Most Popular Baby Boy Names in Russia 2025 (ZAGS Data) and Their Meanings

The name given most often to baby boys born in Russia in 2025 was once again Михаил (Mikhail). According to the civil registry system (ЕГР ЗАГС) run by Russia's Federal Tax Service, 24,671 babies had received the name as of January 2026. The gap to Александр (Aleksandr) in second place is 2,810 babies.

The official data available for Russia is thin: nationally, only the top five names were published. In this article we give those five with their meanings, Arabic spellings and Abjad values, compare them with 2023 and 2024, and then look at Moscow's separate list. We do not extend the list with estimates.

Four notes before reading the figures

• Official data, reported by the press. The figures come from the ZAGS register; we use them as reported in the press (TASS analysis, TV-21), not from the primary portal.
• Top five only. Nationally, places 6 and below were not published.
• Figures depend on the cut-off date. Late registrations are added afterwards, so the numbers can grow. A count at the end of December 2025 gave 24,022 for Михаил; the January 2026 cut gives 24,671. We use the January 2026 figures.
• Order only for 2024. The 2024 top five was reported in order, without counts.

Russia's top 5 boy names in 2025

None of the five names is of Arabic origin: Александр, Артём and Тимофей go back to Greek, Михаил and Матвей to Hebrew. Artyom is also written Артем in some sources.

Three years of the top five: who held his place?

• Михаил has been first three years running.
• Александр and Артём swapped places: in 2023 Artyom was 2nd and Aleksandr 3rd; since 2024 Aleksandr has been 2nd and Artyom 3rd.
• Матвей was 4th in all three years.
• Fifth place changed hands: held by Максим (Maksim) in 2023 and 2024, it went to Тимофей (Timofey) in 2025. Maksim left the top five; since his later rank was not published, we do not know how far he fell.

One caution: the cut-off date of the 2023 figures is unknown. In the published figures the gap between first and second was 855 babies in 2023 and 2,810 in 2025. Михаил has clearly pulled ahead, but two snapshots taken on different dates should not be compared one to one.

Looking towards 2026

This is not a forecast, only a summary of the 2023–2025 order: the first four places have been the same for two years (Михаил, Александр, Артём, Матвей), and the only movement was in fifth place. When the 2026 list is published, fifth place is the first thing to check: will Тимофей hold on, will Максим return, or will another name arrive? The data does not tell us yet.

Moscow has its own list

The Moscow ZAGS office publishes a separate, longer list for the capital. Below is the 2025 top 10. The 2023 column shows the rank within the top 6 reported that year; "—" means the name was not among those six reported names.

Лев (Lev) is 3rd in Moscow but not in the national top five; Максим dropped out of the national top five but is 4th in the capital. Артём, 3rd nationally, is 8th in Moscow, and Тимофей, 5th nationally, is 10th. Compared with 2023, Лев rose from 4th to 3rd, Максим slipped from 3rd to 4th, Марк climbed from 6th to 5th and Артём fell from 5th to 8th.

Note on the order: in the table of the mos.ru news item Тимофей (1,188) is listed before Роман (1,251), while the text calls Роман 9th. We ordered by the counts: 9th Роман, 10th Тимофей.

Five names on the Moscow list that are not in the 2025 national top five:

• Лев (Lev): Russian: "lion"
• Максим (Maksim): Latin Maximus: "greatest"
• Марк (Mark): Latin Marcus, probably from the god Mars
• Иван (Ivan): Hebrew Yohanan: "Yahweh is gracious"
• Роман (Roman): Latin Romanus: "Roman"

From Cyrillic to Arabic letters: the Abjad window

Abjad is calculated with Arabic letters, so the value of a Russian name depends on how it is written in Arabic. In the tables we used the spelling found on Arabic Wikipedia for well-known bearers of these names (e.g. ميخائيل غورباتشوف, مكسيم غوركي).

• First letters: four of the national top five begin with a Fire letter (م and أ); Тимофей begins with ت, an Air letter. In Moscow's top 10, 7 names begin with Fire, 2 with Earth (Лев ل, Роман ر) and 1 with Air. This follows the classical classification used on our site; some authors classify differently.
• Highest value: Михаил ميخائيل 701, of which 600 comes from a single letter (خ). Next is Артём أرتيم 651, where ت (400) carries the weight.
• Lowest values: Александр ألكسندر 365 among the national five, Лев ليف 120 on the Moscow list.

Curiosity corner: one name, two Arabic spellings

Some of these names have a much older, traditional Arabic form: the one used in Arabic translations of the Bible and in classical sources. Set next to the spelling based on the Russian sound, the values change noticeably:

Two notes: Iskandar is usually written in Arabic with the article (الإسكندر); by our Abjad rule the "al-" is not counted. The counterpart of Иван is يوحنا, John of the Arabic Gospels; in Islamic sources John the Baptist is identified with the Prophet Yahya of the Qur'an. As for Михаил, its spelling ميخائيل is the form used in the Arabic Bible (Christian usage). The angel is named in the Qur'an (al-Baqara 2:98): the mushaf (Hafs) spelling is ميكال (Mikal), 101, and the common Arabic form is ميكائيل (Mikail), 121.

True or not?

• "The name at the top is the most auspicious." No. The ranking only shows how many families chose a name; in the Abjad tradition a name's value does not change with its popularity.
• "A name with a bigger value is stronger." There is no such rule in the tradition. 600 of Михаил's 701 comes from one letter. What matters is the balance between the name's letters and elements and the parents' names.

Final word

If you like a name, look first at its meaning and its Arabic spelling. The real question, however, is how the name forms a whole with the mother's and father's names. A child's star chart (Yıldızname) is also calculated not from the child's name alone but together with the mother's name; the same name can point to a different sign and element for the child of another mother.

This article is for information only. Name meanings follow established dictionary information; Arabic spellings can vary by source. Abjad interpretations are based on tradition and contain no definite judgement or guarantee about a name.

Source: data of the Russian Federal Tax Service ZAGS register portal (ЕГР ЗАГС), as reported in the press: 2025 figures as of January 2026 (TASS analysis, TV-21, 16.01.2026); 2023 figures Snob (01.02.2024); 2024 order T-Zh (no counts published). Moscow: Moscow ZAGS office, mos.ru (21.01.2026); Moscow 2023: Snob/TASS (07.02.2024). Name meanings: Behind the Name.