Irina

Irina is a Russian form of Irene, a name with Greek roots meaning “peace.” It belongs to the same international name family without being a recent spelling change made for English readers. The final a and the position of the stress give Irina its own recognizable sound.

Irina is one of the sisters in Anton Chekhov’s play Three Sisters, providing a specific literary association alongside its linguistic history. Irene is the familiar English comparison, but an Irina need not be called Irene in English. A family can preserve the Russian form as an honor name or choose it for the peaceful meaning while keeping its pronunciation distinct from the English version.