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Can foreign names be used as a basis for patronymics?

If, for example, an Englishman whose first name is Donald becomes a citizen of Russia and has a son there, will that son have the patronymic Доналдович? And does François' son become Франсуасович? Etc.

Glorfindel
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oz1cz
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4 Answers4

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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 mother gives you some patronymic soon after your birth. If she doesn't know the father's name, she may give you her own patronymic. If a baby is found, and nobody knows who is his father or mother, they give him some random patronymic.

For example, Harry Kasparov (Гарри Каспаров) has English/American name Гарри. It is not a Russian name. Each of his sons is Гарриевич, and each of his daughters is Гарриевна.

Besides, there are many Russians who are ethnic Georgians, Armenians etc, and their fathers had non-Russian names. All these Russians have patronymics. For example, Абе́л Ге́зевич Аганбегя́н (Abel Aganbegyan), who is ethnic Armenian.

PS:

As per comments by Danila Smirnov and Tzakrevskiy, if a child with rights to Russian citizenship is born in a country that does not use patronymics, he/she does not receive a patronymic when applying for the Russian citizenship. However, Danila Smirnov writes:

I just happen to know someone who was born in another country and did not have a patronymic in his birth certificate when he was registered for Russian citizenship. When he got his passport at 14 years, he had a dash in his "patronymic" field. On the other hand, it did cause some problems, so he had to legally change his name to get one.

user31264
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  • Thank you; that is very interesting. In my country (Denmark) patronymics were frequently used as surnames 200 years ago. In a few very rare cases you can find a Danish patronymic based on a woman's name instead of a man's. (I suppose that would be a "matronymic".) Does that ever happen in Russia? – oz1cz Nov 12 '17 at 19:48
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    As far as I know: not in the official names. Like, a guy with a powerful mother might be called in this way to emphasise the humour. This is a very informal thing and also a mid-untasteful joke. It never happens in official documents. The other thing is if you want to trace a heritage, typically the kid has the last name of the mother (which "should" be the last name of the father, whose patronymic the kid bears). So, the legacy can be traced into women with same last names as their kids. – Oleg Lobachev Nov 12 '17 at 21:48
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    @oz1cz, only as a joke. In 12 century, there was a Rus prince Олег Ярославич whose mother Настасья was his father's mistress, so he was nicknamed Настасьич. In similar manner, lurk.ru today jokingly calls the web designer Артёмий Андреевич Лебедев "Артёмий Татьянович", because his mother, Татьяна Толстая, was a famous writer. Some russian family names derive from matronymics, but it is not clear (to me) how serious it was. I don't know of any single case when one was officially called by matronymic, even though after the WWII many children were raised without fathers. – user31264 Nov 13 '17 at 01:20
  • Not everyone can have a patronym – IC_ Nov 13 '17 at 06:55
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    @Herrgott Sure they can. Although traditionally it is given based on father's name, in absence of a stated father, mother chooses a patronymic which is written in the birth certificate. And it can be anything, really - names are somewhat regulated (since this year), but no regulation on patronymics for children with no stated father exist. The officials that give out certificates generally do not care about what your baby is called, as long as everything is according to their regulations. – Danila Smirnov Nov 13 '17 at 08:29
  • @danila я в курсах – IC_ Nov 13 '17 at 08:35
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    @user31264 -1, since according to Family Codex (article 58), national traditions can override the normal naming convention for patronymics, i.e. if the parents say that their "national customs" require the patronymic to be Татьянович (or no patronymic at all) - that's what be written in the certificate. – Danila Smirnov Nov 13 '17 at 08:35
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    @oz1cz: in fact, if used jokingly, you can safely derive patronymics from almost any masculine word (e.g. "Самолет Самолетович"). Also, in extra-informal situations (usually only between very close friends), one can be humorously addressed by "Батькович/Батьковна" (from "батька", resulting roughly in a 'Daddyson'), e.g. "Ну что, Василий Батькович, пошли чай пить?" – Vadim Landa Nov 13 '17 at 08:41
  • Kasparov is actually Garry, not Harry – d.k Nov 13 '17 at 09:11
  • @DanilaSmirnov - maybe (I am not a lawyer), but I don't know of any single case it really happened. As for no patronymic at all, I strongly doubt it is possible. Even if you order a book from ozon.ru, you are required to specify your patronymic. – user31264 Nov 13 '17 at 10:34
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    @user31264 I just happen to know someone who was born in another country and did not have a patronymic in his birth certificate when he was registered for Russian citizenship. When he got his passport at 14 years he had a dash in his "patronymic" field. On the other hand, it did cause some problems, so he had to legally change his name to get one - so while it is possible (and not required by law at birth) to not have patronymic, having one does make life easier. – Danila Smirnov Nov 13 '17 at 10:44
  • There is (was?) a loophole in the law if a child with rights to russian citizenship is born in a country that does not use patronymics. In this case, the birth certificate either has no patronymic, or puts it in the "given names" field. When parents file documents in the embassy, the embassy has neither the right to add patronymic (because it does not exist on the birth certificate) nor it has the right to convert one part of the given name to a patronymic (because the birth certificate has explicitly stated the list of given names). – TZakrevskiy Nov 13 '17 at 16:41
  • In many cases, you can have a Russian citizenship and passport without patronymic and there will be no legal problem because of that. See, for example, https://pravoved.ru/question/1575866/ and http://forum.zakonia.ru/showthread.php?t=252724 – Andrey Sapegin Nov 20 '17 at 15:10
  • @AndreySapegin yes, the passport will be valid. But it will be miriads of other problems, especially today when a lot is done by computer programs, some of which don't know about people without patronymic. – user31264 Nov 20 '17 at 16:45
  • A famous (infamous) example: Иосиф Виссарионович Джугашвили – Sasha Pachev Nov 21 '17 at 23:45
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Well, it depends. If the father is living in Russia/Russian speaking country, then yes, the child can receive patronymic as far as I know. Do not quote me on it, I am only 16. I’m not Russian. I’m Uzbek, родилась и выросла в Узбекистане. :P

