My full name is Richard Ushka. My first name Richard was given to me by my mother Barbara and my father Arthur. It is derived from Germanic elements ric "power or rule" and hard "brave hardy" these combination of elements create the meaning "brave power". The name is used in English, French, German, Czech, Dutch, and ancient Germanic languages. It's most notable use in history was by three kings of England including Richard I the Lionheart, leader of the Third Crusade in the 12th century. The name Richard at the time of my birth was ranked #20 overall in popularity and held it's highest ranking from 1930 to 1947 at #5. My mother's side of the family descends from England and felt that it would be a good strong name for me in contrast to my Russian last name, Ushka.
My last name Ushka is Russian in origin and its literal translation to English is "little ear". It is pronounced oo sh kh ah. The suffix ushka is frequently used in Russian to denote a diminutive and endearing form of a name .e.g. a liberal interpretation of the term matryoshka could be taken to mean "little mother". So my name when broken down into there respective meanings are quite contradictory; Richard meaning "Brave Power" and Ushka "little ear" or as a suffix to denote diminutive or little.
I really like my name, especially my last name because anyone with the same last name as me is more than likely related to me. As far as nicknames, I grew up often being called by my last name or different interpretations of my last name like "Ooshk", "Ooshie", "Ooshkey", and of course one of my favorites "the Russian". Of course sometimes I would get the occasional derogatory comments about being a communist but it was always within the boundaries of being humorous.
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