patronyms

[carkuczyn]

is there a rule as to whether a russian female's patronym ends in "ovna" or "evna"?  this always confuses me.  thanks for any help. 

[Forum Admin]

is there a rule as to whether a russian female's patronym ends in "ovna" or "evna"?  this always confuses me.  thanks for any help. 

Generally, the ending is "ovna". However, when the father's name ends in "i" like Nikolai, or Sergei,  the ending is "evna"

[Mike]

A few Russian male names end with -a: Nikita, Kuz'ma, Savva. In this case the female patronym's ending is -ichna: Nikitichna, Kuz'minichna, Savvichna.

[Georgiy]

And of course the same rules apply for male patronyms -ovich, -evich, or -ich.

[TheAce1918]

Thanks everyone.  I used to go by the idea that girls had the patronym [evna] and boys had [evich], I never knew that a certain letter could change the name's form. 

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

The rule of specific ends for patronyms is similar than with the surnames, the majority
of the surnames for women end with "a", of course it depends of the ends of the surnames, like
ov- ova, ev- eva, in-ina... just the ones with nko have the same ending for woman.

[Kalafrana]

Going slightly off topic, what happens to foundlings and other Russians with unknown fathers? Is there a 'standard' patronymic, rather like Feodorovich/Feodorovna for foreign converts to Orthodoxy whose fathers' names do not have Russian equivalents (St Feodor being the patron saint of converts)?

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

A few Russian male names end with -a: Nikita, Kuz'ma, Savva. In this case the female patronym's ending is -ichna: Nikitichna, Kuz'minichna, Savvichna.

And I'll add Ilya... with patronyms like Ilich or Ilinichna. I don't know why they change very much

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Going slightly off topic, what happens to foundlings and other Russians with unknown fathers? Is there a 'standard' patronymic, rather like Feodorovich/Feodorovna for foreign converts to Orthodoxy whose fathers' names do not have Russian equivalents (St Feodor being the patron saint of converts)?

Very good question. But not all the foreign converts took the patronym of Feodorovich/Feodorovna,
there are a couple of Tsarinas without it.

[Kalafrana]

I did read in Massie's Peter the Great that Catherine I became Ekaterina Alexeyevna when she converted to Orthodoxy, with the Tsarevich Alexei as her godfather. Perhaps other converts got their patronyms from their godfathers.

[Olga Maria]

A few Russian male names end with -a: Nikita, Kuz'ma, Savva. In this case the female patronym's ending is -ichna: Nikitichna, Kuz'minichna, Savvichna.

And I'll add Ilya... with patronyms like Ilich or Ilinichna. I don't know why they change very much

If the name of the father is Ilya, the patronym will be Ilyich ;-)

[Olga Maria]

What will be the patronymic for a girl whose father is named Stanislav?

[Ally Kumari]

Stanislavovna

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

If the name of the father is Ilya, the patronym will be Ilyich ;-)

Yes, you're correct.

[nena]

I think "Ilyich' would be male patronymic.