Eastern Slavic Naming Customs
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Eastern Slavic naming customs are the traditional way of identifying a person's
given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a fa ...
and
patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...
name in Russia and some countries formerly part of the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
or the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. They are commonly used in
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
,
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
,
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
,
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
,
Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...
,
Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...
, and to a lesser extent in
Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the east. ...
,
Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
,
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
,
Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
, and
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
. It is named after the
East Slavic languages The East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of the Slavic languages, distinct from the West and South Slavic languages. East Slavic languages are currently spoken natively throughout Eastern Europe, and eastwards to Sibe ...
group that the Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn and Ukrainian languages belong to. They are also found occasionally in the
Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
among older generations.


Given names

Eastern Slavic parents select a
given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a fa ...
for a newborn child. Most first names in East Slavic languages originate from two sources: *
Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...
tradition * native pre-Christian Slavic lexicons Almost all first names are single. Doubled first names (as in, for example, French, like ''Jean-Luc'') are very rare and are from foreign influence. Most doubled first names are written with a hyphen: ''Mariya-Tereza''.


Males


Females


Forms

Being highly
synthetic languages A synthetic language uses inflection or agglutination to express syntactic relationships within a sentence. Inflection is the addition of morphemes to a root word that assigns grammatical property to that word, while agglutination is the combina ...
, Eastern Slavic treats personal names as
grammatical In linguistics, grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular variety (linguistics), speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the go ...
nouns and apply the same rules of
inflection In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defin ...
and
derivation Derivation may refer to: Language * Morphological derivation, a word-formation process * Parse tree or concrete syntax tree, representing a string's syntax in formal grammars Law * Derivative work, in copyright law * Derivation proceeding, a proc ...
to them as for other nouns. So one can create many forms with different degrees of affection and familiarity by adding the corresponding suffixes to the auxiliary stem derived from the original name. The auxiliary stem may be identical to the word stem of the full name (the full name Жанна ''Zhanna'' can have the suffixes added directly to the stem Жанн- ''Zhann-'' like Жанночка ''Zhannochka''), and most names have the auxiliary stem derived unproductively (the Russian name Михаил ''Mikhail'' has the auxiliary stem Миш- ''Mish-'', which produces such name-forms as Миша ''Misha'', Мишенька ''Mishenka'', Мишуня ''Mishunya'' etc., not *Михаилушка ''Mikhailushka''). Unlike English, in which the use of diminutive forms is optional even between close friends, in East Slavonic languages, such forms are obligatory in certain contexts because of the strong
T–V distinction The T–V distinction is the contextual use of different pronouns that exists in some languages and serves to convey formality or familiarity. Its name comes from the Latin pronouns '' tu'' and '' vos''. The distinction takes a number of forms ...
: the T-form of address usually requires the short form of the counterpart's name. Also, unlike other languages with prominent use of name suffixes, such as Japanese, the use of derived name forms is mostly limited to the T-addressing: there is no way to make the name more formal than the plain unsuffixed full form, and no suffixes can be added to the family name. Most commonly, Russian philologists distinguish the following forms of given names:


Short forms

The "short name" (Russian: краткое имя ''kratkoye imya''), historically also "half-name" (Russian: полуимя ''poluimya''), is the simplest and most common name derivative. Bearing no suffix, it is produced suppletively and always has the declension noun ending for both males and females, thus making short forms of certain unisex names indistinguishable: for example, Sasha (Russian: Саша) is the short name for both the masculine name Aleksandr (Alexander) and the feminine form Aleksandra (Alexandra). Some names, such as Zhanna (Jeana) and Mark have no short forms, and others may have two (or more) different forms. In the latter case, one form is usually more informal than the other.


Diminutive forms

Diminutive forms are produced from the "short name" by means of various suffixes; for example, Михаил Mikhail (full) – Миша Misha (short) – Мишенька Mishenka (affectionate) – Мишка Mishka (colloquial). If no "short name" exists, then diminutive forms are produced from the full form of the respective first name; for example, Марина Marina (full) – Мариночка Marinochka (affectionate) – Маринка Marinka (colloquial). Unlike the full name, a diminutive name carries a particular emotional attitude and may be unacceptable in certain contexts. Depending on the nature of the attitude, diminutive name forms can be subdivided into three broad groups: affectionate, familiar, and slang.


