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Russian Names and Naming Are an Intricate Tracery of Relationships

Anastasia in Marquette, Michigan, is reading a lot of Russian literature from the late 18th and early 19th century, and keeps getting confused by naming conventions in that language. That naming system is often a challenge for non-Russian speakers, because in Russian, surnames for wives and husbands differ, and the patronymic bestowed when one turns 16 years of age often ends up being more important than one’s surname. Nicknames also complicate matters because they often sound nothing like the original name. This is part of a complete episode.

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