Eastern Slavic naming customs are the traditional ways of identifying a person by name in countries influenced by East Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian: in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine. They are also used in some countries using South Slavic languages, including Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Macedonia, as well as some countries using non-Slavic languages (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan) because of the expansion of Russia, with its Russification.
The full name uses the following standard structure:
Video Eastern Slavic naming customs
Given names
As in many other cultures, Eastern Slavic parents select a given name for a newborn child. Most first names in East Slavic languages originate from two sources:
- Orthodox church tradition (which is itself mainly of Greek origin)
- 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 from foreign influence. Most doubled first names are written with a hyphen: Mariya-Tereza.
Here are common given names:
Males
Females
Forms
Being highly synthetic languages, Eastern Slavic treats personal names as grammatical nouns and apply the same rules of inflection 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 ????? Zhanna can have the suffixes added directly to the stem ????- Zhann- like ???????? Zhannochka), and most names have the auxiliary stem derived unproductively (the name ?????? Mikhail has the auxiliary stem ???- Mish-, which produces such name-forms as ???? Misha, ???????? Mishenka, ?????? Mishunya etc., not *?????????? 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-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: ??????? ??? kratkoye imya), historically also "half-name" (Russian: ??????? 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: ????) 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. 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, nameforms can be subdivided in three broad groups: affectionate, familiar and slang.
Affectionate diminutive
Typically formed by suffixes -????- (-yenk-), -????- (-onk-), -???- (-yechk-), -??? (-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 -?- ("-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 -?? (-yan), -?? (-on), and -??/?? (-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, as part of the campaign to rid Russia of bourgeois culture, there was a drive to invent new, revolutionary names. As a result, many Soviet children were given unusual or atypical names, often being acronyms/initialisms besides many other names above.
Maps Eastern Slavic naming customs
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.
Derivation
The patronymic is formed by a combination of the father's name and suffixes. The suffix is -???? (-ovich) for a son, -???? (-ovna) - for a daughter. For example, if the father's name was ???? (Ivan), the patronymic will be ???????? (Ivanovich) for a son and ???????? (Ivanovna) for a daughter. The standard rules for the suffix have some exceptions like the following:
- If the suffix is being appended to a name ending in a ? ("y") or a soft consonant, the initial o in the suffixes -???? (-ovich) and -???? (-ovna) becomes a ? ("ye") and the suffixes change to -???? (-yevich) and -???? (-yevna). For example, if the father is ??????? (Dmitry), the patronymic is ?????????? (Dmitrievich) for a son and ?????????? (Dmitrievna) for a daughter. It is not ????????? (Dmitrovich) or ????????? (Dmitrovna) because the name ??????? (Dmitry) ends on "?" ("y");
- For some names ending in a vowel, the suffix is -?? (-ich) for a son and -???? (-ichna) or -?????? (-inichna) for a daughter;
- The patronymic for ???? (Yakov) is ????????? (Yakovlevich, male) or ????????? (Yakovlevna, female).
- In Ukrainian, the female patronymic is more likely to end with -i??? (-ivna) rather than -???? (-evna).
Historical grounds
Historical Russian naming conventions did not include surnames. A person's name included that of his father: e.g. ???? ?????? ??? (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 (??????????, Ruerikovichi, Rurikids), which makes the Russian patronym in its original meaning being similar to German von. From the 17th century, the second name with suffix -???? (-ovich) was the privilege given by tsar 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 issue were allowed to have a name with -ovich. The tsar wrote in the chart dated on May 29, "... to write him with ovich, to try [him] in Moscow only, not to fee [him] by other fees, not to kiss a cross by himself [which 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 themself from the biological father (or show respect for the adopted one) as well as to decide the same for an underage child.
Family names
Family names are generally used like in English.
Derivation and meaning
In Russian, some common suffixes are -?? (-ov), -?? (-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 surnames or -???? (-sky), an adjectival form meaning "associated with" and usually used for toponymic surnames. 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 Tavrida to Russian Empire.
In the 19th and the 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 -?? (-ko), -?? (-uk), and -?? (-ych). For example, the family name ????????? (Pisarenko) is derived from the word for a scribe, and ????????? (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
Eastern Slavic languages are synthetic languages and have grammatical cases and grammatical gender. Unlike analytic languages 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.
As with Slavic adjectives, family names have different forms depending on gender. For example, the wife of ????? ?????? (Boris Yel'tsin) was ????? ??????? (Naina Yel'tsina). Only family names with neutral grammatical gender stay the same (such as those ending with -???? (-yenko)).
That change of grammatical gender is not considered to be changing the name that comes from a woman's father or husband (compare the equivalent rule in Polish, for example). The correct transliteration of such feminine names in English is debated: the names technically should be in their original form, but they sometimes appear in the masculine form.
The example of ?????? (Ivanov), a family name, will be used:
Family names are generally inherited from one's parents. As in English, on marriage, women usually adopt the family name of the husband, as in English; the opposite very rarely occurs. Rarely, both spouses keep their family name.