=Affectionate diminutive

= Typically formed by suffixes -''еньк''- (-yenk-), -''оньк''- (-onk-), -''ечк''- (-yechk-), -''ушк'' (-ushk), as illustrated by the examples below. It generally emphasises a tender, affectionate attitude and is roughly analogous to German suffixes -''chen'', -''lein'', Japanese -''chan'' and -''tan'' and affectionate name-derived nicknames in other languages. It is often used to address children or intimate friends. Within a more official context, this form may be combined with the honorific plural to address a younger female colleague.


=Colloquial diminutives

= Colloquial diminutives are derived from short names by the -''к''- ("-k-") suffix. Expressing a highly familiar attitude, the use may be considered rude or even pejorative outside a friendly context.


=Slang forms

= Slang forms exist for male names and, since a few decades ago, female names. They are formed with the suffixes -''ян'' (-yan), -''он'' (-on), and -''ок/ёк'' (-ok/yok). The suffixes give the sense of "male brotherhood" that was once expressed by the patronymic-only form of address in the Soviet Union. Originating in criminal communities, such forms came into wide usage in Russia in the 1990s.


Early Soviet Union

During the days of the
October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
, as part of the campaign to rid Russia of
bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
culture, there was a drive to invent new, revolutionary names. As a result, many Soviet children were given atypical names, often being
acronyms An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...
/
initialism An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...
s besides many other names above.


Patronymics

The patronymic name is based on the first name of the father and is written in all legal and identity documents. If used with the first name, the patronymic always follows it.


Usage

The patronymic name is obligatory when addressing a person of higher social stance and/or on special occasions such as business meetings; for example, when a pupil addresses a teacher, they are obliged to use both first and patronymic names – russian: Марья Ивановна, могу я спросить..., , Marya Ivanovna, may I ask.... Not using patronymic names in such situations is considered offensive. Addressing a person by patronymic name only is widespread among older generations (more often – "blue collar"-male coworkers) and serves as a display of close relationship based on not only sympathy but also mutual responsibility.


Derivation

The patronymic is formed by a combination of the father's name and suffixes. The suffix is -''ович'' for a son, -''овна'' – for a daughter. For example, if the father's name was ''Иван'' (Ivan), the patronymic will be ''Иванович'' (Ivanovich) for a son and ''Ивановна'' (Ivanovna) for a daughter. If the suffix is being appended to a name ending in a ''й'' ("y") or a soft
consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
, the initial ''o'' in the suffixes -''ович'' and -''овна'' becomes a ''е'' ("ye") and the suffixes change to -''евич'' and -''евна'' . For example, if the father is ''Дмитрий'' (Dmitry), the patronymic is ''Дмитриевич'' (Dmitrievich) for a son and ''Дмитриевна'' (Dmitrievna) for a daughter. It is not ''Дмитрович'' (Dmitrovich) or ''Дмитровна'' (Dmitrovna) because the name ''Дмитрий'' (Dmitry) ends on "й" ("y"); For some names ending in a
vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
, the suffix is -''ич'' for a son and -''ична'' or -''инична'' for a daughter; for example, Фока Foka (father's first name) – Фокич Fokich (male patronymic) – Фокична Fokichna (female patronymic); Кузьма Kuzma (father's first name) – Кузьмич Kuzmich (male patronymic) – Кузьминична Kuzminichna (female patronymic).


Historical grounds

Historical Russian naming conventions did not include surnames. A person's name included that of his father: e.g. ''Иван Петров сын'' (Ivan Petrov syn) which means "Ivan, son of Peter". That is the origin of most Russian -ov surnames. Modern -ovich- patronyms were originally a feature of the royal dynasty (Рюриковичи, Ruerikovichi, Rurikids, which makes the East Slavic patronym in its original meaning being similar to German ''von''. From the 17th century, the second name with suffix -''ович'' (-''ovich'') was the privilege given by the
tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...
to commoners. For example, in 1610, Tsar Vasili IV gave to the
Stroganovs The Stroganovs or Strogonovs (russian: link=no, Стро́гановы, Стро́гоновы), French spelling: Stroganoff, were a family of highly successful Russian merchants, industrialists, landowners, and statesmen. From the time of Iva ...
, who were merchants, the privilege to use patronyms. As a tribute for developing the salt industry in Siberia, Pyotr Stroganov and all his issues were allowed to have a name with -''ovich''. The tsar wrote in the chart dated on 29 May, "... ''to write him with ''ovich'', to try'' im''in Moscow only, not to fee'' im''by other fees, not to kiss a cross by himself'' hich means not to swear during any processions In the 18th century, it was the family of merchants to have patronyms. By the 19th century, the -ovich form eventually became the default form of a patronymic.


