Ekaterina (also Yekaterina and Ykaterina) are the Russian forms of Katherine. The letter "e" ("yeh") in Russian is pronounced like "yeh." This is the only form of the name that retains the original Greek first syllable at the beginning. The name originally was Aikaterine, which over time became associated with the Greek "katharos" meaning "pure," and thus lost the first syllable in most languages.See Also: Catherine