45
votes
Accepted
Why is the Turkish president's surname spelt in Russian as Эрдоган, with г?
Russian has different transcription systems for different languages.
Some of them (Japanese, Korean, Chinese) have been developed by a single person or by a group of scholars, who had invested some ...
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29
votes
How frequently do Russian people still refer to others by their patronymic (отчество)?
First of all, there is a big difference between calling someone by the combination of his first name and his patronymic name (Иван Кузьмич) and calling someone by his patronymic name only (Кузьмич). ...
- 1,477
28
votes
Accepted
Does Russian have patronymics of foreign names?
Absolutely.
In Russia, almost every document about a person includes a patronymic, so everyone needs it. If your father has foreign name, you still have a patronymic. If your father is unknown, your ...
- 8,572
26
votes
In Russian is it more appropriate to refer to someone by their full name?
There are number of ways of addressing people, and they are all appropriate in different situations.
FIRST NAME only - "Иван, подойди сюда" - not formal, very common form of address between ...
- 4,319
23
votes
Accepted
What is the proper отчество for Cтанислау?
Станислау (Станіслаў to be precise) is a Belarusian version of name Stanislav.
Keep in mind that Belarusian "ў" is more like w, so it does not sound like "oo".
Let's not dive into political issues ...
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21
votes
Accepted
What distinguishes "Осип" from "Иосиф"?
It's neither a nickname, nor a dinimutive. It's just a form which became distinctive from the (borrowed through Greek) Иосиф and happily co-exist with it just like Johannes co-exist with John.
While ...
- 37.9k
20
votes
Accepted
What order are the parts of a full Russian name in?
There are two options:
first - patronymic - surname
surname - first - patronymic
Examples:
Иван Иванович Иванов
Иванов Иван Иванович
In other words patronymic is an "extension" for the first ...
- 8,346
19
votes
Accepted
As a non-native speaker, is it more normal to call myself "Эндрю" or "Андрей"?
If you call yourself "Андрей" you'll have tons of questions from everybody whether you have any Russian ancestry. It's typical for non-native speakers of Russian to call themselves with their real ...
- 26k
18
votes
Why is the Turkish president's surname spelt in Russian as Эрдоган, with г?
There are formal rules for practical transcription of Turkic proper names into Russian:
Турецко-русская практическая транскрипция
According to that table, ğ is transcribed as г and in rare cases as ...
- 11.9k
17
votes
Accepted
How frequently do Russian people still refer to others by their patronymic (отчество)?
Very often. The fun thing about patronymics is that they are huge part of colloquial usage as well. In a friendly conversation one can omit name completely and use just patronymic, like in "Что-то ты, ...
- 37.9k
16
votes
Accepted
Can "товарищ" be used with the first name only?
In modern Russian language the title "Товарищ" may be used in such variants:
just "товарищ" - may be used for addressing a stranger. ("Эй, товарищ! Куда вы пошли?" - "Hey sir! Where did you go?"). It'...
- 1,158
15
votes
Transliteration of the name "Seraphina"
Strictly speaking, it's "Серафима", with "м". Obviously the concept of translation is pretty vague when it comes to names, after all, Peter is not Пётр. However everyone who is named Seraphina in ...
- 37.9k
14
votes
Accepted
Affectionate Name for Girlfriend
Name Anna
Анна - formal
Аня - regular, informal (widely used by friends, parents, boyfriend)
Анечка, Анюта - maybe used by parents, close friends or a boyfriend (your case)
Ань! - regular, the ...
- 762
13
votes
Accepted
How are the short forms of Russian patronymics formed?
Do all Russian patronymics have such forms? No. For example, Ilyich and Petrovna are never reduced.
Is there a simple rule to form them? What you took for short forms are merely phonetic reductions. ...
- 726
13
votes
What is the first letter in the first name and in the surname in Cyrillic?
As Alissa correctly said, the first letter in both words is Я, and the first name is Янъ (Yan). But the first word is "Явился". It is neither a first name nor a surname, it means "[there] came". The ...