Legal basis

Everyone in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus is supposed to have a tripartite name. Single mothers may give their children any patronym, and this does not have any legal consequences. Foreigners who adopt Russian citizenship are exempted from having a patronym. Now, an adult person is entitled to change patronyms if necessary, such as to alienate themselves from the biological father (or to show respect for the adopted one) as well as to decide the same for an underage child.


Family names

Family name In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...
s are generally used like in English.


Derivation and meaning

In Russian, some common suffixes are -''ов'' (-ov), -''ев'' (-yev), meaning "belonging to" or "of the clan of/descendant of", e.g. Petrov = of the clan of/descendant of Petr (Peter), usually used for
patronymic surname A patronymic surname is a surname originated from the given name of the father or a patrilineal ancestor. Different cultures have different ways of producing patronymic surnames. For example, early patronymic Welsh surnames were the result of th ...
s—or -''ский'' (-sky), an adjectival form, meaning "associated with" and usually used for
toponymic surname A toponymic surname or topographic surname is a surname derived from a place name.
s. Historically, toponymic surnames may have been granted as a token of nobility; for example, the princely surname
Shuysky The Princes Shuisky (russian: Шуйские, Shuyskiye) was a Rurikid family of Boyars descending from Grand Duke Dimitri Konstantinovich of Vladimir-Suzdal and Prince Andrey Yaroslavich, brother to Alexander Nevsky. The surname is derived fr ...
is indicative of the princedom based on the ownership of Shuya. Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tavricheski had the
victory title A victory title is an honorific title adopted by a successful military commander to commemorate his defeat of an enemy nation. The practice is first known in Ancient Rome and is still most commonly associated with the Romans, but it was also adop ...
'Tavricheski', as part of his surname, granted to him for the
annexation of Crimea by the Russian Empire The territory of Crimea, previously controlled by the Crimean Khanate, was annexed by the Russian Empire on . The period before the annexation was marked by Russian interference in Crimean affairs, a series of revolts by Crimean Tatars, a ...
. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, ''-off'' was a common transliteration of ''-ov'' for Russian family names in foreign languages such as French and German (like for the
Smirnoff Smirnoff (; ) is a brand of vodka owned and produced by the British company Diageo. The Smirnoff brand began with a vodka distillery founded in Moscow by Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov (1831–1898). It is distributed in 130 countries. Smirnoff produ ...
and the
Davidoff Davidoff is a Swiss premium brand of cigars, cigarettes and smoker's accessories. The Davidoff cigarette brand has been owned by Imperial Brands after purchasing it in 2006. The non-cigarette portion of the Davidoff tobacco brand is owned by ...
brands). Surnames of Ukrainian and Belarusian origin use the suffixes -ко (-ko), -ук (-uk), and -ич (-ych). For example, the family name ''Писаренко'' ( Pisarenko) is derived from the word for a scribe, and ''Ковальчук'' (
Kovalchuk Kovalchuk ( Ukrainian and Russian: Ковальчук), Kavalchuk ( be, Кавальчук), Kowalczuk ( Polish), Covalciuc (Moldovan/Romanian), also transliterated as Kowalchuk (in the North American diaspora), is a common East Slavic surname (o ...
) refers to a smith. Less often, some versions of family names will have no suffix, e.g. Lebed, meaning swan, and Zhuk, meaning beetle (but see also Lebedev and Zhukov).
Hyphenated surname A double-barrelled name is a type of compound surname, typically featuring two words (occasionally more), often joined by a hyphen. Examples of some notable people with double-barrelled names include Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Sacha Baron Co ...
s like Petrov-Vodkin are possible.