Anglicisation
When names are written in English, the patronymic is not equivalent to an English middle name. When the name is written in English, the patronymic may be omitted with the given name written out in full or abbreviated (Vladimir Putin 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
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 ???????? (Mutsuovna) because her Japanese father's given name was Mutsuo. The ethnicity of origin generally remains recognisable in Russified names.
Bruno Pontecorvo, after he emigrated to the Soviet Union, was known as ????? ?????????? ?????????? (Bruno Maximovich Pontekorvo) in the Russian scientific community, as his father's given name was Massimo (corresponding to Russian ?????? (Maksim). His sons have been known by names ????? ???????? ?????????? (Jil' Brunovich Pontecorvo), ??????? ???????? ?????????? (Antonio Brunovich Pontecorvo) and ???? ???????? ?????????? (Tito Brunovich Pontekorvo).
Such conversion of foreign names is unofficial and often optional.
Some Turkic languages also use patronymics with the Turkic word meaning 'son' or 'daughter'. The languages were official in the countries in the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union.
For example, Kazakh ??? (ûl?; transcribed into English as -ul?, as in Nursultan Äbishul? Nazarbayev) or Azeri ????/???? (o?lu) (as in Heyd?r ?lirza o?lu ?liyev); Kazakh ???? (transcribed into English as -qyzy, as in Dariga Nursultanqyzy Nazarbayeva). Such Turkic patronymics were officially allowed in the Soviet Union.
Some surnames in those languages have been Russified since the 19th century: the surname of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev has a Russian "-yev" suffix, which literally means "of Nazar-bay" (in which "bay" is a Turkic native noble rank: compare Turkish "bey", Uzbek "beg", and Kyrghyz "bek"). The frequence if such Russification varying greatly by country.
Some ethnic groups use more than one name: one official, another unofficial. Official names have Russian patronymics, and unofficial names are noble or tribal names, which were prohibited after the Russian Revolution. After the fall of the Soviet Union, some people returned to using these tribal or noble names as surnames (Sarah Naiman, a Kazakh singer, has a surname means that she is from Naimans). Some Muslim people changed their surnames to Arabic style (Tungyshbay Zhamankulov, a famous Kazakh actor who often plays role of khans in films, changed his name to Tungyshbay al-Tarazy).
Forms of address
Common rules
- The full three-name form (for instance, ???? ???????? ?????? 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 (?????? ???? ????????, Petrov Ivan Ivanovich).
- the form "first name + patronymic" (for instance, ???? ????????, 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 (??????????, Ruerikovichi)
- The family name alone (??????, 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.
- For informal communication, only the first name is used: ???? Ivan. Even more informally, diminutives (several can be formed from one name) are often used.
- In rural areas, the patronymic name alone (???????? Petrovich, ???????? 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 first name alone is generally inappropriate. Using a diminutive (like in most informal communication) would nearly always be very impolite.
The choice of addressing format is closely linked to the choice of second-person pronoun. Russian language distinguishes:
- informal ?? (ty, "you", "thou" in old English);
- formal ?? (vy, "you"); respectful ?? ("Vy", "You") may be capitalized, but plural ?? ("vy", "you") is not.
?? ("Vy") is the plural of both forms to address a pair or group. Historically, it comes from German, under Peter the Great, 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 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 ??????? / ??????? (lyubimiy / lyubimaya, "beloved") and ????? / ????? (miliy / milaya, "sweetheart") are informal, and ????????? / ????????? (uvazhayemiy / uvazhayemaya, literally "respected") is highly formal. Some adjectives, like ??????? / ??????? (dorogoy / dorogaya, "dear"), can be used in both formal and informal letters.
See also
- List of surnames in Russia
- Romanization of Russian
- Russian personal name
- Slavic names
- Slavic surnames
- Ukrainian name
- Onomastics
References
Specific references:
External links
In Russian
- ??????????? ?. ?., ????????? ?. ?., ??????????? ?. ?. ? ??. «????????? ????????» ???? ??????? ???????? / ??????????? ????????. 2005.No 1. ?. 2-10.
- ??????? ? ??????? ? ?????? «????????? ????????» ???? ??????? ????????
- ????????? ?????????? ???????? Report in the journal «????? ? ?????»
- Article in «??????????? ??????» No 38 ?? 26 ???????? 2005 ?. ? ??????? ?? ??? ??????? ??????.
- Article in «??????????? ??????»"???? ??????? ??????????????". 38 (641) (?????? ed.). 2005: 54-60.
- Commentaries
- ??????????? ?. ?. ???????????, ???????????? ??????.
- ??????????? ?.?.?. ??????????? ????????????? ???????? ???????? ???? ???? ????? ????????????.
- ??????????? ?.?. ??????????? ????????????? ???????? ???????? ???? ???? ?????? ??????????.
In English
- Paul Goldschmidt's Dictionary of Russian Names; discussion of patronymics; also interesting historical exceptions to the current pattern
Source of article : Wikipedia
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