Russian Names and Naming Are an Intricate Tracery of Relationships

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, I’m Anastasia and I’m calling from Marquette, Michigan.

Welcome to the show, Anastasia. What can we do for you?

So I’ve recently been reading a lot of Russian fiction literature from the late 19th century, early 20th century. And I noticed when I’ve been reading, they introduce characters, obviously throughout the book and then suddenly they’ll be called something else or, you know, family members will seemingly go by different names. So my question is, can you maybe shine some light on the Russian naming culture and structure so when I’m reading I can kind of follow along. Can you give us an example? Yeah, what are you reading? Yeah, what are some of the names?

So in the book Dr. Zhivago, you know they introduced one of the main characters. His full name is Victor Iapolovich Komoroski and, you know, sometimes in the book he’ll be introduced just as Komoroski and then other times he’ll go by Victor Iapolovic. And, you know, in Crime and Punishment is another one where I noticed the main character there, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, I think I’m saying it right. You know, sometimes he’ll go by just his last name, and then his sister will, you know, be called something else. So I’m just wondering if you know anything about their naming culture or maybe why it’s structured like that.

Yeah, it’s different. It can be confusing. The Russian names are a delicious mystery, frankly. Okay, this is complicated, so let me see if I can get this right. First, the surname is different for men and women. So a husband and a wife will have a different last name. For example, let’s use Fyodor Dostoevsky. He had two wives, Maria and Anna. His first wife was Maria Dmitrievna Dostoevsky, not Dostoevsky. Her last name was different even when she was married to him. Right. And his second wife was Anna Grigoryevna Dostoevsky. So you also have the same last name. So the two wives had the same last name, but they didn’t share the exact same last name as their husband. Because the women take a feminine suffix, either an A or a Skaya, depending on what the husband’s name ends with. So that’s why it ends with their name, the Dostoevsky becomes Dostoevsky.

The other thing that happens is around the age of 16, children are given what’s known as a patronymic, which is based upon their mother or father’s name, usually the father’s name. And so this patronymic is incredibly important and often becomes far more important than their surname, that is their family name. And so this is a combination of the father’s name plus, if they’re a man, Ovech or Evich. And if they’re a woman, the father’s name plus Ovna or Evna, again, depending on the ending. Sometimes the Ovech or Evich is just itch. We know from Maria Dmitrievna Dostoevskaia that her father’s name was Dmitri because her middle name is Dmitrievna. So it’s Dmitri plus the suffix Evna. Her patronymic is Dmitrievna. So her familiar people who knew her well might just call her Maria Dmitrievna and rarely use her last name except in very formal situations. And the other wife of Fyodor Dostoevsky, we know her father was Grigori. Because her middle name, her patronymic, is Grigoryevna. Grigory with the suffix Evna. Is this all making sense?

Yeah, you know, that actually shines a lot of light because I noticed that in the different situations, depending on their familiarity with the character or situation, they would use those, it seemed like, the more formal names versus the more intimate names. So that actually makes a lot of sense.

Yeah, the patronymic is really powerfully important. It’s just a level of familiarity. It’s about the relationship between two people. And so if you use somebody’s last name, like their surname, that suggests a distance between you and that person. You know, like either like a political distance or a business distance or a social distance. And it says something about who you are not. You know, there’s a really funny thing that can happen. For example, if the same first name is given to a father and then to his son, and then that son has a daughter, and the daughter is now the granddaughter of that first father, that first person, then you can end up with names like Georgie Georgievich Georgievna or to Danya Donovich Dinovna.

Yes, I have seen that.

Yeah.

Okay.

And those are fun. I think that’s really fun names. And then to complicate it all you have nicknames just like in English where John can become Jack and they don’t seem really related but Jack is indeed a nickname for John. In Russian nicknames can seem very different than the name that they’re based on. So Slava is a nickname for Vasislav and Vanusha, Vanusha is a nickname for Ivan and Leosha is a nickname for Alexi even though Leosha doesn’t sound anything like Alexi, not even close to it.

It really does seem like that when you’re reading through because they don’t give the context, obviously, because the Russian author is very familiar, obviously, with their language. So it seems like that character will all of a sudden pop up. And me as an English speaker, I’m like, hey, where did you come from?

Yeah.

So it’s really delightful to get into. I mean, naming systems in general are really fun when you get to explore wherever you are in the world because there’s so much culture and history wrapped up into them. You learn so much more about a people and a place and stuff. But, I mean, it can be frustrating when you’re reading and you don’t have that background.

Right. Yeah, yeah. That does make a lot of sense. I kind of gleaned that their naming system really does give a light to the status symbol of the character or the person itself. So thanks for clearing that up.

Yeah, sure. Thanks for raising the question. I think that’s going to help a lot of people.

Yeah, and there are a bunch of places online. You know what’s surprisingly a good place to learn about naming? It’s in some of the Dungeons and Dragons books.

Oh, my God.

Because there’s so much of D&D culture, which is about naming your character. And so they explore a lot of different naming systems around the world. And they do a pretty good job of explaining it in simple terms so that if you’re naming your characters, or heck, a whole village, you can use some stuff borrowed from real life naming cultures in the real world.

Well, I would have never thought to look there.

So Anastasia, we’ll let you get back to your reading. It sounds like you have a ways to go.

Oh, I have a lot.

Yes, I do.

You have to start at the beginning when you finish.

You’re right.

You know all this stuff.

Oh, well, thank you so much, guys.

Take care.

Well, you can call Grant Leovitch and Martha Henlio of Na at 877-929-9673.