Grammar

Eastern Slavic languages are
synthetic languages A synthetic language uses inflection or agglutination to express syntactic relationships within a sentence. Inflection is the addition of morphemes to a root word that assigns grammatical property to that word, while agglutination is the combina ...
and have
grammatical cases A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nom ...
and
grammatical gender In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nouns ...
. Unlike
analytic language In linguistic typology, an analytic language is a language that conveys relationships between words in sentences primarily by way of ''helper'' words (particles, prepositions, etc.) and word order, as opposed to using inflections (changing the ...
s like English, which use prepositions ("to", "at", "on" etc.) to show the links and relations between words in a sentence, Eastern Slavic suffixes are used much more broadly than prepositions. Words need the help of some suffix to integrate them into the sentence and to build a grammatically correct sentence. That includes names, unlike in German. Family names are declined based on the Slavic case system. The surnames that originally are short (''-ov'', ''-ev'', ''-in'') or full (''-iy/-oy/-yy'') Slavic adjectives, have different forms depending on gender: male forms ''-ov'', ''-ev'', ''-in'' and ''-iy/-oy/-yy'' correspond to female forms ''-ova'', ''-eva'', ''-ina'' and ''-aya'', respectively. For example, the wife of ''Борис Ельцин'' (Boris Yel'tsin) was ''Наина Ельцина'' (Naina Yel'tsina); the wife of Leo Tolstoy was Sophia Tolstaya, etc. All other, i.e. non-adjectival, surnames stay the same for both genders (including surnames ending with -''енко'' (''-yenko''), -''ич'' (''-ich'') etc.), unlike in many
West Slavic languages The West Slavic languages are a subdivision of the Slavic language group. They include Polish, Czech, Slovak, Kashubian, Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian. The languages have traditionally been spoken across a mostly continuous region encompass ...
, where the non-adjectival surname of men corresponds to derivative feminine adjectival surname (Novák → Nováková). Note the difference between patronymics and surnames ending with ''-ich'': surnames are the same for males and females, but patronymics are gender-dependent (for example, Ivan Petrov''ich'' Mirov''ich'' and Anna Petr''ovna'' Mirov''ich'') This dependence of
grammatical gender In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nouns ...
of adjectival surname on the gender of its owner is not considered to be changing the surname (compare the equivalent rule in
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
, for example). The correct transliteration of such feminine surnames in English is debated: the names technically should be in their original form, but they sometimes appear in the masculine form. The example of ''Иванов'' (Ivanov), a family name, will be used: The surnames which are not grammatically adjectives (''Zhuk'', ''Gogol'', ''Barchuk'', ''Kupala'' etc.) declines in cases and numbers as the corresponding common noun. The exclusion is when a woman has a surname which is grammatically a noun of masculine gender; in such case, the surname is not declined. For example, Ivan and Anna Zhuk in dative case ("to whom?") would be: Ивану Жуку (''Ivanu'' ''Zhuku''), but Анне Жук (''Anne Zhuk''). Family names are generally inherited from one's parents. As in English, on marriage, women usually adopt the surname of the husband; the opposite, when the husband adopt the maiden surname of his wife, very rarely occurs. Rarely, both spouses keep their pre-marriage family names. The fourth, very rare but still legal way is the taking a double surname; for example, in marriage of Ivanov (he) and Petrovskaya (she), the spouses may adopt the family name Ivanov-Petrovsky and Ivanova-Petrovskaya, correspondingly.


Anglicisation

When names are written in English, the patronymic is not equivalent to an English
middle name In various cultures, a middle name is a portion of a personal name that is written between the person's first given name and their surname. A middle name is often abbreviated and is then called middle initial or just initial. A person may be ...
. When the name is written in English, the patronymic may be omitted with the given name written out in full or abbreviated (
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
or V. Putin), both the first name and the patronymic may be written out in full (Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin), both the first name and the patronymic may be abbreviated (V. V. Putin) or the first name may be written out in full with the patronymic abbreviated (Vladimir V. Putin).


