Question by I’m better than you: Is it customary for a Russian male to not have an A on the end of his last name and for the woman to have one?
I noticed that when i was looking up Russian names and Surnames that Males had no A on the end and women did. Is that customary? If so why?
Answers and Views:
Answer by nickname
it’s just like in spanish. it’s just a distinction for female/male since russian is a roman descendent using cyrillic alphabet. they have a different form of the name for the different forms.
Answer by polka_123_pa
there’s not a specific for men but for Russian, Czech, Ukraine & some Slovak women… an “ova” is added to the last name to denote a female.
ex: male – fedor
female – fedorova
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Dennis R says
In Russian it is common to have, in addition to a surname, a patronymic name. This name uses your fathers name and means son of or daughter of.
For example, if ones father’s name is Ivan, he would be called Ivanovich if male, and Ivanovna if female. Most surnames stay the same.
Timmy says
most russian names follow that rule, Ivanov (male), Ivanova (female). Last names that originated in other countries don’t follow that rules. If someone’s name is Smith, you can’t say Smitha. lol