Markiian

Markiian is a name Ukrainian families have kept close, and its roots run back through Greek. The short meaning given to it is dedicated to Mars, the Roman god of war, so the name links a boy to strength and to a certain readiness. There is no softening diminutive here, no gentle variant to fall back on. The name stands as it is.

One documented bearer gives Markiian real ground. Markiian Shashkevych, born in 1811 in Galicia, was a priest and poet who helped lead the Ruska Triytsia, the Ruthenian Triad, and his 1837 almanac Rusalka Dnistrovaia is counted among the first books written in the everyday Ukrainian of the region. A boy called Markiian in a school register today shares a name that a writer once made a banner for a language.

The meaning points to Mars, yet the sound belongs to Ukrainian. Say it and you hear the country more than the war god. Dedicated to Mars: that is what the name has meant to those who carry it.