Why I have 4 names

Why I have 4 names.You might have noticed lately that I use Mykola and Nikolay interchangeably. I also have 2 other names that I use - Nick and Kolya (Коля). Let me explain.

I come from Ukraine but from a Russian-speaking family. At birth, I was given the name Nikolay - which is a Russian variant of Ukrainian Mykola. Don’t ask me why Ukrainians decided that Mykola == Nikolay, but that’s how it is. So, right at birth I was destined for confusion when I was to travel abroad.

Like many other nations, Ukrainians have a concept of “official” and “friendly” names. The “friendly” name is used for people you know - i.e., friends and family. My “official” name is Nikolay (Mykola), but my “friendly” name is Kolya (Коля). And this is where another problem surfaced.

It so turns out that many people across the world have a hard time pronouncing the “lya” part in “Kolya” correctly. So when at the age of 12 I moved to the United States with my mother I quickly realized that either I find an alternative for Kolya or I was going to be stuck with people calling me Kola - like Coca-Cola.

To avoid being associated with a beverage I decided to settle on “Nick”. Nick seemed like a good short alternative for Nikolay. I even got a t-shirt and attached big letters N-I-C-K on the front - which I thought was cool at 12 years old.

So there you have it. If you see me using either of those 4 names here or in my newsletter - now you know why :)