Th e article focuses on consideration of functions, which the name Liodor (Iliodor) acquires in two works of N. M. Karamzin: in the early unfi nished story “Liodor” (1792) and in the late parable story “Anecdote” (1802). Th e research of these works shows that the name of the main character (Liodor, meaning ‘the gift of the sun’) actualizes the motives of “sunshine”, the struggle of light and fi re against darkness: from a certain moment the sad hero starts to act in the narrative as a “gift of the sun”, overshadowed by the tragic events of his life. In the story “Anecdote” the name Liodor, given to an even greater suff erer and an unhappy person, creates connections with a wide range of pieces of spiritual
and religious Christian culture and allows us to compare the story of the young man, who decided to take a monastic vow, with the hagiographies of the Holy martyrs, who bore the same name.