Octobering

Octobering was a naming ceremony which occurred during the early era of the Soviet Union, which involved giving a name to a newborn, introduced by the state on the official basis of Marxist–Leninist atheism as an attempt to replace the religious tradition of christening.^[1][2] The term serves as a translation of two synonymous Soviet neologisms: Oktyabryenie, coined in an analogy to Kreshcheniye, literally, the sacrament of "baptism", and Oktyabriny instead of Krestiny, the latter being a family celebration on the occasion of baptism. Oktyabriny not to be confused with Oktyabrina, which is a new Soviet-born given name. All three words are derived from the word Oktyabr, (October), in commemoration of the October Revolution.

Despite being short-lived,^[3] this so-called new Soviet rite contributed to the proliferation of the new names based or revolutionary phraseology, such as Oktyabrina, Vladlen (for Vladimir Lenin), etc.^[2]

References