What is the Russian naming system?

Question

I'm reading 'Doctor Zhivago', and I find it really interesting (or should that be confusing?) that each character seems to have several names- a personal name, and a surname, and then another name like a surname that comes from the father... or something.

So, how does this Russian naming system work? Does it persist to this day, or has it been simplified?

Answer 1

Usual Russian name consists of three parts: first name (aka given name) + patronymic + family name (aka surname, aka last name)

First name can have MANY variations. By many I don't mean like William=Bill=Billy. I can off the top of my head tell you at least 10 (and that's not the limit) variants of my own name, that for a foreign ear/eyes might seem like different names: e.g. Nyusha, Marusya. As a general rule, though, full female names end with "a" or "ya", and full male names end with a consonant. There are exceptions of course. ;-) Also, there are names, short variations of which are suitable for both males and females. E.g.: Aleksandr and Aleksandra are both in short Sasha or Shura; Evgeniy and Evgeniya are both in short Zhenya.

Patronymic names are created by adding "ovich" or "yevich" (for sons) and "ovna" or "yevna" (for daughters) to the name of the father. Sometimes (like in the case of my own) the name of the father can slightly change in pronunciation. E.g.: [M-i-h-a-ee-l] becomes [M-i-h-a-i-l-o-v-n-a] or [M-i-h-a-i-l-o-v-i-ch].

Family names may come from different origins (names of ancestors, objects, locations, etc.), but as a general rule end with "ov", "yev" or "in" for males and "ova", "yeva" or "ina" for females. If you see a name "from that part of the world" ending with "o" (doesn't change for gender) it is most probably Ukrainian or Belorussian. There are (like in other languages) cases of "double" family names due to marriage or other reasons (separated usually by a "-". Care for other Russian books? Try lib.ru - scan through the site and you'll see among Russian text a category "Russian sci-fi in English". Good Luck and thank you for your interest in (even if just a part of) my culture!

Answer 2

Russian Naming System

Answer 3

People have a first name, a last name and a patronymic in the middle. The patronymic is their father's name with a modification meaning 'son of' or 'daughter or'. The ending of the last name also changes to indicate gender.
So if a bloke named Ivan Sokolov has two kids, Mikhail and Irina, their full names would be
Mikhail Ivanovich Sokolov
and
Irina Ivanovna Sokolova
I'm not sure how strictly these rules are followed today, but that's definitely the tradition.
There's also the issue of diminutives, which are definitely still in use today as nicknames, so Mikhail could be Misha, Irina could be Irushka etc.

Hope you continue enjoying Dr. Zhivago, it is a wonderful book.

Answer 4

See the following link

Answer 5

Of course it still persists.

Answer 6

I dont know sorry