novel Eugene Onegin, published in the 1820s, attached the name permanently to Russian literary cool, the dandy whose missed chances haunt every reader. Later Yevgeny Yevtushenko, the Soviet-era poet who read to stadiums, kept the name present on the world stage. Three syllables, with that distinctive Slavic yev opening, it reads more bookish than its Latinate twin. The diminutive Zhenya is one of the most beloved nicknames in Russian. Uncommon in English transliteration, it carries quiet literary pedigree.