13

I'm a non-native speaker of Russian, and my given name is Andrew. Is it more normal to call myself "Эндрю", which according to Wiktionary is the transliteration of my name, or "Андрей", which is a cognate (ie an etymologically related word)?

Golden Cuy
  • 1,119
  • 9
  • 21

2 Answers2

19

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 names, "Эндрю" in your case. Still, I knew a Vietnamese guy named Ha Hai Tan who called himself "Толя" (it's short from "Анатолий"). When I once asked him why he chose "Толя", he said, "Well, Tan – Толя, they sound very similar." ))

Well, call yourself with your real name "Эндрю" if you'd like to avoid such questions and surprised looks, or choose "Андрей" if you want them, or if you decided to convert to Russianhood.

And actually, "Эндрю" is not a transliteration of "Andrew", it is a transcription with the Russian letters.

Yellow Sky
  • 26,107
  • 59
  • 102
  • 12
    You can also be radical and say "Меня зовут Эндрю, но вы можете называть меня Андрей". (My name is Andrew but you can call me Andrey"). – Alexander M. Feb 05 '17 at 09:57
  • 4
    It is quite common for people of Eastern origin, especially Chinese, to use Western names when communicating with Westerners. In Russia it is also quite common for people from ex-USSR Central Asia (e.g. Uzbeks) to use Russian names. Probably this is because the pronunciation of Eastern names may be quite hard for foreigners. But European names are well-known in Russia and generally expected to be used as-is. – Spc_555 Feb 05 '17 at 15:08
  • @VasilyAlexeev - The Ukrainian names are also in most cases substituted with Russian ones, and vice versa: Петро : Пётр (e.g. the czar Петро І, the president Пётр Порошенко), Текла : Фёкла, Пилип : Филипп, Євген : Евгений, Олена : Елена, Самійло : Самуил, almost all of them. Note, Ukr. и is pronounced as Rus. ы, Ukr. е as Rus. э. – Yellow Sky Feb 05 '17 at 15:36
  • @VasilyAlexeev - What about such European names as Elizabeth, George, James, Charles, Louis, why are they substituted with their Russian counterparts while speaking about kingsб if they are well-known in Russia? In Russian they are Елизавета, Георг, Яков (!), Карл, Людовик correspondingly. – Yellow Sky Feb 05 '17 at 15:58
  • @YellowSky This is mostly from the times when names weren't as settled down as now. Remember that John Amos Comenius is known as Johann Comenius or Jan Amos Komenský, depending on whether you speak English, German/Latin or Czech. The Emperor Charles the Fourth is Karel IV. (čtvrtý) or Karl IV. or Carolus IV. etc. We also speak aboud Zikmund and not Sigismund in Czech, etc. This approach is common to basically all European languages. – yo' Feb 05 '17 at 16:59
  • @yo' - I mostly agree with you, but there's a couple of points to mind: with this state of things one cannot overgeneralize and say that "European names are well-known in Russia and generally expected to be used as-is", and that Elizabeth II is the present-day Queen of the UK, but she's still called Елизавета, the tradition, however old it is, still persists, so the names of the medieval characters are not very good examples here. – Yellow Sky Feb 05 '17 at 17:54
  • @YellowSky the OP is most probably not a king, so I don't know how is this edge case relevant to the question – Spc_555 Feb 05 '17 at 18:27
  • 1
    @VasilyAlexeev - Sorry, but that's relevant to your comment, not to the OP's question. – Yellow Sky Feb 05 '17 at 18:29
  • @YellowSky Well, in Czech, we still use Její výsost královna Alžběta druhá for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the second nowadays, but I wouldn't say Alžběta if I spoke about a British friend called Elizabeth. I believe this is similar for other European languages. – yo' Feb 05 '17 at 18:38
  • 3
    @VasilyAlexeev It's true that Chinese tend to use a lot of western names especially in English-speaking countries but I find it really displeasing in general. Why not use your own real names when you have them? When I was in Chile, I initially said a westernized name but then they all asked me “but what is your real name?” I think the difficulty of pronunciation isn't the real issue, since by this logic, Indian names which are in many cases much harder to pronounce should be even more anglicized, but that didn't happen. – xji Feb 05 '17 at 22:16
  • @VasilyAlexeev Now, thanks to your comment, thinking about it, I realize the real reason behind this fad is most likely that since Hong Kong was a British colony, it was fashionable and even a kind of mandatory for each Hongkongese to have an English name. And until the rise of China, Hong Kong pretty much was leading the fashion in the sinosphere. Thus this colonialist convention got adopted everywhere as a kind of fad, a kind of symbol that you’re actually modern and westernized. – xji Feb 05 '17 at 22:16
  • @VasilyAlexeev Fortunately, my generation has more or less realized the nonsensicalness and colonialist undertone of such a tradition and has been starting to disavow it in general. – xji Feb 05 '17 at 22:16
  • @JIXiang yes, I, personally, find it strange too, and prefer to call Chinese by their real names – Spc_555 Feb 05 '17 at 22:22
  • @JI Xiang there is no such thing as "westernized" name. If you said an English name, it would sound weird in Spanish-speaking Chile and imply you are from an English-speaking country. – Anixx Feb 05 '17 at 23:05
  • @Anixx Of course. "Westernized" is a word I used to describe the mentality of those people who named themselves such. It's not a real thing. And no, I mean I of course tried to use a Spanish name with them in the beginning, not an English name – xji Feb 05 '17 at 23:22
  • "And actually, "Эндрю" is not a transliteration of "Andrew", it is a transcription with the Russian letters." What is the difference? – Lightness Races in Orbit Feb 06 '17 at 12:03
  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit - Transcription is writing down the sounds of a word, transliteration is writing down the letters of a word with the means of another alphabet. The transliteration of "Andrew" into the Cyrillic alphabet would be "Андрев" or "Андреў" or whatever the convention is, since Cyrillic has no letter correspondent to W as opposed to V. And have a look at this: http://bfy.tw/9uyY – Yellow Sky Feb 06 '17 at 13:52
  • @YellowSky: Thanks for the explanation. Not thanks for the LMGTFY; calm yourself! – Lightness Races in Orbit Feb 06 '17 at 14:29
1

I would use the name you are most comfortable with. Andrew is easy to pronounce (as opposed to, say, Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa), so the majority of Russians won't have a problem with it. Your name is part of your identity and I don't see, why you should adapt it.

Glory to Russia
  • 526
  • 2
  • 11
  • 5
    You don't have to change your name, but you change how people call you. My name is Vladimir, in my country people call me Vláďa, in English people call me Vlad and in Russia they called me Voloďa or even Vova. No problem at all. And so Andrew can be somewhere Andrew, somewhere Andy and elsewhere Андрей.And so Andrew can be somewhere Andrew, somewhere Andy and elsewhere Andrej. – Vladimir F Героям слава Feb 06 '17 at 10:27