Thread: Question about names

If the man is called Mr Иванов is his wife to be called Mrs Иванова? i.e. the surname has to reflect gender?

Does this also apply to unmarried women - e.g if the girl's father is Илья Петрович Иванов she should actually be called e.g Эльвира Ильева Иванова? (assuming her first name is Эльвира)

Also - how do female first names decline? e.g Марина - will this be like the feminine noun ending in -а or like an adjective?

спасибо

Originally Posted by justinwyllie

If the man is called Mr Иванов is his wife to be called Mrs Иванова? i.e. the surname has to reflect gender?

Yes, most Russian surnames have gender variants. Not all of them though.

Originally Posted by justinwyllie

Does this also apply to unmarried women

Yes. Unlike Lithuanian, in Russian, there is no distinction between married and unmarried women’s surnames.

Originally Posted by justinwyllie

e.g if the girl's father is Илья Петрович Иванов she should actually be called e.g Эльвира Ильева Иванова? (assuming her first name is Эльвира)

The surname is OK, but the patronymic from the name Илья should be Ильинична (pronounced like /ильйи́нишна/). An irregular one. Masculine form is Ильич /ильйи́ч/.

Originally Posted by justinwyllie

Also - how do female first names decline? e.g Марина - will this be like the feminine noun ending in -а or like an adjective?

First names decline like nouns.
Your example is a bit amusing though since there is also a female surname Марина which declines differently (and also has a different stress)

	first name	last name
nom,	Мари́на	Ма́рина
gen.	Мари́ны	Ма́риной
dat.	Мари́не	Ма́риной
acc.	Мари́ну	Ма́рину
instr.	Мари́ной	Ма́риной
prep.	Мари́не	Ма́риной

Originally Posted by Soft sign

Yes, most Russian surnames have gender variants. Not all of them though.

male	female
-́ин	-́ина
-и́н	-ина́
-́ов	-́ова
-о́в	-о́ва
-́ев	-́ева
-ёв	-ёва
-́ый	-́ая
-́ий	-́яя
-о́й	-а́я

Surnames not having those endings usually have a single form for both genders.

In some cases, a surname can look like it has one of those endings, but they are of different origin (part of the root, not a suffix). E.g. Да́рвин, Бю́лов, Голова́, Цой, Гурцка́я. They also have a single form for both genders.