Slavicisation of foreign names

Some surnames in those languages have been Russified since the 19th century: the surname of Kazakh
president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Nursultan Nazarbayev Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev ( kk, Нұрсұлтан Әбішұлы Назарбаев, Nūrsūltan Äbişūlı Nazarbaev, ; born 6 July 1940) is a Kazakh politician and military officer who served as the first President of Kazakhstan, in off ...
has a Russian "-yev"
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
, which literally means "of Nazar-bay" (in which "bay" is a Turkic native
noble A noble is a member of the nobility. Noble may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Noble Glacier, King George Island * Noble Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land * Noble Peak, Wiencke Island * Noble Rocks, Graham Land Australia * Noble Island, Great B ...
rank Rank is the relative position, value, worth, complexity, power, importance, authority, level, etc. of a person or object within a ranking, such as: Level or position in a hierarchical organization * Academic rank * Diplomatic rank * Hierarchy * H ...
: compare Turkish "
bey Bey ( ota, بك, beğ, script=Arab, tr, bey, az, bəy, tk, beg, uz, бек, kz, би/бек, tt-Cyrl, бәк, translit=bäk, cjs, пий/пек, sq, beu/bej, sh, beg, fa, بیگ, beyg/, tg, бек, ar, بك, bak, gr, μπέης) is ...
", Uzbek "beg", and Kyrghyz "bek"). The frequency of such Russification varies greatly by country. After incorporation of
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
into the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, it became obligatory to register their surnames and to add a Russian suffix such as ''-yev'' or ''-ov'' for men and ''-yeva'' or ''-ova'' for women. Since the majority did not have official surnames, the problem was resolved by adopting the name of the father and adding the mentioned suffixes. Examples are
Aliyev Aliyev (sometimes spelled Aliev; az, Əliyev, kk, Áliyev, russian: Алиев), Aliyeva for females, is a surname originating from the Caucasus and Central Asia. The surname is derived from the Arabic male given name Ali and literally means ''Al ...
,
Huseynov Huseynov, Hüseynov, Guseinov, Gusseinov or Guseynov (masculine, az, Hüseynov, russian: Гусейнов) and Huseynova, Guseinova, Gusseinova or Guseynova (feminine) is an Azerbaijani surname. It is Slavicisation of foreign names, slavicized from ...
, and Mammadov. Since 1930s and 1940s, surnames and patronymics were obligatory in
Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...
. The surname could be derived from the name of the father by adding the suffixes -ev after vowels or soft consonants and -ov in all other cases. Examples are
Rashidov Sharof Rashidovich Rashidov (Uzbek Cyrillic: Шароф Рашидович Рашидов; russian: Шараф Рашидович Рашидов, translit=Sharaf Rashidovich Rashidov; – 31 October 1983) was a Communist Party leader in the Uzbe ...
and Abdullaev. Most of the people born in this time had the same surname as their patronymic. By law, foreign persons who adopt Russian citizenship are allowed to have no patronymic. Some adopt non-Slavonic patronymics as well. For example, the Russian politician
Irina Hakamada Irina Mutsuovna Khakamada ( rus, Ири́на Муцу́овна Хакама́да, p=ɪˈrʲinə mʊˈtsuəvnə xəkɐˈmadə; ja, 袴田イリーナ; born April 13, 1955, in Moscow) is a Russian economist, political activist, journalist, pu ...
's patronym is ''Муцуовна'' (Mutsuovna) because her
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
father's given name was Mutsuo. The ethnicity of origin generally remains recognizable in Russified names.
Bruno Pontecorvo Bruno Pontecorvo (; russian: Бру́но Макси́мович Понтеко́рво, ''Bruno Maksimovich Pontecorvo''; 22 August 1913 – 24 September 1993) was an Italian and Soviet nuclear physicist, an early assistant of Enrico Fermi an ...
, after he emigrated to the Soviet Union, was known as ''Бруно Максимович Понтекорво'' (Bruno Maximovich Pontekorvo) in the Russian scientific community, as his father's given name was ''Massimo'' (corresponding to Russian Максим (Maksim)). His sons have been known by names ''Джиль Брунович Понтекорво'' (Gigl Brunovich Pontecorvo), ''Антонио Брунович Понтекорво'' (Antonio Brunovich Pontecorvo) and ''Тито Брунович Понтекорво'' (Tito Brunovich Pontekorvo). For example, Kazakh ''ұлы'' (''uly''; transcribed into Latin script as ''-uly'', as in Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev), Turkmen ''uly'' (as in Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow), or
Azeri Azerbaijanis (; az, Azərbaycanlılar, ), Azeris ( az, Azərilər, ), or Azerbaijani Turks ( az, Azərbaycan Türkləri, ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic people living mainly in Azerbaijan (Iran), northwestern Iran and the Azerbaijan, Republi ...
''оглы/оғлу'' (''oglu'') (as in Heydar Alirza oglu Aliyev); Kazakh ''қызы'' (transcribed into Latin script as -''qyzy'', as in Dariga Nursultanqyzy Nazarbayeva). Such Turkic patronymics were officially allowed in the Soviet Union.


