# All Slavic languages: Imieniny



## slavian1

Hi everyone.

In Poland, apart from the birthday, we celebrate so called "imieniny" (translated in dictionaries as nameday or saint's day). Each first name used by Poles is assigned to certain day of calender. For instance, my name is Andrzej, and my nameday is in November, 30-th. In this day we receive presents and wishes (ladies flowers) from our friends and relatives. 

Do you celebrate "imieniny" in your countries? What words do you use for "imieniny" (if any)?


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## Ptak

We have the word именины (it's pronounced almost like imieniny in Polish), but we don't celebrate it...


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## papillon

In Russian the same word - именины (imeminy) is used for nameday. Since there were virtually no such celebrations in Soviet times, many people took to using this word for birthday. It's an error, but can be justified by the fact that in many cases the two events, a birhday and a nameday, coincided, as a resulting of naming a baby after that day's saint


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## Athaulf

slavian1 said:


> Hi everyone.
> 
> In Poland, apart from the birthday, we celebrate so called "imieniny" (translated in dictionaries as nameday or saint's day). Each first name used by Poles is assigned to certain day of calender. For instance, my name is Andrzej, and my nameday is in November, 30-th.



Actually, the calendar of saints is universal for all Catholics, except for the local adaptation of the names. November 30 is the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle. (Other churches maintain their own calendars of saints too.)



> In this day we receive presents and wishes (ladies flowers) from our friends and relatives.
> 
> Do you celebrate "imieniny" in your countries? What words do you use for "imieniny" (if any)?



Yes, we have the same thing in Croatia, called _imendan_, although the custom is nowadays practiced only by the more intensively church-going parts of the population. For some people it's still very important, though. Some of my family members don't care about their birthdays at all, but arrange celebrations with guests and everything for their name-days.


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## winpoj

Yes, "jmeniny" is celebrated in the Czech Republic, although it is more often called "svátek".


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## Oletta

slavian1 said:


> Hi everyone.
> 
> In Poland, apart from the birthday, we celebrate so called "imieniny"


OK, I agree, but the custom is not practiced in every part of the country, in the south of Poland (especially the region of Silesia) we don't celebrate namedays at all, we do celebrate birthdays, however.


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## palomnik

The Hispanic world commonly celebrates name day, or _día del santo. _The calendar followed is, of course, the Catholic calendar. It is not unusual for radio stations to name off the saints of the day every morning so that you can give best wishes to your co-workers.

With the increase of newer names - foreign and not infrequently made up - in some areas of the Latin American world the custom is falling into disuse since there is obviously no saint to commemorate, and birthdays have largely taken the place.

If your name is _Jesús_, a not uncommon name in the Spanish speaking world, your _día del santo_ is December 25. _Es lógico, ¿No?_


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## slavian1

Athaulf said:


> Yes, we have the same thing in Croatia, called _imendan_, although the custom is nowadays practiced only by the more intensively church-going parts of the population. For some people it's still very important, though. Some of my family members don't care about their birthdays at all, but arrange celebrations with guests and everything for their name-days.


 
In Poland an opposite tendency is observed. The nameday became a very lay holiday, although its roots, as you have noticed, are in churche rites.
Some namedays (as mine for instance) bacame general festivals. 
November, 30-th is called "andrzejki". In these days people (especially young ones) assemble in private houses, clubs or pubs and make parties.


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## zpoludnia swiata

In Chile it's uncommon to celebrate name days, though it was done in the past.  Birthdays are often refered to as "santo".  Also, now a lot of people have names that don't appear in the Catholic calendar of Saints.


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## Irbis

In Slovenian it is called "god".
The situation is similar to Croatia. 100 years ago it was much more important than birthday, but now most people celebrate birthdays instead.


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## dudasd

In Serbia it's called "imendan" (literally: "nameday"). I am not sure if it's celebrated at all, though we have a word, so the tradition probably existed. It was replaced by another custom, very related to this one. There is a tradition of "slava" (family saint patron's day). Adopting Christianity and Christian names, Serbs accepted their saint namesakes as "patrons". Some of the familiar names were changed during the years and ages, but for example, if your "slava" is St. John (Sveti Jovan), you can be sure that you had a man named Jovan amongst your ancestors, and that he probably was the first or second generation of Christians in your family (which is more than 1000 years ago). In more traditional areas, families who celebrate the same "slava" avoid marriages between themselves, even if their forenames are different, for there's a possibility that they had the same ancestor. So, we are actually celebrating "imendan" of our ancestors.


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## tkekte

Interesting. I never heard of a custom like that one before.  Do the majority of people know their "slava"? Or only a few?


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## dudasd

All the Orthodox Christians of Serbian origin (wherever they live); even many people who are not really religious celebrate it because it's such a long-lasting tradition. Even our law gives people and schoolchildren a free day off their job/school when they celebrate slava. That's the third important holy day, or the "second best" after Easter and Christmas.


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## Kriviq

In Bulgarian it`s имен ден - nameday. Namedays are widely celebrated and St. George`s day, 6th of May, is a National Celebration Day; it is the day of the Bulgarian Army (or what has remained of it, rather ).
The tradition is, you don`t invite people when you have a nameday, but anyone may visit and pay you respect.


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## skye

Irbis said:


> In Slovenian it is called "god".
> The situation is similar to Croatia. 100 years ago it was much more important than birthday, but now most people celebrate birthdays instead.


 
And many people aren't named after saints any more so it wouldn't be possible anyway.


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## kusurija

Not only in slavic languages is this. In Lithuanian we have also _vardadienis_, but it's not as popular as in Czech.


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## Athaulf

skye said:


> And many people aren't named after saints any more so it wouldn't be possible anyway.



Obviously, few people nowadays take saints as such as an inspiration for naming their children, but I would bet that the vast majority of modern names in any traditionally Christian country are still covered by some patron saint. Very few people have names that have been borrowed from non-Christian cultures or newly invented in modern times.


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## Irbis

Actually in Slovenia quite a lot of new names are very popular lately. Among 100 most common names for newborns in Slovenia in 2005 were: Gal, Maj, Lan, Enej, Bor, Tian, Val, Svit, Črt (male); Lana, Maja, Zala, Kaja, Ajda, Taja, Gaja, Brina, Lina, Vita, Naja, Ula, Zarja, Iza, Pika, Sanja, Eneja, Tisa (female).

"Janez", which is considered as typical Slovenian male name, was on 83th place, "Marija" (still the most common female name) was not among first 100 in 2005.


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## dudasd

Irbis said:


> Actually in Slovenia quite a lot of new names are very popular lately. Among 100 most common names for newborns in Slovenia in 2005 were: Gal, Maj, Lan, Enej, Bor, Tian, Val, Svit, Črt (male); Lana, Maja, Zala, *Kaja*, Ajda, Taja, Gaja, Brina, Lina, Vita, Naja, Ula, Zarja, Iza, Pika, Sanja, Eneja, Tisa (female).


 
Kaja is a hypocoristic of Katarina/Katerina, and I think I can recognize some more "hidden" Christian names in this list (like Gal, Vita and Zarja). But generally it probably shows how much the role of "god" is reduced in Slovenia nowadays? (Just curious, I hope this is not off-topic.)


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## cajzl

For many people esp. men in the Czech Republic every _"svátek"_ is a good reason to drink. St. Joseph's Day is the most popular as Josef used to be the most common first name in the Czechlands.


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