Svetlana


Svetlana is a common Orthodox Slavic feminine given name, deriving from the East and South Slavic root svet, meaning "light", "shining", "luminescent", "pure", "blessed", or "holy", depending upon context similar if not the same as the word Shweta in Sanskrit.
Particularly unique among similar common Russian names, this one is not of ancient Slavic origin but was coined by Alexander Vostokov in 1802 and popularized by Vasily Zhukovsky in his eponymous ballad "Svetlana", the latter first published in 1813. The name is also used in Ukraine, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia, North Macedonia, and Serbia, with a number of occurrences in non-Slavic countries.
In the Russian Orthodox Church Svetlana is used as a Russian translation of Photina, a name sometimes ascribed to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well.
Semantically similar names to this are Lucia, Claire, Roxana, and Shweta.

Variants

The Ukrainian equivalent of the name is Svitlana, the Belarusian is Sviatlana, the Polish variant is Świetlana, and the Czech is Světlana. The Serbo-Croatian speaking area has three pronunciations: Ijekavian Svjetlana, Ekavian Svetlana and Ikavian Svitlana are used according to local customs.

Diminutives

Russian language diminutives include Sveta, used in Russian-speaking countries, and Lana.
Sveta also means "saint" in Bulgarian. The Slavic element Svet means "blessed, holy, bright".
Serbian language diminutives of the name are Sveta, and Ceca.

People