How to Create a Russian Character And Not To Be Mocked, Part 2

Advice 2: Never, ever try to derive Russian surnames by yourself

You heard two or three Russian names, and it seems you’ve got the pattern: take any syllables you like, add “-ov” or “-sky” and here we are! Hello to general Vostov (Space Cowboys), Anatoly and Vladimir Ranskahov (Daredevil), Klara Koskov (David Mitchell’s “ The Bone Clocks”), pilots Papendreyov, Vasholtov and Serbientlov (Dale Brown provides me with the most hilarious examples) and Barbara Hambley’s Miss Korova (additional points of hilarity for that means “cow” in Russian).

I cannot even count all the bizarre mixups that pass off as Russian names in mass-media. I just want to meet Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirstein to ask them how much of heavy drink it takes to come up with “Xenia Onatopp”? I’d like to have the stuff, it must be special!

People, you cannot derive an English surname from any sound combination you like, can you? Same for Russian surnames (and any other surnames, for that matter): you have to know at least basics of the language to compose them properly!

The genesis of surnames and family names is a language universal: they are derived from common names or nicknames. And common names were nicknames at their source, so ALL NAMES ARE MEANINGFUL. The meaning could be forgotten when the language had changed, or when a name is borrowed from the other language, as it is with Biblical names, but still it exists. We writers must not shame ourselves by using meaningless empty words even if they are names of some episodic characters.

Russian surnames are mostly derived from common names which in turn are borrowed from Bible and the Church calendar.

Yes, there are names of ancient Russian origin and of Scandinavian origin and of Soviet origin — we’ll talk them later, especially. What is crucial now — Russian names are MOSTLY of non-Russian origin, like the majority of Christian names in any country. It’s Latin, Greek or Jewish by source, and if you want to put some symbolical weight in your Russian character way, you only have to pick from the church calendar name with meaning or symbolic connotation you need and see how it is Russianized. The best resource I found on this matter is here:

https://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/russian

Though, there are some historical and national complications you have to take into consideration. For example, a merchant or a peasant in Tzarist Russia could be named Abram (Abraham), Naum (Nahum), Samoilo (Samuel), Moisey (Moses) and so on. But nowadays such a name is almost certain sign of Jewish origin. Well, I shall dedicate a special chapter to this matter.

Endings “-ov”, “-ev” and “-in” are the possessive case endings, like “-s” or “-son” in English. “X-ov” or “X-ev” means “a son of X”… or “a slave of X”, in a time when slaves were not allowed to have their own surnames they were called by their masters’ names.

So it seems simple: you take Russianized Biblical name, add “-ov”, if it ends in consonant or “-o”, and “-ev” if it ends in “i” or “y”, and here we are:

Ivan (John) — Ivanov (Johns or Johnson)

Fyodor (Theodor) — Fyodorov (Theodorson)

Nikolai (Nicolas) — Nikolaev (Nicolson)

Andrei (Andrew) — Andreev (Andrews)

That simple? Hell, no.

Pyotr (Peter) would make Pyotrov? Just like with Fyodorov? No — Petrov! Because in Russian “yo” and “e” are interchangeable in many cases which I cannot explain here, it’s too complicated. Just remember that the surname from Pyotr would be Petrov, not Pyotrov, and the patronymic (I will write on patronymics especially) will be Petrovich (Petrovna), not Pyotrovich(na).

(And nevertheless the surname Pyotrovski does exist! Because it was Polish at the beginning, hence kept “yo”.)

Lev (Leo) would make Levov? No, it would be Lvov. Don’t ask me why “e” falls away, this I cannot tell.

Yakov (Jacob) also doesn’t make Yakovov — it’s Yakovlev. Why? Because it’s an ancient form of the possessive case, lost in centuries, and survived as an exception for some old surnames: Yakovlev, Yaroslavlev, Golovlev.

You see? Even when you grab the general rule correctly, you could easily stumble on the exception. And sometimes there are more exceptions than rules.

Female names in Russian can generate surnames, too. It’s easier with them, for them almost always end with “-a” and almost always make surnames on “-in”:
Mar’ya (Maria) — Mar’yin

Anna — Annin

Irina — Irinin

Male names that end in “-a” comply with the same rule:

Nikita (yes, it’s a MALE name!) (Nikitas) — Nikitin

Illya (Elija) — Illyin

Danila (Daniel)… yes, surname Danilin do exists, but more widespread is Danilov, because of the more ancient form of this name: Danilo.

The same paradigm is used when you derive surname not from a common name but from an occupation:

Kuznets (Smith) — Kuznetsov (Smithson) (also, there was an ancient form, koval’ — hence, Kovaliov)

Reznik (Butcher) — Reznikov (Butchers)

Tkach (Weaver) — Tkachov (Weavers)

Or it may be a nickname given after some animal, bird, plant or anything you can imagine:

Medved’ (Bear) — Medvedev (er… Bjornsson?)

Oryol (Eagle) — Orlov (again, not Oryolov, vowel had fallen away)

Bereza (Birch) — Berezin (Birkinsson?)

Lozhka (Spoon) — Lozhkin (OK, you got the principle).

Female surnames, composed in this paradigm, always end with “-a”: Fyodorova, Illyina, Tkachova, Berezina and so on.

By the way, you can derive surnames from nouns with no endings at all. Surnames like Plotnik (Carpenter), Dub (Oak), Sokol (Falcon), Golub’ (Pigeon), Kvashnya (Trough) and so on really do exist.

But for the bard’s sake, before you pick up a word from a Your Native Tongue-Russian dictionary, and make it into a surname, please Google, if such a surname exists.

And do remember: this kind of surnames don’t have gender. If you decided that Korova (Cow) or Soroka (Magpie) suits your heroine, than her father, brother or husband should be Korova or Soroka, too, not Korov or Sorok. I know a gal whose surname is Boginya (Goddess). Her Husband is Goddess too, not God.

Same is backwards: if your character is Kon’ (Horse) or Rybak (Fisherman), women of their family are Kon’ and Rybak, too.

The ending “-skiy/-sky/-skoy”, very popular amongst foreign writers, as a rule are derived not from names, occupations or nicks, but from places. It can be a certain city or country:

Moskovskiy — from Moskva

Fastovskiy — from Fastov

Trigorskiy — from Trigor’ye (some village, don’t know where)

Nevel’skoi — from Nevel’

Or it can be just… a place:

Zaretsky or Zarechenskiy — za rekoi (across the river)

Zalesskiy — za lesom (across the forest)

Lugovskoi — from a lug (meadow)

Female gender ending is “-aya” in this case: Trigorskaya, Zalesskaya, Lugovskaya and so on.

Despite being considered as a “typical Russian”, surnames on “-skiy/-sky/-skoy” are, as a rule, Polish, Belarus, Ukrainian or Jewish.

Another scourge of foreign authors — surnames on “-ich” or “-vna”. That awkward moment when surname is mixed with patronymic. DON’T MIX THEM! Yes, there are surnames on “-ich”, later I will tell you of them, but for now it is enough to know that what ends on “-ich” is a patronymic, AS A GENERAL RULE.

You may ask yourself: why she teaches us how to derive Russian surnamed properly, if she asked us in the first place not to derive them by ourselves at all?

Because I know you would. But at least, I hope, you wouldn’t breed Ranskahovs, Koskovs and Onatopps.

To be continued…