Russian Surnames and Regional Dialects?

Question by KuKuKachoo: Russian Surnames and Regional Dialects(natives will probably be the most help)?
Ok…I’m writing what I hope to be a novel(I’m a professional procrastinator and get board easy) and the main character is a young man named Aleksei. (I may change his name…but that’s the one I liked the most att) He’s an American Citizen but was born in Novosibirsk and moved to America with his (dying) mother when he was 11.

Ok, I’ve done a LOT of research on Russian Surnames…and I’m having a hellaceous time figuring it out. It’s so confusing! I’ve read so many things explaining it and I still don’t get it at all! Help with that would be MUCH appreciated!

Also, in the story he speaks almost always in English, very rarely slipping into Russian. When he does, though, is there any specific kind of dialect he’d have, being from Novosibirsk? Or can I just search up Russian language guides and have him speak the generic language? I know that in some areas, the language changes drastically because of dialects, just like in English. So I’d like to be correct in this as well.

I like to do my research rather than run blindly into failure.
So, help with some or all of this would be so, so, SO very nice of you.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Zmejka
Concerning surnames – it can be as easy and common as Ivanov (Иванов), Petrov (Петров), Egorov (Егоров), Sergeev (Сергеев), Smirnov (Смирнов) etc. Some surnames take origin from a certain name – like Ivanov from the name Ivan, Petrov – from name Petr, could be also Alekseev – from the name Aleksei you have in your novel. Some – from animals like Lititsin (fox – lisitsa), Medvedev (bear – medved), some – from place name etc-etc-etc.

here is the list of the most common russian male surname, you can choose any you like.

Dialects – there are slight differences in expressions that could be in use in Novosibirsk but not in Moscow for example – but those expressions are like slang, and in general everyday use there will be no difference between someone from Novosibirsk and Moscow, for example.
There are words that people from Moscow and people from Saint Petersburg name differently – for example white bread Moscovites name “bulka” and someone from Saint Petersbrug – “baton” and some other. But in general you won’t be mistaken if you use general words.

I would advice you before you put some Russian words into the mouth of your novel hero you may be better ask some native Russians about the correct use – because if you just take a phrase and let the machine translator do the translation – it can get wrong, especially because it won’t consider right case endings etc.
Good luck!

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