When Van enthusses about the "dark blue"
association in his velvety family tree, I couldn't discern if he meant
the Zemski-lineage or something related to his own name, Ivan.
Tyomno-siniy means "dark-blue" in Russian.
Temnosiniy is a historical name of a princely family included, like
Pushkin, Golovin and many other names, in the Barkhatnaya
kniga ("Velvet Book") of Russian aristocrats. See my posts about
Ivan Temnosiniy in the archive. Barkhatnaya kniga was
published in 1787 by N. I. Novikov (the famous freemason and representative
of the Enlightenment). N. I. Novikov = vino + k + ovin.
Alexey Sklyarenko