by Volodymyr:
Okay first post here, looking forward to spending some time here. Short introduction, I am a student in Spokane, WA (USA). Russian/Ukrainian heritage on my dad's side, we think from Nycolaev (forgive the spelling) but can't confirm. I spent three weeks in Eastern Europe this summer, a week each in Estonia (Tallinn), Ukraine (Kyiv), and Russia (St. Petersburg) and had a blast.

I am an Orthodox convert and my patron saint is St. Vladimir/Volodymyr. I hear different things, so was hoping I could get some sort of consensus. I understand Volodymyr is a traditional Ukrainian spelling, would they be pronounced the same way? Or do you emphasize the O's a little bit.

Vla-duh-meer vs. Vah-lah-dee-meer

Or none of the above?

My Gamertag on Xbox LIVE is V0L0DYMR and I have a lot of fun with it, to-date two people have gotten it right off the bat. Everyone else tries to call me something ridiculous, everything from Voldemort to anything else you can imagine.

Oh, also taking my first year of Russian this year. Took me forever to find it, really enjoying it thus far!


by Zaya:
Nycolaev
Николаев in Russian
Миколаїв in Ukrainian

Володимир (Ukrainian)
Владимир (Russian)

would they be pronounced the same way?
Of course not. First, in Russian and Ukrainian и represents different sounds. Ukrainian [и] is closer to Russian [ы] although it is not the same sound.

Or do you emphasize the O's
I wouldn't say that we emphasise them but in Ukrainian we pronounce unstressed o's distinctly. It is definitly [o] (and in Russian unstressed o becomes a sound that is similar to [a]).
Sorry, I am not good at writing down pronunciation using English alphabet.

everything from Voldemort


P. S. (to all) If you will correct my mistakes, I'll be extremely grateful to you.


by gRomoZeka:
Vla-duh-meer vs. Vah-lah-dee-meer
Nicolaev is Russian-speaking city, so it's safe to say that your father (as well as everybody else) called himself Владимир (Vla-dee-meer, last "и" is UNstressed).
In all official papers nowadays he would be called Володимир (as you've already said it's a Ukrainian spelling of the same name). It's pronounced "Voh-loh-dy-myr" (where "y" is "ы" sound) - there's no reduction of the unstressed vowels in Ukrainian, so unstressed "o" is still "oh".


by Volodymyr:
Quote Originally Posted by gRomoZeka
Vla-duh-meer vs. Vah-lah-dee-meer
Nicolaev is Russian-speaking city, so it's safe to say that your father (as well as everybody else) called himself Владимир (Vla-dee-meer, last "и" is UNstressed).
In all official papers nowadays he would be called Володимир (as you've already said it's a Ukrainian spelling of the same name). It's pronounced "Voh-loh-dy-myr" (where "y" is "ы" sound) - there's no reduction of the unstressed vowels in Ukrainian, so unstressed "o" is still "oh".
I tend to stick to the Russian for several reasons, more recently because its the language I can pronounce and am learning lol.

My great-grandpa never really talked about his past, and always just introduced himself as Russian. He gave a presentation to a 5th grade class once, and the thank you letters are about all we know. Two students tried to spell the name of the town he is from, they looked nothing alike (poor cursive writing), one looked like Nicolaev. So its our best guess.

Either way, though we don't know the exact year he left, chances are he left Russia and not an independent Ukraine.

So once we discovered that I tend to refer to my heritage as Russian/Ukrainian. Like I said I tend to stick to Vladimir over Volodymyr for the reasons above. But often times Vladimir is taken as a name on forums or such and so then I go for Volodymyr

Still undecided if I am going to have my name changed to reflect the Orthodox conversion.

Thanks for the responses... anyone able to do an English pronunciation of Volodymyr, or was I close in my guess?

Thanks again!

EDIT: Oh I do try stick to Ukrainian spellings for things like Kyiv or Chornobyl because it just seems more accurate. I know the whole thing has its complications.