Forms of address


Common rules

*For informal communication, only the first name is used: Иван Ivan. Even more informally,
diminutives A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...
(several can be formed from one name) are often used. *In rural areas, the patronymic name alone (''Петрович'' Petrovich, ''Ивановна'' Ivanovna) is used by old people among themselves, but young people sometimes use the form for irony. Also, younger people can use the form for much older people for both respect and informality. For example, a much younger man with a very good relationship with his elder colleague may use a patronymic and the "ty" form, but using the first name alone is generally inappropriate. Using a diminutive (like in most informal communication) would nearly always be very impolite. *The family name alone (''Петров'', Petrov) is used, much more rarely, in formal communications. It is commonly used by school teachers to address their students. Informally, Russians are starting to call people by their surnames alone for irony. * the form "first name + patronymic" (for instance, ''Иван Иванович'', Ivan Ivanovich): ** is the feature of official communication (for instance, students in schools and universities call their teachers in the form of "first name + patronymic" only); ** may convey the speaker's respect for the recipient. Historically, patronymics were reserved for the royal dynasty (Рюриковичи, Ruerikovichi) * The full three-name form (for instance, ''Иван Иванович Петров'' Ivan Ivanovich Petrov) is used mostly for official documents. Everyone in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus is supposed to have three names. This form is also used on some very formal occasions and for introducing oneself to a person who is likely to write down the full name, like a police officer. Then, the family name is often placed first (''Петров Иван Иванович'', Petrov Ivan Ivanovich). The choice of addressing format is closely linked to the choice of second-person pronoun. Russian language distinguishes: * formal ''вы'' (vy, "you"); respectful ''Вы'' ("Vy", "You") may be capitalized in formal correspondence, but plural ''вы'' ("vy", "you") is not. * informal ''ты'' (ty, "you", "thou" in old English); ''Вы'' ("Vy") is the plural of both forms to address a pair or group. Historically, it comes from German, under
Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...
, which uses "du'' and Sie" similarly. Other than the use of patronymics, Russian forms of address in Russian are very similar to English ones. Also, the meaning of the form of address strongly depends on the choice of a V-T form: Using a "ty" form with a person who dislikes it or on inappropriate occasions can be an insult, especially the surname alone.


Adjectives

Other Eastern Slavic languages use the same adjectives of their literal translation if they differ from Russian analogue. All Eastern Slavic languages are synthetic languages, and grammatical genders are used. Thus, the suffix of an adjective changes with the sex of the recipient. In Russian, adjectives before names are generally restricted to written forms of communication. Adjectives like ''Любимый / Любимая'' (lyubimiy / lyubimaya, "beloved") and ''Милый / Милая'' (miliy / milaya, "sweetheart") are informal, and ''Уважаемый / Уважаемая'' (uvazhayemiy / uvazhayemaya, literally "respected") is highly formal. Some adjectives, like ''Дорогой / Дорогая'' (dorogoy / dorogaya, "dear"), can be used in both formal and informal letters.


See also

*
List of surnames in Russia See Eastern Slavic naming customs for the explanation of the structure of Russian-language surnames. A (А) * Abakumov * Abdulov * Abramov * Abramovich * Avdeyev * Avdonin * Averin (surname), Averin * Averyanov * Avilov (surname), Avil ...
*
Onomastics Onomastics (or, in older texts, onomatology) is the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. An ''orthonym'' is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onomastic study. Onomastics can be helpful in data mining, w ...
*
Romanization of Russian The romanization of the Russian language (the transliteration of Russian text from the Cyrillic script into the Latin script), aside from its primary use for including Russian names and words in text written in a Latin alphabet, is also essential ...
*
Russian personal name Russian given names are provided at birth or selected during a name change. Orthodox Christian names constitute a fair proportion of Russian given names, but there are many exceptions including pre-Christian Slavic names, Communist names, and nam ...
*
Slavic names Given names originating from the Slavic languages are most common in Slavic countries. The main types of Slavic names: * Two-basic names, often ending in mir/měr (''Ostromir/měr'', ''Tihomir/měr'', '' Němir/měr''), *voldъ (''Vsevolod'', ...
*
Slavic surnames A Slavic name suffix is a common way of forming patronymics, family names, and pet names in the Slavic languages. Many, if not most, Slavic last names are formed by adding possessive and other suffixes to given names and other words. Most Slavic ...
*
Ukrainian name Ukrainian names are given names that originated in Ukraine. In addition to the given names, Ukrainians also have patronymic and family names (surnames; see: ''Ukrainian surnames''). Ukrainian given names Diminutive and hypocoristic forms native ...


References


External links

; In Russian * * Commentaries ** ** **
Балановская Е. В., Соловьева Д. С., Балановский О. П. и др. «Фамильные портреты» пяти русских регионов
/ Медицинская генетика. 2005.No. 1. С. 2–10. * *
Таблицы и рисунки к статье «Фамильные портреты» пяти русских регионов
; In English * {{Names in world cultures Russian Empire Soviet Union and CIS countries, Names in Slavic-language names