Doubts About Russian Surname Structure
Hi there,
I am a bit confused about my ancestors name.
I know that russian surnames depending on gender, patronymic, marital status, etc, however, I am very intrigued with my relative's surnames, because they are very different from each other but they belong to same family (parents and children). They are nothing alike!
Perhaps the females' surnames could have been replaced by husbands' name, but how about males names?
Could anyone, please, explain the logic?
Father:
Popov Grigory Ivanovich (Попов Григорий Иванович)
Mother:
Popova Alexandra Alekseevna (Попова Александра Алексеевна)
Children:
Vasiliev Ivan Petrovich (Васильев Иван Петрович)
Ivanova Galina Grigorievna (Иванова Галина Григорьевна)
Mileeva/Mineeva Alexandra Petrovna (Милеева/Минеева Александра Петровна)
Thank you very much!
Answers
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Hi Arthur!
Do you have records with these names on them listing them as children of the said parents? These names don't fit with usual Russian naming conventions.
Patronymics are derived from the father's given name. Female patronymics typically end in "-ovna" while male patronymics end in "-ovich," "-evich" or "-ev." These endings mean "son of" or "daughter of." So for example, with your ancestor Grigory Ivanovich Popov, Ivanovich is his patronymic, meaning son of Ivan (Grigory's father would have been named Ivan.)
Surnames are the same for males and females except for the endings. Male surnames typically end in a consonant while female versions of the same surname have a vowel ending, usually an "a" or "skya" einding.
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Hi Ellie!
Thanks for replying!
Actually I found the information a in the BREM's form which belonged to my great grandmother.
As I said before their name structure is very weird and I didn't understand the reason why...
The extract from the form is below:
Thanks again!
Best regards
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Hmm, that's very interesting that the information with the strange surname structure is coming from your ancestor's own hand! Oftentimes confusion comes from people building public member family trees. Would you mind sending me the whole document? I'd like to take a closer look at this if I can!
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Sure! I am going to send you a message with the document attached
Thanks again!
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