Through the example of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, I will demystify the three parts of Russian names—first names, patronymics, and surnames—and their purpose.
Quick note - For the last 50 or so years, translations of Russian surnames in English have been more commonly translated using "-ov" rather than "-off" (though I think the Library of Congress still uses the older form). In older things, it's also more rare to see the surname changed to the feminine transliteration in English. Where it gets wild, though, is in historical figures like St John Kochuroff, where now his last name is almost universally spelled "Kochurov" in English, despite the fact that he lives in the US for at least a decade, had at least two children born here, and all of them used the -off ending on everything in English.
Thank you so much for this, and for the reading adventure you have mapped out for me/us. I really appreciate all the work you put into teaching, and I aim to meet this with an equal measure of effort.
Thank you so much for your kind words, John! I will be very happy to see you among our active readers. I hope that our year of reading the novel will bring many useful and interesting thoughts
Incredibly informative, thank you! I had no idea Fyodor came from Theodor! I've noticed many Russian names have Greek origins.
You know, in all my Italian books names are spelled differently. I don't know why and it doesn't really change the reading experience, but it's interesting. For example, Fyodor Dostoevsky becomes Fëdor Dostoevskj. Alyosha is Alëša, Mitya is Mitja, Pyotr is Pëtr, Sofya is Sof'ja. In War and Peace, Natasha was
Ooo🤔 an unexpected decision by the translators - did they decide to take letters from different languages? I see they kept the Russian letter ё - pronounced as "yo" and for some reason wrote "sh" using the Czech(?) š. However, you still need to guess how they are pronounced. Italian seems to have enough of its own sounds for transcriptions.
Yes, names have come from all sorts of places, as Russian is a relatively young language and has absorbed words from Greek, Latin, Arabic, and so on.
Hi Dana, I have just finished reading your three preliminary articles. Gosh, there is so much to consider, but I am looking forward to it all. I can only add my very sincere thanks to you for all the amazing work you have already put into this ☺️👏
Thank you so much, Glenys! I hope the articles weren't too information-heavy—it's challenging to balance what I want to tell with how much time readers are willing to spend.
I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts and impressions of the novel chapters!
I already knew much of this, but I got new info about the use of suffixes, and how Russians currently address each other. So, the patrynomic isn't used in introductions as much nowadays? The audios were a great addition. Thanks so much!!
It's great that the article turned out to be useful. It depends on the situation - in everyday communication, only adults tend to introduce themselves using their first name + patronymic if they want to be addressed that way. Patronymics are common in formal settings and mainly when young people address their elders.
Wow! Your explanation is incredibly helpful. I'm printing this out, like another person commented. And hearing your voice say the names cleared up how I was 'attempting' to pronounce them. Ha :) Thanks for all the time you put into this.
Thank you for your comment, Melissa. I hope this information will truly be helpful for better understanding the characters. Look, I've added part 6 - about the combination of given name with surname.
Thank you. Although I just realized that I still forgot to talk about the combination - First Name + Surname. So I need to add more about that. It's not surprising that this topic frightens many people.
Hi Dana. Thank you so much for these excellent posts. I just read all your posts on Brothers Karamazov. You must’ve put A LOT of time and effort into this and we’re all immensely grateful for that. I mean, apart from these posts, which itself would have taken so much time, you’ve also made bookmarks and calendars. I loved the Russian pronunciations you’ve included in this post, and also I never would have got the ironic undertone in the Russian title “The Story of a Family” if you hadn’t mentioned it.
1. This is the second time this month I’m hearing about naming a baby after a saint. First was from an old French film “La Salamandre.” The name of the heroine was Rosemonde, and another character’s hypothesis was that her family must’ve had a lot of kids and ran out of known names, so they must’ve chosen a name for her from the calendar of saints.
2. Names have meanings — I wonder if there are any names in Brothers Karamazov that directly indicate the character’s personality.
3. I also wonder what was the name used when the book was published in Russia. Fyodor Mikhailovich? Since it’s the respectful or polite form? Or is it the full name — Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky? Or just Fyodor Dostoevsky? Which leads to the next question…
4. You haven’t mentioned anything about just “Fyodor Dostoevsky” or just “Given name + Surname” — is that not used in Russia?
