Svitlana

Svitlana swi:t l'a:na is a typical Ukrainian female given name. This name is interpreted as "bright", "light", and "pure". Can be interpreted in both ways: lights on the outside, for example, "fair-haired", as well as "pure in the soul". Commonly used Ukrainian-native short versions of the name are Sveta, Lana, Svetik, and Svitlanka. It is an ancient Slavic name, having a background of The Kyiv Rus', consisting of 2 parts "light" (Svit) and "field" (lana) which have a symbolic meaning of the land. Therefore the name Svitlana means "the light of the land". became quite common at the beginning of the 19th century. There is a hypothesis that the name actually came from the Greek name Photinius. Nowadays name "Svitlana": "Svit" sounds similar to the Ukrainian word meaning "world" світ 'svi:t, however, associated (by sounds) with the word "light" світло 'svi:tlo in the meaning of light, holly, and bright. The second part of the name "lana" sounds similar to the Ukrainian word meaning field (лан l'an) and is associated by meaning with fields and land. Therefore modern Ukraine has the same meaning of the name Svitlana as their ancestors (people of the Kyiv Rus') and interprets the name as a "light of land".