I think
Irina must show up a lot in American media and pop culture, or maybe it's just very obviously a form of
Irene. It seems nearly mundane, or at least, not obscure and more familiar to me than
Ivan (I've never met an
Ivan and still vaguely associate
Ivan the Terrible or Ivanovich before I'd think of an ordinary guy named
Ivan). The only
Natasha I have met was African American (+ I associate
Latasha) and not Russian, although I'm still aware that linguistically it is Russian.
To answer your question, it wouldn't seem weird or inappropriate to me, unless one of the parents couldn't pronounce the name, or unless the name meant something negative in one parent's primary language. Like I probably would not expect a character named
Dong to have had a parent whose first language/dialect was American English...a more Russian example might be
Boris (American English associations being bore, boarish, and a cartoon villain), although that's grown on me since I met (a foreign) one, so I don't think it'd be impossible IRL just doubtful.
This message was edited 4/23/2025, 11:51 AM