Names In Russian Empire, Soviet Union And CIS Countries
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East Slavic naming customs are the traditional way of identifying a person's
family name In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...
,
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 f ...
, and
patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...
name in East Slavic cultures in Russia and some countries formerly part of the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
and the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. They are used commonly in
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
,
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
,
Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
,
Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...
,
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...
,
Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...
,
Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...
, and to a lesser extent in
Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...
,
Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...
,
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...
,
Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...
and
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
.


Given names

East 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 f ...
for a newborn child. Most first names in East Slavic languages originate from two sources: *
Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...
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 is a language that is characterized by denoting syntactic relationships between words via inflection or agglutination. Synthetic languages are statistically characterized by a higher morpheme-to-word ratio relative to an ...
, the East Slavic ones treat personal names as grammatical nouns and apply the same rules of
inflection In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...
and derivation 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 usually 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; 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.


Early Soviet Union

During the days of the
October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...
, as part of the campaign to rid Russia of
bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...
culture, there was a drive to invent new, revolutionary names. As a result, many Soviet children were given atypical names, often being acronyms/
initialism An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial letter of each word in all caps wi ...
s.


Patronymics

The patronymic name is based on the given name of the father and is written in all legal and identity documents. If used with the given name, the patronymic always follows it; but it is not analogous to an English middle name.


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 – . Not using patronymic names in such situations is considered offensive. Addressing a person by patronymic name only is widespread among older generations and serves as a display of close relationship based on not only sympathy but also mutual responsibility. In speech patronymics are commonly truncated and it is not considered to be a colloquialism, e.g., written "Ivan Ivanovich" may be pronounced "as is", as well as "Ivan Ivanych". In the past of
East Slavs The East Slavs are the most populous subgroup of the Slavs. They speak the East Slavic languages, and formed the majority of the population of the medieval state Kievan Rus', which they claim as their cultural ancestor.John Channon & Robert Huds ...
, before the introduction of surnames, noble, wealthy, or otherwise respected people were addressed by name plus patronymic, see, e.g., " Yaroslavich"/" Yaroslavna". From this custom a number of surnames of West Ruthenian origin was produced, such as Antonovich or Prokopovich, which in their turn derived Polish surnames, such as Antonowicz or Prokopowicz (the Ruthenian origin is recognized by the suffix ''-wicz'': the corresponding native (now archaic) Polish suffix was '-wic': Szymonowic, Klonowic). For commoners, when the distinction among people with the same given name was required, a qualifier "son of..." was usually added: "" ("Ivashka, Antonov syn", i.e., 'Ivashka, son of Anton'). From the latter tradition Russian
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 A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based o ...
s ending in "-ov/-ev/yov" originated, in this case, Antonov".


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, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...
, 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 speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
, 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 their 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 (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...
to commoners. For example, in 1610, Tsar Vasili IV gave to the Stroganovs, 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.


Matronymic

In modern Russia, there are cases when women raising a child without a father give the child their own name instead of a patronymic. This practice is not recognized by law, but the civil registry offices may meet such wishes. A common loophole is when mother's name is a feminine form of a masculine given name, even an obscure one.


Family names

Family name In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...
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 A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based o ...
s—or -''ский'' (-sky), an adjectival form, meaning "associated with" and usually used for
toponymic surname A toponymic surname or habitational surname or byname is a surname or byname derived from a place name,
s. Historically, toponymic surnames may have been granted as a token of nobility; for example, the princely surname Shuysky is indicative of the princedom based on the ownership of Shuya. Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tavricheski had the victory title 'Tavricheski', as part of his surname, granted to him for the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Empire. 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 and the Davidoff 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) 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 surnames like Petrov-Vodkin are possible.


Grammar

East Slavic languages are
synthetic languages A synthetic language is a language that is characterized by denoting syntactic relationships between words via inflection or agglutination. Synthetic languages are statistically characterized by a higher morpheme-to-word ratio relative to an ...
and have grammatical cases and
grammatical gender In linguistics, a grammatical gender system is a specific form of a noun class system, where nouns are assigned to gender categories that are often not related to the real-world qualities of the entities denoted by those nouns. In languages wit ...
. Unlike
analytic language An analytic language is a type of natural language in which a series of root/stem words is accompanied by prepositions, postpositions, particles and modifiers, using affixes very rarely. This is opposed to synthetic languages, which synthesi ...
s like English, which use prepositions ("to", "at", "on" etc.) to show the links and relations between words in a sentence, East 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, Silesian, Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian. The languages have traditionally been spoken across a mostly continuous re ...
, 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, a grammatical gender system is a specific form of a noun class system, where nouns are assigned to gender categories that are often not related to the real-world qualities of the entities denoted by those nouns. In languages wit ...
of adjectival surname on the gender of its owner is not considered to be changing the surname (compare the equivalent rule in Polish, 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.


Slavicisation of foreign names


Slavicisation of foreign surnames

Some surnames in those languages have been russified since the 19th century: the surname of Kazakh former president Nursultan Nazarbayev 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 and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
, which literally means "of Nazar-bay" (in which "bay" is a Turkic native noble rank: compare Turkish " bey", Uzbek "boy" "bek", and Kyrghyz "bek"). The frequency of such russification varies greatly by country. After incorporation of
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...
into the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, 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, Huseynov, and Mammadov. Since 1930s and 1940s, surnames and patronymics were obligatory in
Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...
. 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, Beknazarov and Abdullaev. Most of the people born in this time had the same surname as their patronymic.


Slavicisation of foreign patronymics

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's patronym is ''Муцуовна'' (Mutsuovna) because her Japanese father's given name was Mutsuo. The ethnicity of origin generally remains recognizable in Russified names. Other examples are Kazakh ''ұлы'' (''uly''; transcribed into Latin script as ''-uly'', as in Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev), or Azeri ''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. Bruno Pontecorvo, 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).


Forms of address


Common rules

*For informal communication, only the first name is used: Иван Ivan. Even more informally,
diminutives A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word 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, and sometimes to belittle s ...
(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. With some exceptions, everyone in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus is supposed to have a three-part name. This form is also used on formal occasions and for introducing oneself to a person who is likely to write down the full name, like a police officer. The family name is placed first (''Петров Иван Иванович'', Petrov Ivan Ivanovich) in various documents, when sorting by personal name is important. Historically,
diminutive A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word 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, and sometimes to belittle s ...
s of the given names were used in reference to commoners, to indicate an their low status: Stenka Razin, Grishka Rasputin, etc. A diminutive could be used by persons of a higher class when referring to themselves to indicate humility, e.g., when addressing to the
tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...
. 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 (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...
, 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 East Slavic languages use the same adjectives of their literal translation if they differ from Russian analogue. All East 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

* Religious name * Romanization of Russian * Russian given name * Russian surnames of illegitimate children *
Slavic names Given names originating from the Slavic languages are most common in Slavic peoples, Slavic countries. The main types of Slavic names: * Two-base names, often ending in mir/měr (''Ostromir/měr'', ''Tihomir/měr'', ''Niemir, Němir/měr''), * ...
* Slavic name suffixes * Surnames of Russian Orthodox clergy * Ukrainian name


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
*
Последовательность элементов языковой формулы в русской традиции
- an opinion on the differences in the use of formats "Name Patronymic Surname" (ИОФ) vs. "Surname, Name Patronymic" (ФИО) in Russian. ; In English * {{Names in world cultures Slavic-language names