Svetlana is a common Orthodox Slavic female name, deriving from the East and South Slavic root svet, which translates into English as "light", "shining", "luminescent", "pure", "blessed", or "holy", depending upon context similar if not the same as the word Shweta in Sanskrit. The name was coined by Alexander Vostokov and popularized by Vasily Zhukovsky in his eponymous ballad "Svetlana", first published in 1813. The name is also used in Ukraine, Belarus, Slovakia, Macedonia, and Serbia, with a number of occurrences in non-Slavic countries.
