# Forum Learning Russian Language Resources for Studying Russian Russian Names  Григорий, Георгий

## TATY

Am I right in thinking that the letter Й was added to these names of foreign origin to make them declinable? 
E.g. if they left them as Григори and Георги, the names wouldn't decline.

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## BETEP

Hm. It's interesting point.

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## translationsnmru

> Am I right in thinking that the letter Й was added to these names of foreign origin to make them declinable? 
> E.g. if they left them as Григори and Георги, the names wouldn't decline.

 *Left* them? Do you really think that this is the original form of these names? Георгий comes from Greek "Georgios", why in the world should it be Георги in Russian? Vowel + й is a frequent ending for maculine nouns in Russian, and "и" isn't, so it makes sense that a male name (which is a masculine noun) ends with "й"

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## Scorpio

> Am I right in thinking that the letter Й was added to these names of foreign origin to make them declinable? 
> E.g. if they left them as Григори and Георги, the names wouldn't decline.

 No, I don't think so.
There's a very common tradition: many of the greek/latin words ending in -os, -us, -um get endings like '-ий' in Russian. This is true not only for names. For example, most chemical elements are translated this way: "Lithium" -- "Литий", "Rubidium" -- "Рубидий", "Plutonium" -- "Плутоний", etc.

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