Thread: медведев, волков...

Russia has names such as медведев, волков, воронов, зайцев, etc. Why are these in plural genitive?

It is short (archaic) form of the singular possessive case (who's?), not genitive

btw, in gen. pl. it is медведей

lots of russian names do that. Or at least appear that way. My buddies last name is Мокров. Of course thats an adjective, properly it should be мокрых.

Its just like "Johnson" - Son of John.

Old names, old ways, but the names didn't change.

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

lots of russian names do that. Or at least appear that way. My buddies last name is Мокров. Of course thats an adjective, properly it should be мокрых.

Its just like "Johnson" - Son of John.

Old names, old ways, but the names didn't change.

Many names derive from their landlord's, because in the olden days, under serfdom, the serfs didn't have last names. So when they finally got their passports, I forget under which Tsar (was it Peter?) they had to pick a last name. So many names such as Иванов and Дмитриев really mean that they belonged to Ivan or Dmitriy.

Others used names are based on nature (волков, соснов), based on traits they did not want to have (дураков, безркуов) (superstition that if you are called "stupid" that means you are very smart!) etc.