Archives for: June 2010, 10
Фамилия
June 10th, 2010 by DonThe Russian word for last name or surname is фамилия. Фамилия does not mean family. Let's say you are in a post office, and the worker there needs to know your last name. He might ask your last name by saying:
| Как ваша фамилия? | What is your last name? |
Russian last names tend to end in -ин, -ын, -ов, -ев, and -ёв. Those are the masculine forms. You can also have feminine and plural forms as well:
| Masculine | Feminine | Plural |
| Иванова | Иванова | Ивановы |
| Михайлов | Михайлова | Михайловы |
| Путин | Путина | Путины |
| Медведев | Медведева | Медведевы |
| Горбачёв | Горбачёва | Говрбачёвы |
| Синицын | Синицына | Синицыны |
Many Russian last names also end in -ый, -ой or -ский. Those are the masculine forms. You can also have feminine and plural forms as well:
| Masculine | Feminine | Plural |
| Белый | Белая | Белые |
| Толстой | Толстая | Толстые |
| Достоевский | Достоевская | Достоевские |
The declension of last names is discussed in these entries:
Note for Russian readers: the word 'surname' is not used very often in the United States. I have seen it on a few official forms, but for the most part we say 'last name,' not 'surname.' The one time I visited Britain, I did here 'surname' used.
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