P.S. The bookmarks are lovely. I just printed them out.
Thank you for your comment. Yes, you're right about the combination of first name + surname. I'll add this point too.
Many people omit their patronymic when introducing themselves—it's unnecessary for children at school, for instance. In general, not everyone prefers to be addressed by their patronymic.
On book covers, writers could decide how to write their name - with or without the patronymic. The surname was the essential part. Also, the first name and patronymic are often simply indicated by their first letters, as initials. For Dostoevsky it was - F.M.Dostoevsky (Ф.М.Достоевский).
We'll gradually look at the meaning of the characters' names. While Dostoevsky simply selected people's names where meanings evolved historically - and these meanings might not be so important since they've become less noticeable as names simply become names - he deliberately invented the surnames himself.
Printing this one out! Your examples help so much. I feel like I just need to sleep with the Russian names playing on my earbuds to get them embedded into my soul. (Hm…now that I think about it, falling asleep to a Russian audiobook might be very nice.)
Hah, hearing Dosto names one after another is like reciting a spell to summon Beetlejuice 😅 He will haunt your dreams! I've realized I need to add one more point. So there will be a small addition.
You're welcome. Now we can reread the books again 😅. There's so much to explore about each character's name in Dostoevsky's works, and we'll definitely cover that when we discuss The Karamazovs.
That's alright. The surname has multiple spelling variations in the Latin alphabet across languages. I use the most common Russian transliteration, though no single version can be considered "correct" since the original Cyrillic surname contains sounds that don't exist in the Latin alphabet.
Thanks for explaining Russian naming structures. As someone who loves Russian literature and has worked on assumptions until now, it is nice to get some clarity on the exact meanings of the names given to a character
Quick note - For the last 50 or so years, translations of Russian surnames in English have been more commonly translated using "-ov" rather than "-off" (though I think the Library of Congress still uses the older form). In older things, it's also more rare to see the surname changed to the feminine transliteration in English. Where it gets wild, though, is in historical figures like St John Kochuroff, where now his last name is almost universally spelled "Kochurov" in English, despite the fact that he lives in the US for at least a decade, had at least two children born here, and all of them used the -off ending on everything in English.
I also forgot to add that as far as pronunciation goes, "-off" is generally more accurate.
Dana,
Thank you so much for this, and for the reading adventure you have mapped out for me/us. I really appreciate all the work you put into teaching, and I aim to meet this with an equal measure of effort.
Thank you so much for your kind words, John! I will be very happy to see you among our active readers. I hope that our year of reading the novel will bring many useful and interesting thoughts
Nice summary for future reference
Incredibly informative, thank you! I had no idea Fyodor came from Theodor! I've noticed many Russian names have Greek origins.
You know, in all my Italian books names are spelled differently. I don't know why and it doesn't really change the reading experience, but it's interesting. For example, Fyodor Dostoevsky becomes Fëdor Dostoevskj. Alyosha is Alëša, Mitya is Mitja, Pyotr is Pëtr, Sofya is Sof'ja. In War and Peace, Natasha was
Nataša and so on.
Ooo🤔 an unexpected decision by the translators - did they decide to take letters from different languages? I see they kept the Russian letter ё - pronounced as "yo" and for some reason wrote "sh" using the Czech(?) š. However, you still need to guess how they are pronounced. Italian seems to have enough of its own sounds for transcriptions.
Yes, names have come from all sorts of places, as Russian is a relatively young language and has absorbed words from Greek, Latin, Arabic, and so on.
Hi Dana, I have just finished reading your three preliminary articles. Gosh, there is so much to consider, but I am looking forward to it all. I can only add my very sincere thanks to you for all the amazing work you have already put into this ☺️👏
Thank you so much, Glenys! I hope the articles weren't too information-heavy—it's challenging to balance what I want to tell with how much time readers are willing to spend.
I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts and impressions of the novel chapters!
I already knew much of this, but I got new info about the use of suffixes, and how Russians currently address each other. So, the patrynomic isn't used in introductions as much nowadays? The audios were a great addition. Thanks so much!!
It's great that the article turned out to be useful. It depends on the situation - in everyday communication, only adults tend to introduce themselves using their first name + patronymic if they want to be addressed that way. Patronymics are common in formal settings and mainly when young people address their elders.
