A Ethnically Non Russian Tsar's Name

The question is, what is a Russian name? Most of tsars used Greek, Latin, Hebrew or Scandinavian names. Is Alexander a Russian name? Nicholas? Ivan (John)? Mikhail (Michael)? They only used Russified forms of those names.
IMO a lot depends on the religion. Should a non Russian-tsar be an Orthodox, he will keep his name in a Russified form (like John => Ivan). If not, he would have to convert to Orthodoxy and either accept a new name (like Catherine the Great) or keep using his previous name, again, in Russified form.
 
The peculiar Russian practice of changing names applied not only to the Non-Russians (and Non-Russian names).
For example tsarina Eudoxia Feodorovna Lopukhina was not actually Eudoxia and her father was not Feodor (so she was not Feodorovna).
Her real name was Praskovja Illarionovna (Прасковья Илларионовна), that is a pure Russian name of a pure Russian girl, but the name was changed at marriage with Peter the Great.
 
Well speaking about the Russian tsars "springing directly from German loins"...

That's how the Russians perceived that (I guess you'd be interested to know):
When it was time to find a suitable wife for the Romanov crown prince (obviously one more German princess), a Russian noble made a joke which had a wide success in the society of the time -
He said: "What we need now is another strong healthy German mare to produce the Russian tsars for us".

I mean the Russians didn't see anything odd or humiliating about German girls giving birth to the Russians. And actually... what's wrong about it?

Here's another anecdote.

Alexander III ordered Konstantin Pobedonostsev, his teacher and spiritual mentor, to search for information in regards to the rumour that Georgiy Petrovich Saltykov (Catherine the Second's first lover), not Peter III, was the grandfather of Alexander I.

Pobedonostsev first told the Tsar that, perhaps, Saltykov was the real father. Alexander III then happily said: "Thank God, we're Russian!"

Later Pobedonostsev found some facts supporting Peter III's fatherhood. Alexander III, nonetheless, said happily: "Thank God, we're legitimate!".
 
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Abhakhazia

Banned
Here's another anecdote.

Alexander III ordered Konstantin Pobedonostsev, his teacher and spiritual mentor, to search for information in regards to the rumour that Georgiy Petrovich Saltykov (Catherine the Second's first lover), not Peter III, was the father of Alexander I.

Pobedonostsev first told the Tsar that, perhaps, Saltykov was the real father. Alexander III then happily said: "Thank God, we're Russian!"

Later Pobedonostsev found some facts supporting Peter III's fatherhood. Alexander III, nonetheless, said happily: "Thank God, we're legitimate!".

It's a bit of a strange situation, because while most of Catherine's accounts suggest that Saltykov was Tsar Paul's father, Paul was actually rather similar to Peter III in both appearance and to a lesser extent, in personality, as well as it technically being possible due to the time frame of his birth.

Also it should be noted that while Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst became Ekaterina Alekseyevna upon her conversion to Orthodoxy, there was no real reason she couldn't have been Sophia Alekseyevna other than the fact the the Empress Elizabeth didn't want her named after her aunt, Peter the Great's hated sister the Regent Sophia.

So there's not a real necessity for Russian monarchs to change their names if it translates perfectly fine and is perfectly Orthodox, but something distinctly foreign and not very Orthodox, like say, a Friedrich or a Louis, names that don't translate very well, would be pressured to change his or her name. If a foreign monarch was named George, I doubt he would be forced to adopt the name Pyotr, Nikolai or Aleksandr.
 
It's a bit of a strange situation, because while most of Catherine's accounts suggest that Saltykov was Tsar Paul's father, Paul was actually rather similar to Peter III in both appearance and to a lesser extent, in personality, as well as it technically being possible due to the time frame of his birth.

Also it should be noted that while Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst became Ekaterina Alekseyevna upon her conversion to Orthodoxy, there was no real reason she couldn't have been Sophia Alekseyevna other than the fact the the Empress Elizabeth didn't want her named after her aunt, Peter the Great's hated sister the Regent Sophia.

So there's not a real necessity for Russian monarchs to change their names if it translates perfectly fine and is perfectly Orthodox, but something distinctly foreign and not very Orthodox, like say, a Friedrich or a Louis, names that don't translate very well, would be pressured to change his or her name. If a foreign monarch was named George, I doubt he would be forced to adopt the name Pyotr, Nikolai or Aleksandr.

Alix of Hesse wanted to change her name to Ekaterina Feodorovna OTL, but in one of the few rare moments of Nikolai actually standing-up to Alicky and actually showing a brain that worked, he told her that that was a really really bad idea. So she went with Alexandra instead.
 
Is Peter even a Russian name?

Peter no. Pyotr, yes. The way it originally ended up in the Romanov family was that Tsar Alexei named his son from his first marriage (OTL Feodor III) as godfather to his first son from his second marriage. He decided to have a little fun in the form of a pun, and since Feodor sounds much like Pyotr, the name was given. Peter the Great took it further, and named first son Alexei, second son Alexander; then all of his sons from his second marriage were Pyotr-Pavel pairs. His first three daughters likewise got named as a clutch, Ekaterina, Anna and Yelizaveta (after Sts. Catherine (spiritual wife of Jesus), Anna (mother of the Virgin Mary) and Yelizaveta (mother of St. John the Baptist). And the names sort of entered into the Romanov naming practices from there.
 
Is Peter even a Russian name?

Yes and no, the names of Tsars are odd in English History. You could Ivan the Terrible and Fyodor the Bellringer, remain as they are when both John and Theodore, while the names of the Emperors of Russia are given in English Peter, Paul, Nicholas, Alexander etc, when those names would be Pyotr, Pavel, Aleksander, and Nikolai. Granted how "Russian" are names that have Greek origin doesn't really make sense unless want "true Slavic" names like Tsar Vsevolod and Yaropolk?

As for non-ethnic Russian names, you had as far as non-Russian Tsars both Simeon and Wladyslaw whose names conveniently enough where chosen from baptism or still Slavic enough there's not that much a difference in changing the name.

Peter no. Pyotr, yes. The way it originally ended up in the Romanov family was that Tsar Alexei named his son from his first marriage (OTL Feodor III) as godfather to his first son from his second marriage. He decided to have a little fun in the form of a pun, and since Feodor sounds much like Pyotr, the name was given. Peter the Great took it further, and named first son Alexei, second son Alexander; then all of his sons from his second marriage were Pyotr-Pavel pairs.

So it's just as bad the Muscovite Rurikids with Ivan and Vasily? We could of have an ATL Ivan V and Vasily IV just from Ivan the Terrible's sons.
 
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