Yury

Yury is the Russian form of George, from the Greek Georgios, farmer or earthworker, the name of the dragon-slaying saint who became the patron of Moscow itself. Yury Dolgoruky founded the city in the twelfth century; Yuri Gagarin left the planet in 1961, becoming the first human in space and making the name synonymous with a certain kind of blue-overalls heroism. Two syllables, a bright y opening, a long u, a crisp close. Yury reads strong and classical, a name with Kremlin bells and orbital hatches both, a name that knows how to get on with the hard, real work.