Фамилия

by Don  

The 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:

MasculineFemininePlural
ИвановаИвановаИвановы
МихайловМихайловаМихайловы
ПутинПутинаПутины
МедведевМедведеваМедведевы
ГорбачёвГорбачёваГоврбачёвы
СиницынСиницынаСиницыны

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:

MasculineFemininePlural
БелыйБелаяБелые
ТолстойТолстаяТолстые
ДостоевскийДостоевскаяДостоевские

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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