Okay, anyways. I have a patronymic, but it sounds like s**t to my ears. My dad’s name is Abdulaziz. So my full name is:

Ирода Абдулазизовна Уразова. What a mouthful…

But really Donald isn’t transliterated as Доналд, but as Дональд. So, you get for a patronymic: Дональдович или Дональдовна.

Iroda Urazova
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    For some reason, the generarive model for many Central Asian surnames, -оев(а), also sounds bad to Russian ear. You are lucky that at least you don't have that. – alamar Jun 27 '22 at 21:38
  • @Alamar lots of -aev(a) and oyev(a) especially here in Uzbekistan – Iroda Urazova Jun 28 '22 at 16:53
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Now that this old thread has been revived, let me chime in :)

From the comments above:

according to Family Codex (article 58), national traditions can override the normal naming convention for patronymics

I don't know of any single case it really happened

I acquired Russian citizenship in 2012, and have no patronymic. The field 'отчество' in my internal Russian passport is literally empty. I do have two given names, which are both put under the field 'имя'.

I have two children, both Russian citizens since birth, although born abroad. We also fell back on that Family Codex mentioned above to specify we do not want our children to have patronymics.

We've never had any issues with this.

To answer the question: you can have a foreign patronymic, but you're not obliged to.

Nieko Maatjes
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If a foreigner acquires Russian citizenship they do not need to have a patronymic. I know an American man who moved to Russia 25 years ago. During that time he kept his original name.

They can get a patronymic. If a man named John moved to a Russian speaking country for example he can Russify his name and his kids have the patronymic Иванович(овна) or he can use his birth name for patronymics. Джонович(овна). In fact, Viktor Keyru, a Russian basketball player, has a foreign father, he was from Sierra Leone. His patronymic is Джонович, as I mentioned.

Надежда Маяковская
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