Thread: Using a patronymic in the United States

I know that it's only customary to use patronymics in the former Soviet Union, but there are plenty of Slavic families that move to the US and keep the patronymic names in the family as a way of retaining their culture.

My wife is Russian and I'm American. As someone who is studying the Russian language and culture, I have to admit that I love the patronymic name. It actually means something (in America, we have middle names, which are basically useless).

Would it be acceptable for our kids to have my name as a patronymic? It would be "Jamesevich" and "Jamesovna".

"Jamesovich"

Using a patronymic for a non Russian would look weird a little bit. In Russia, a patronymic name for a non Russian is mostly used to mock a person in the way to show up the relativeness. For an example, most music channels call (jokingly) Enrique Iglesias as Enrique Julievich to emphasize that he is a son of Julio Iglesias.

Originally Posted by jjjiimm

I know that it's only customary to use patronymics in the former Soviet Union, but there are plenty of Slavic families that move to the US and keep the patronymic names in the family as a way of retaining their culture.

My wife is Russian and I'm American. As someone who is studying the Russian language and culture, I have to admit that I love the patronymic name. It actually means something (in America, we have middle names, which are basically useless).

Would it be acceptable for our kids to have my name as a patronymic? It would be "Jamesevich" and "Jamesovna".

What about your kids using your wife's patronymic name?

Scott

Originally Posted by jjjiimm

Would it be acceptable for our kids to have my name as a patronymic? It would be "Jamesevich" and "Jamesovna".

Hey there Jim! I'm, a mom of two teenagers here in the states and I can tell you that if you have your children with one last name and you and your wife have different last names... it equals a big mess in school. Even if your wife and the kids have one name and you another... the problems are with school directories and office staff or teachers trying to remember that "Oh, little Susie's dad's name is Smith." "Is little Susie's dad a step-dad?"

So unless you ALL change your last name to be the same... I would strongly urge you to reconsider this option. Life is hard enough in school... why make it harder?

Patronimic name is not a family name, this is a derivative form from the farther's first name and placed after the person's first name:

John Jamesovich Doe
Mary Jamesovna Roe

This is not specific for Russia / Ukraine only, AFAIK Lithuinians and Turks have similar concepts:

Iolanta Jameso Doekaite
Guzel James-kyzy Roe

Originally Posted by Kudesnik

Iolanta Jameso Doekaite
Guzel James-kyzy Roe

Jalal ad-Doe Hasan Ibn James al-New-Yorki

Originally Posted by Kudesnik

Patronimic name is not a family name, this is a derivative form from the farther's first name and placed after the person's first name:

John Jamesovich Doe
Mary Jamesovna Roe

Maybe I misunderstood Jim then... I read it as he wanted to use that as a last name for his kids... my bad.

I dunno. As an American "Jamesovich" and "Jamesovna" sound totally weird. I would 86 the idea.

I have experience with weird. When my wife and I married, we took a family name (Chaika) which we tell everyone. But we really have hyphenated names of which Chaika is only a part and our birth names are the other part, that we don't use except for OFFICIAL docs like title deeds, investments. So our two surnames are different, but hyphenated. Our kids have the hyphenated variant of my name. I only hope the kids do not marry other hyphenated people - what would their kids' names be? =:^0