#olha tkachenko

sorry I didn't know what to reply and I feel too embarrassed to post messages like this, but I wanna say I do appreciate it... (⁠ ⁠･ั⁠﹏⁠･ั⁠)

I don't like the Katyusha Ukraine because in my opinion it doesn't suit her, and people constantly use the name incorrectly. basically, Katyusha is like a playful version of "Kateryna/Katya", but people write it like a formal first name pretty often (Katyusha Chernenko), no blame since it comes from a place of unfamiliarity with slavic languages, it's just a bit annoying. plus the word is associated with that one russian song that became popular during World War II god it just doesn't suit her at all in my opinion 😭

"Katyusha" is a diminutive form of the name Kateryna, except it's of russian origin; in Ukrainian the diminutive forms of the name are "Katrusya", "Katerynka", or less commonly "Katrunya"

historically, the russian empire and later the soviet union promoted russian at the expense of Ukrainian, leading to the suppression of Ukrainian culture and language. of course, some Ukrainians use Katyush/Katyusha as playful nicknames, because the blending of Ukrainian and russian, that's been caused by reoccurring russification, migration, and political influence, lead to mixed usage in everyday speech – it's a normal thing (surzhyk). it's not a crime to use this word or anything, I just find it ironic that the character that represents a nation constantly oppressed by russian imperialism, in hetalia only exists as a dependant and less important character to give russia more endearing relationships and make him more interesting, and then the Japanese fandom coincidentally has also chosen the russian word for her name (I assume it's after that popular soviet song)

really I feel there's not much Ukrainian about canon hetalia Ukraine, which seems to be a very common feeling among many of my Ukrainian friends who know about the character :/ they think she's cute and pretty, but when it comes to national identity and culture, she is not relatable even on a stereotypical level, and has little depth as a character

anyway, if you want some Ukrainian first names, here's a list of the ones I think sound fitting (SUBJECTIVE OPINION 😡)

🇺🇦🔱🌻🍲🇺🇦🌾🌻🍞🇺🇦🍲🌾

Myroslava (love this one) - slavic origin, a combination of мир and слава, meaning peace and glory. it suits resilient and strong people

Olha/Olya (ОЛЯ UA!!!!!!!) - scandinavian origin (ukr. variant of Hélga). yea it's a really old and really common name that associates with the Kyivan Rus era, anyway I use it because of a meme and due to every Olya I've met building this collective Olya in my head that's literally how I also see Ukraine. she's such an Olya. it's hard to explain

Olena (not Olyena) - greek origin (ukr. variant of Helénē) came to Ukrainian through Church Slavic "Yelena" (not Yelyena)

Lesya - Ukrainian name deriving from "Olesya" which in turn derives from "Oleksandra". I'm very biased about it because it's one of my favourite female names, and also many Ukrainians associate it with Lesya Ukrayinka, which is the self-given title of an outstanding Ukrainian writer, translator and cultural figure

Halyna - likely greek origin and comes from "galēnē". I like it because I get to call her Halynka/Halya, I think it sounds cute

Tetyana - common slavic name, likely of roman origin, it just has a tender and pretty sound to it

these names are common in some or all other slavic languages, differing in varied phonetics

😑 I am NOT gatekeeping people from calling her "Kateryna", I just personally dislike Katyusha or russian Yekatyerina for her, and in my opinion the old russian-speaking fandom did a better job naming her Olha, even if that popularized the russian transcription for this same name (Olga)

my Ukraine is named Olha Tkachenko. I just like it the most and I've kind of grown used to it. whateva

(I'm copying the entire post because I deleted a paragraph I wanted to be in reblogs on accident, sorry)

Ukrainian "Catherine" is "Kateryna", the short version is "Katia", so yea. I actually sounds different in every Slavic language safe for russian and Bulgarian being almost the same

People may use russian words when naming places in Ukraine in English, like calling Kyiv "Kiev", because all the Soviet documents back in the day were handled in russian, so everything international used russian transliterations rather than Ukrainian ones. It feels weird to hear it, like foreigners are just using another language to name your home..? Maybe because a lot of foreigners can't tell the difference between different slavic languages. It's also a sore topic for a lot of people now that russians replace all the Ukrainian signs in Ukrainian territories whenever they capture them. The most unusual ones to hear in English are "Dniepr" instead of "Dnipro" and "Nikolayev" instead of "Mykolaiv", "Rovno" instead of "Rivne", I have to do a double take because idk what the person is talking about

When it comes to names, during the Soviet era, Ukrainian names were often russified, a process where Ukrainian names were altered to align with russian linguistic norms, this was part of a broader policy of cultural assimilation and suppression of Ukrainian identity. Official records (birth certificates, passports, etc) often used the russified versions of names rather than their original Ukrainian forms (for example, some of -enko, -ich, -ak surnames were russified in a form of adding -ov/-ev at the end, or changing the last name entirely), and as a result, this caused significant issues for families trying to trace their ancestry or locate graves of relatives, and then the problem was exacerbated by inconsistent documentation practices and the destruction of records during times of war or political purges

But anyway I recently found out that Sofia and Iryna are official suggestions for hetalia Ukraine, they're pretty nice actually, tho I'll stick to my own interpretations since in my head she's already a very different character (for Katia I don't like the connection it sometimes draws to Yekatyerina II)

Iryna's shortened form is "Ira", the diminutive/affectionate would be Irunya/Irynka, and Sofia shortened is Sonia (Софія/Sofia has three syllables like So-fi-ya, and Соня/Sonia two syllables like So-nya), sonia/соня also can mean "sleepyhead" btw

I hope this was insightful, I appreciate it when people are curious and ask questions