- 26k
13
votes
How frequently do Russian people still refer to others by their patronymic (отчество)?
Very often, but somewhat less often than decades ago.
First of all, the form addressing strongly depends on a scenario. If some scenarios, patronymics are used almost universally, in others, their ...
- 4,319
12
votes
Why are some city names, when named after people, given -sk suffix, but others aren't?
There's no grammatical rule in Russian that specifies city name generation based on person names. It's rather random or based on historical context.
For example, in early soviet times Stalingrad (now ...
- 2,262
12
votes
Accepted
Why is Max Verstappen's last name transliterated with a Ф ('F') instead of a В ('V')?
Wikipedia indeed mentions that this corresponds to practical Dutch transliteration, as you can clearly see from the article linked. A Dutch "v" is usually transliterated as "в"; we ...
- 37.9k
11
votes
Affectionate Name for Girlfriend
Анна is "Аня", "Анюта", "Нюша" and even "Нюра". From this one can derive even more "soft" forms like "Анюточка", "Нюшенька", "Нюрочка" etc.
So, basically all the forms mentioned on the page you've ...
- 37.9k
11
votes
Accepted
What's the relationship between the names "Alekséi" and "Aliosha"?
Алёша is a diminutive form of Алексей.
Here is a list of names and their different forms (although it's too comprehensive for its own good, as a result most of the names there are WTF-level obscure):
...
- 1,051
11
votes
Why is the Turkish president's surname spelt in Russian as Эрдоган, with г?
As a Turkic, I say that it is completely true to consider his name as Эрдоган. The name in Turkish is "Erdoğan". Note that the letter "ğ" is a sound most like the French "r" and is also a deformation ...
- 211
10
votes
Accepted
Given name transliteration: "Keith"
Yep, as already is told in comments, "т" is usually standing for t[θ] in modern Russian (though we have Фёдор vs. Theodor, Коринф vs. Corinth). But behold, here I present you a universal algorithm for ...
- 37.9k
10
votes
Почему Фёдор Достоевский, но Чарльз Буковски?
Транскрипция только польских фамилий даёт в русском варианте "-ий", и если это делается через английский язык, то в случаях, когда польское происхождение носителя фамилии хорошо известно, например ...
- 11.9k
10
votes
Accepted
If Spider-Man is Человек-Паук, what would make a good Russian name for Batman?
I'm going to omit marketing requirements in my answer (like the ability to put the localized name of the character into the company approved slot on a piece of merchandise, which is a big thing) and ...
- 52.2k
9
votes
Accepted
What is the correct Russian spelling of "Trump"?
Сorrect Russian spelling of the last name of the US President-elect, Donald Trump - Трамп.
- 116
9
votes
Accepted
Why do Russian speakers call Vladimir Putin "Vladimir Vladimirovich"?
A full Russian name consists of:
First name
Patronymic (derived from father's first name)
Last name, also known as family name.
Russian president's full name is: Vladimir (first name) ...
- 3,088
9
votes
Accepted
Pronunciation of "Иванов"
Ивано́в is much more common although some Ivanovs prefer to be called Ива́нов.
There is also the possessive adjective ива́нов (Ivan's): Ива́нов день (Kupala Night).
- 16.1k
8
votes
What order are the parts of a full Russian name in?
first - patronymic - surname
is the default form and the most respectful one.
surname - first - patronymic
is used when alphabetic ordering is needed (in lists, encyclopedias, when calling a person ...
- 14.4k
8
votes
What order are the parts of a full Russian name in?
The first-patronymic-last is the most common form. The last-first-patronymic is something that is used some formal cases like official lists (for instance of awarded persons, or deceased in accident ...
- 37.9k
8
votes
What is the equivalent of 'whole wheat flour' in Russian?
The equivalent "vulgar" term will be цельнозерновая мука (whole-grain flour). More proper term will be обойная мука, while any one or both of these terms may be present on a package.
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