Mykola

Mykola is the Ukrainian Nicholas, from the Greek Nikolaos, "victory of the people." Saint Nicholas of Myra, the fourth-century bishop who became the worldwide patron of children and the distant ancestor of every Santa Claus, has been beloved in Ukraine for centuries, with Saint Mykola's feast on December nineteenth still a major children's holiday. Three syllables, the opening my distinctly Ukrainian. Mykola Gogol (Nikolai in Russian transliteration) wrote the dead souls of imperial Russia in this language, this name. Rare in English usage, standard throughout Ukraine, it offers the familiar saint's name in a specifically Ukrainian key. Warm, sturdy, deeply rooted.