Wow! Your explanation is incredibly helpful. I'm printing this out, like another person commented. And hearing your voice say the names cleared up how I was 'attempting' to pronounce them. Ha :) Thanks for all the time you put into this.
Thank you for your comment, Melissa. I hope this information will truly be helpful for better understanding the characters. Look, I've added part 6 - about the combination of given name with surname.
The is the clearest explanation I’ve seen. Great work Dana!
Thank you. Although I just realized that I still forgot to talk about the combination - First Name + Surname. So I need to add more about that. It's not surprising that this topic frightens many people.
Hi Dana. Thank you so much for these excellent posts. I just read all your posts on Brothers Karamazov. You must’ve put A LOT of time and effort into this and we’re all immensely grateful for that. I mean, apart from these posts, which itself would have taken so much time, you’ve also made bookmarks and calendars. I loved the Russian pronunciations you’ve included in this post, and also I never would have got the ironic undertone in the Russian title “The Story of a Family” if you hadn’t mentioned it.
1. This is the second time this month I’m hearing about naming a baby after a saint. First was from an old French film “La Salamandre.” The name of the heroine was Rosemonde, and another character’s hypothesis was that her family must’ve had a lot of kids and ran out of known names, so they must’ve chosen a name for her from the calendar of saints.
2. Names have meanings — I wonder if there are any names in Brothers Karamazov that directly indicate the character’s personality.
3. I also wonder what was the name used when the book was published in Russia. Fyodor Mikhailovich? Since it’s the respectful or polite form? Or is it the full name — Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky? Or just Fyodor Dostoevsky? Which leads to the next question…
4. You haven’t mentioned anything about just “Fyodor Dostoevsky” or just “Given name + Surname” — is that not used in Russia?
P.S. The bookmarks are lovely. I just printed them out.
Thank you for your comment. Yes, you're right about the combination of first name + surname. I'll add this point too.
Many people omit their patronymic when introducing themselves—it's unnecessary for children at school, for instance. In general, not everyone prefers to be addressed by their patronymic.
On book covers, writers could decide how to write their name - with or without the patronymic. The surname was the essential part. Also, the first name and patronymic are often simply indicated by their first letters, as initials. For Dostoevsky it was - F.M.Dostoevsky (Ф.М.Достоевский).
We'll gradually look at the meaning of the characters' names. While Dostoevsky simply selected people's names where meanings evolved historically - and these meanings might not be so important since they've become less noticeable as names simply become names - he deliberately invented the surnames himself.
Thank you for the clarification. It's very helpful. Looking forward to the book discussion.
I'm delighted that you enjoyed the article and found it useful 🙌🏻
Printing this one out! Your examples help so much. I feel like I just need to sleep with the Russian names playing on my earbuds to get them embedded into my soul. (Hm…now that I think about it, falling asleep to a Russian audiobook might be very nice.)
Hah, hearing Dosto names one after another is like reciting a spell to summon Beetlejuice 😅 He will haunt your dreams! I've realized I need to add one more point. So there will be a small addition.
This is so helpful, thank you! I also appreciate the audio accompanying each explanation.
I'm glad you liked the article and found it useful 💕
This explanation and audio are wonderful! Both will add to my understanding and enjoyment of BK. Thank you so very much!
You're welcome, Denise. I'm glad this will be helpful
Fascinating! Thank you so much, Dana, for this detailed and clear explanation. Love it
Thank you for your thoughtful feedback ❣️
So helpful, thanks for that. I only wish I had this before I started reading Dostoyevsky last year!
You're welcome. Now we can reread the books again 😅. There's so much to explore about each character's name in Dostoevsky's works, and we'll definitely cover that when we discuss The Karamazovs.
Just realized I misspelled Dostoevsky…sorry. 🙏🏼
That's alright. The surname has multiple spelling variations in the Latin alphabet across languages. I use the most common Russian transliteration, though no single version can be considered "correct" since the original Cyrillic surname contains sounds that don't exist in the Latin alphabet.
Thanks for explaining Russian naming structures. As someone who loves Russian literature and has worked on assumptions until now, it is nice to get some clarity on the exact meanings of the names given to a character
I sincerely hope this brief guide helps you explore Russian literature. Thank you for your kind feedback