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Russian Naming Convention: Difference between revisions
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[[Russian
You're reading a Russian-written and/or set novel in which there's a hot [[Sensual Slavs|Soviet]] [[
▲'''Diminutives'''
▲You're reading a Russian-written and/or set novel in which there's a hot [[Sensual Slavs|Soviet]] [[Mata Hari|spy]] (with blonde highlights, natch) called Ekaterina Ivanovna Smirnova. She hangs around Moscow and goes to Moscow Centre to do her work, where she's called Comrade Major Smirnova or Ekaterina Ivanovna. Then she goes to visit her friends, who start calling her Katya. Then she visits her parents at their [[Dacha]] (they're senior CPSU members, so they have a dacha) and they call her ''Katen'ka''.
No, you haven't gone mad. Nor has the author engaged in a stunning display of inconsistency. You've just entered the world of the Russian diminutive.
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So we're back to our hot female spy. Her full name is Ekaterina Ivanovna Smirnova. Her first name is obvious- the Russian form of Katherine. But what about the other two:
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* Smirnova is the feminine form of Smirnov, a very common Russian surname. Women (often) add an "a" to the surname.
=== ''Surnames'' ===
Russian, Ukrainian and Belarussian surnames have a variety of different types, usually tallying with ethnic origin. The Russian ones:
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* -in/ina
* -sky/skaya: More of a Jewish or Polish name today, but before 1917, there were many noble (comital or princely) Russian families with names like this.
** Plus there's the whole "add a -ski and it's Russian" thing for nicknames (not [[Reporting Names]]), for Soviet/Russian military tech, such as "Konkordski" (the Tu-144 "Charger", the Soviet rival to Concord, which entered service first, but was retired far earlier and much cruder, if faster), "Harpoonski" (Kh-35/SS-N-25 "Switchblade", due its resemblance to the US Harpoon missile) and
*** ''Termiteskis'' in [[Looney Tunes|Russian Rhapsody]].
* -iy/iya: Also in Ukraine.
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* -ko
** Which means there's a chance that [[Alias (TV series)|Irina Derevko]] is actually not a Russian in ethnic origin, but Ukrainian.
*** Not necessary, as Russians, Ukrainians and Belorussians are, regardless of what [[Patriotic Fervor|nationalists on all sides]] would tell you, still very much parts of a same ethnicity, or at least not consider each other ''foreign'' enough, so the surname ethnicity doesn't really reflect a ''person'''s ethnicity in any way.
* -lo
* -uk
* -ych
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* Names that are just nouns without familial endings are more common among Ukrainians and Belarussians than Russians. E.g. Koval (smith), Shpak (starling), Kuchma (woolly hat) (all Ukrainian), Filin (owl), Moroz (frost) (more likely to be Belarussian), etc.
Many surnames are derived from animal names. For example, Dmitry Medvedev (get used to that name since he is in control of [[Mnogo Nukes]]) has a surname that means "Bear's Son". Others derive from professions, i.e. Kuznetsov, "Smith's Son".
When the Soviet Union took over Central Asia, the Muslim Turkic and Persian locals generally adapted their names (which already used [[Patronymic]]s) to the Russian system. Thus you get lots of people with Arabic, Turkic, or Persian names attached to "-ov(a)," etc., like the Uzbek strongman Islam Karimov ("karīm" being Arabic for "generous") and his Vice-President Shavkat Mirziyoyev ("mirza" meaning "child of the prince" in Persian). A peculiar example would be Azeris, who actually managed to introduce their [[Patronymic]] system into the Russian language, so Azeri patronymics would be written not in the Russian way, but with native Azeri suffixes "-ogly" ("son of") or "-kyzy" ("daughter of").
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Common surnames: Ivanov, Smirnov, Kuznetsov, Petrov, Sidorov
Common first names in those three countries (with English equivalents where they exist).
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* Varvara (Barbara)
** "Varya"
* Polina
** "Polya"
* Yevdokiya (Eudocia/Eudokia)
** "Dunya"
In Russia, when you're referring to someone in a formal setting, you don't just use their first name, but their first name and patronymic, i.e. "Ekaterina Ivanovna" or their diminutive. ("Ivan Ilyich" is a name familiar to Tolstoy wonks, who will tell you that that's not the character's full name; Soviet history buffs will tell you the same about [[One Day in
Oddly, even though addressing a person by the first name and patronymic is very formal, addressing them with the patronymic alone is seen as highly informal, even less formal than [[First-Name Basis]]. In this informal usage male patronymics usually get shortened by removing the "ov/ev" (e.g. Ivanovich becomes Ivanych, Sergeyevich - Sergeich, etc.), unless that syllable is stressed (e.g. Petrovich). In addition, some names have completely idiosyncratic short forms (e.g. Pavlovich - Palych, Dmitriyevich - Mitrich, etc.) As a way of emphasising his closeness to the people, Lenin was often referred to simply as "Ilyich" in speeches and Soviet media. In contrast, no one ever (except ''maybe'' [[Battle Butler|general Vlasik]]—they were reportedly quite close) referred to his successor as [[Josef Stalin|"Vissarionych"]].
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[[Category:Naming Conventions]]
[[Category:Useful Notes/Russia]]
[[Category:
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