Anatoly

The name means sunrise, from the east — the Greek Anatolios, which gave its root to Anatolia itself, the eastern peninsula of Turkey where the sun comes up over the Aegean. Early Byzantine saints carried it; Russia adopted it wholesale. Anatoly Solovyev conducted sixteen spacewalks, more than any other cosmonaut, stepping outside the station to repair, to install, to look at the Earth from the outside with the sun rising again beneath him.

The nickname Tolya does what Russian nicknames do best: it opens a heavy coat to reveal the warmer person inside. Four syllables in the full name move with a steady, deliberate cadence, neither hurried nor ornate — Ah-NAH-to-lee, a name that takes its time. In English-speaking registries it reads rare and recognizably Russian, a choice for parents who want the tradition without the ubiquity of Aleksey or Aleksandr. There is something morning-colored about Anatoly, something of first light and the particular clarity that comes before the day starts accumulating its complications. A name for the early riser, literal and figurative.