It's ALL about ME

[nathalia]

On Sunday or Monday evening I was talking to my dad about Russian names (don't mock the topic, it's quite interesting how they are constructed) and he said that every male name had a female form as well but couldn't come up with the female form of Ilya, so I told him it was Illyana.

But the statement that every male name had a female form made me wonder: What is the male form of Natalja or variant spellings? I could only think of Nathan and Nathaniel which both don't sound very Russian and it was Russian names we were talking about. After all, I love the fact that my name is Russian and I can therefore call myself Natasha (I know I'm crazy). My father finally told me it was Natali and I kept making fun of it and saying that it was ridiculous and a female name. He cited this boxer, Natali Klitschko and today I decided to look it up.

First off, the boxer's name is NOT Natalie but Vitali (not totally anglicized full name actually is Vitaliy Volodymyrovych Klychko). And his brother whose name my father couldn't remember is Wladimir (Volodymyr Volodymyrovych Klychko). I love the structure of Russian names. They all sound so cool once you manage to say them without butchering them. And even if you can't, it still looks cool.

Second, my Chilean family didn't make up the saint named Natalia, there really was one. She and her husband Aurelius died as Christian martyrs in 852 and are among the fifty-four Martyrs of Córdoba. She came from a background of mixed religion but because her father for a Muslim, she was legally required to profess Islam, but she (along with her husband, her brother-in-law and her sister-in-law) practiced Christianism in secret. They were somehow found out about and executed. Saint Aurelius and Saint Natalia's feast day is on July 27th, so my Chilean family really didn't make that up.

But my main interest was to find out the male form of my name. Here is what I found on Think Baby Names :

[Female Symbol] Natalie - Name Meaning and Origin
A boy's and girl's name Nathalie \n(a)-ta-lie\ is pronounced NAT-a-lee. It is of Latin origin and its meaning is "birthday". Refers to birthday of Christ, or Christmas. There was a forth-century Saint Natalia. The "h" is silent in the French form Nathalie; some American variants (like Nathalee) are phonetically spelled to retain the "h" sound.
Natalie has 29 variant forms: Nat, Nata, Natala, Natalee, Natalene, Natalia, Natalja, Natalina, Nataline, Nataly, Nataliya, Natalya, Natasha, Natelie, Nately, Nathalee, Nathalia, Nathalie, Nathaliely, Nathalija, Nathaly, Natilie, Natividad, Nattilie, Nattie, Nettie, Talia, Talya, Tasha.
Natalie is a very popular female first name and an uncommon surname (source: 1990 US Census).

[Female Symbol] Natalia - Name Meaning and Origin
The girl's name Natalia \n(a)-ta-lia\ is a variant of Natalie. See also Talia.
The name Natalia sounds like Nathalia, Natalya, Nataliya, Natalja and Natala. Other similar names are Natavia, Natalina, Natasia, Natania.

[Female Symbol] Natasha - Name Meaning and Origin
The girl's name Natasha \n(a)-ta-sha\ is pronounced na-TAH-shah. It is of Russian origin. Variant of Natalie. See also Tasha.
Natasha has 9 variant forms: Nastaliya, Nastalya, Natacha, Natascha, Natashenka, Natashia, Natasia, Natosha and Natucha.

[Female Symbol] Talia - Name Meaning and Origin
The girl's name Talia \t(a)-lia\ is pronounced TAL-yah. It is of Hebrew and Aramaic origin, and its meaning is "heaven's dew; lamb". Variant of Taliah. Talia is also a short form of Natalia.
Talia has 3 variant forms: Tahlia, Taliah and Talya.
For more information, see also related names Talisa, Tally, Natalie and Thalia.
Names that sound like Talia are Dalia, Talea, Tallia, Talie, Tali and Tulia.



And that's not everything. I also found out about Natalia Rebublic, a former republic in South Africa. The capital was Pietermaritzburg and its official languages English, Dutch and Sulu. I think that's cool