Full (formal) and short forms. As opposed to full forms used in formal situations, short forms of a name are used in communication between well-acquainted people, usually relatives, friends and colleagues. Short forms emerged in spoken language for convenience as majority of formal names are cumbersome.
People commonly use diminutives as nicknames to address one another. For example, Lena may become Lenochka or Anya is turned into Anyuta. Male nicknames often shorten the original name. For example, Mikhail becomes Mish or Misha.
Every Russian has three names: First name, patronymic (middle name, derived from one's father's first name) and surname. First (Christian) names are usually traditional. They come from the Bible, or can be of Greek (most names, in fact), Latin or old Slavic origin.
Surnames. Many surnames change depending on the gender of the person. This is especially true for surnames ending in v (Russian letter в) and n (Russian letter н). For these names, typically, the feminine form is the same as the male form but has an additional a at the end.
To politely address people, some countries use 'Mr' and 'Mrs'. In Russia, people are addressed by their first name and patronymic instead.
The first double surnames in Russia and Eastern Europe were known and used in medieval times. Having a double surname was a privilege and an indication of a higher social class. The practice of adding a second surname arose because of the need to distinguish between members of the same family.
Names consist of a GIVEN NAME (imia), a PATRONYMIC (otchestvo), and a SURNAME (familiia). It is customary to use patronymics as middle names. Patronymics are derived from the father's given name and end with -ovich or -evich. The female patronymics end in -ovna or -evna.
Ivanov is the most common surname in Russia.
According to the Soviet family law: Upon marriage, spouses may take a common name, or each may keep his or her own name. Until the enactment of the new Family Codes, it was also possible to use a double name consisting of the names of both spouses. In the R.S.F.S.R.
Vlatka is a Croatian name, the diminutive of Vladimira (the female equivalent of Vladimir).
Naming Conventions.
Since the mid-19th century, Russians have traditionally possessed three names: a first name, a patronymic, and a surname. In official documents, the surname always precedes the name and patronymic, but in all other contexts, the order is name, patronymic, surname.
In Russian, Masha (Маша) is a diminutive of Maria. It has been used as a nickname or as a pet name for women named Maria or Marie. An alternative spelling in the Latin alphabet is "Macha".
Origin:Russian. Meaning:Defender, Helper of mankind. Sasha is a gender-neutral name of Russian origin, meaning “defender” and “helper of mankind”. This solid and heroic name is the Russian short-form of the Greek name Alexander or Alexandra, which means “to defend man”.
Sasha is derived from Alexander via its dimunitive, but obsolete form - Aleksashka - shortned to Sashka, further simplified to Sasha as per established name format of Masha (Maria), Dasha (Daria), Pasha (Pavel, Paul), Glasha (Glafira), Natasha (Natalia), etc.
Volkov (Russian: Во́лков), or Volkova (feminine; Во́лкова), is a common Russian surname. It is derived from the word волк (volk, meaning "wolf").
Lebedev (Russian: Ле́бедев), or Lebedeva (feminine; Ле́бедева) is a common Russian family name derived from the word лебедь (lebed, meaning "swan").
Vorona (Russian: Ворона, Ukrainian: Ворона) or Varona (Belarusian: Варона) is a surname of East Slavic origin, meaning "crow".
In the Russian Tsardom, the word Russia replaced the old name Rus' in official documents, though the names Rus' and Russian land were still common and synonymous to it, and often appeared in the form Great Russia (Russian: Великая Россия), which is more typical of the 17th century, whereas the state was also known as ...
The old ladies are very noticeable in Russia, they're called 'Babushka' – Russian for "granny" – and they are in charge much more than it may seem.
You're talking about patronymic. There are grammatical cases in the Russian language. That is why the female patronymic with grammatical case is applied ends up in a vowel, by the Russian custom.
One of the first things you should know about the Russian naming system is that names are quite divided by gender. This allows people's names to fit into the Russian grammar system and decline the same way that other nouns do.
Certain Russian letters and sounds do not have equivalents in English, are difficult to render into English closely enough, and have variants of rendering into English. Writing Russian names in English close to their Russian pronunciation does not guarantee that English speakers will pronounce them correctly.