A girl called by any other name is an angry girl

I guess, half of the dogs in Kharkov during the 90s bore the proud name of “Dick”, which might have appeared here in some way under the influence of American movies but nobody really managed to look it up in a dictionary.

So, I think, name confusion is caused by three reasons: first – the lack of knowledge, the second – names’ traveling from one culture to another, and the third – pronunciation.

Johann Bach, Sebastian Bach or Johann Sebastian? – That is the question. There is no such thing as a middle name in Ukraine or either in Russia , we only have the patrimony. Written in passport after the last name, it is used in formal communication. Somebody who is lower in status than you or much younger will use a full (not shortened) first name and a patronymic, talking to you. For example, you wouldn’t call your boss or teacher by first name without patronymic (at least in public). That’s why middle names are so confusing for Ukrainians: we don’t know whether we can take them out or not while writing or speaking and shouldn’t we leave out the first name calling a person by his/her middle one. For example I have learned once that I can’t shorten Austrian and German names by its middle. You may say “Amadeus Mozart” (instead of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), but “Wolfgang Mozart” is unacceptable. The same happens with Bach.

Since some cultures (like America) have a different policy about middle names, that makes it more convoluted to figure out what you should do, especially if you work on the border or in a bank and have to pretend you are a “know-it-all” person. In this position asking somebody which way their names should be written might seem too humiliating. That’s why John has so many different versions of his own name, and now it’s almost impossible to keep track of him with all his new aliases in Ukraine.

“WE, Nicolas the second”. Definitely nobody uses a “family” name in Ukraine, because there is a superstition about giving a person the name of a dead relative. And nobody would say “Helen the third” of “the fifth” because in the history only the kings and queens ever had an order number added to their names.

Russian names and aliens. But the most awkward thing for me is when other nationalities use Russian names for their children, which don’t match them (from my point of view) at all. Surprisingly, I found out that Korean boys and girls prefer to call them by Russian names which are randomly picked by them or their parents. At first I thought parents do that to simplify communication with Russian-speaking teachers, but recently I have realized they dislike their native names and don’t like me using them. Well, I don’t really think it has much to do with the fascination of Russian names, but maybe there is some sort of racial thing. I need some more time to figure this out.

Pronunciation. I’m not sure about all Russian names, but my name seems to be quite difficult to pronounce it right. I have heard miscellaneous “Elaine”, “Elena”, “Yeleina” and many others instead of my real name. That’s why I prefer Helen to Елена if I talk to English-speaking person.

Posted by Helen