YOU NAME IT!
written by Alyona

Many people are confused by the variety of the names a Russian person can have. Some people even think that all the additional names are nick-names, but they aren’t. Today we will throw light to the riddle of Russian names.

A common Russian name usually consists of three parts – first name, father’s name and last name. A boy and a girl born in one family would have father’s names and last names with different endings. For example, Evgenia Olegovna Kanaeva and Egor Olegovich Kanaev. Most of the female names would end on “a” or “ya” – Elena, Svetlana, Yulya, Olga, Mariya and so on. First name in connection with father’s name is used in reference to a grown-up person, who you don’t know very closely, or who is of higher status than you (work colleagues, student-teacher, distant relatives). You could notice that Zhenya always refer to her coaches as Irina Alexandrovna (from the name Alexandr) and Vera Efremovna (from the name Efrem), she would never call them only by first names, because it would mean sort of disrespect.

In Russia the usage of Mr, Ms, or Mrs is not very popular. When referring to a person, you should choose between the first name and the first and father’s name in combination. If the person you talk to is your friend or much younger than you, you should refer to him/her only by first name. Here comes the mess! The thing is that almost each first name has its derivatives. Sometimes the derivatives are shorter than the name itself, but not always. In some cases the derivatives do not resemble much the original name. Let us see some examples: Evgenia-Zhenya, Elena-Lena-Alyona, Olga-Olya, Oksana-Ksyusha, Mariya-Masha, Svetlana-Sveta, Ekaterina-Katya, Irina-Ira and so on. Moreover, there is a way to say the person’s name in a very kind manner, such as: Zhenya-Zhenechka, Lena-Lenochka, Masha-Mashen’ka etc. Finally, there is teenagers’ slang in naming the person (usually teenagers call each other adding affix “k” to the name): Zhenya-Zhen’ka, Lena-Lenka, Sveta-Svetka.

Are you confused? Let me give you the whole set of derivatives to my name))))))

Elena Aleksandrovna-Elena-Lena-Alyona-Alyonka-Alyonushka-Alyonochka-Alyonych-Lyona-Lenka-Lenochka-Lenushka-Lenusik-Len’chik

Now you know that there is great variety of names for you to refer to your Russian friend!

P.S. for Alyona’s wallpapers，check here:
Alyona’s Art Design Section
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Chinese translated by Zoe Wan

很多人都對俄羅斯人名的多樣性感到困惑。有些人甚至認為所有額外的名字都是nickname，這是錯誤的想法，它們並不是nickname。 今天我們就幫你揭開俄羅斯人名的神秘面紗。

一般俄羅斯的人名包含三個部份-first name、father’s name跟last name。在同一個家庭出生的男孩跟女孩，名字裡頭的父親的名字跟姓會有不同的結尾。譬如Zhenya跟她哥哥Egor，他們的名字分別是Evgenia Olegovna Kanaeva跟Egor Olegovich Kanaev，大多數女性的名字結尾不是a就是ya。譬如:  Elena、Svetlana、Yulya、 Olga、Mariya 等等。

first name跟father’s name的連結通常是針對成年人，對那些你並不熟悉的人或者位階比你高的人 (職場上的同事、老師跟學生、遠親) 。相信大家都有留意到Zhenya都是稱呼她的教練 Irina Alexandrovna(來自於Alexandr)跟Vera Efremovna (來自於Efrem)。她不會只用first name稱呼她們，因為這樣是很不尊重的。

在俄羅斯並不常用Mr、Ms、或者 Mrs。當你要稱呼對方時，你要選擇是用first name或者first name+father’s name。如果對方是你的朋友或者比你年輕，那稱呼他first name即可。但這裡有個混亂的情況出現了，幾乎每個first name都有一個衍生的名字。有時衍生的名字會比first name本身短，但並不總是這樣。某些情況，衍生的名字跟原始的名字並不像。譬如: Evgenia-Zhenya、Elena-Lena-Alyona、Olga-Olya、 Oksana-Ksyusha、Mariya-Masha、Svetlana-Sveta、Ekaterina-Katya、Irina-Ira 等等。還有另外一種親暱稱呼人名的方式，例如: Zhenya-Zhenechka, Lena-Lenochka, Masha-Mashen’ka 等等。最後，還有一種青少年間的特殊稱呼用法 (通常青少年之間稱呼對方會在名字裡添加”k”): Zhenya-Zhen’ka、Lena-Lenka、Sveta-Svetka。

你現在覺得困惑了嗎？讓我給你整組我的名字的衍生字 ))))))。

Elena Aleksandrovna-Elena-Lena-Alyona-Alyonka-Alyonushka-Alyonochka-Alyonych-Lyona-Lenka-Lenochka-Lenushka-Lenusik-Len’chik

現在你知道當要稱呼你的俄羅斯朋友，其名字的多變性有多麼巨大了。

P.S. 要下載Alyona設計的這張漂亮的桌布請至:
Alyona’s Art Design Section