A Rose by any other name is still a Rose.

In America, people have a propensity to work during the week and then buy stuff to clutter up their homes on the weekend. Being a poor English teacher in Ukraine I don’t have the disposable income to buy more crap from China. However, since the currency exchange laws were changed I have started to accumulate the “Exchange of Unspent Hryvnias for Foreign Currency” certificates. Since Russians don’t really understand the format of American names; none of them have my name listed the same way. According to the form, it should be surname followed by the given name. On one I can’t even understand what is written. Another is almost correct but it seems to have my given name as “Jon” plus it has my middle name. An additional document just has my two given names (first + middle) but is missing my last name. This name mystification seemed like a good topic for this humble blog about life in Ukraine.

Generally, in America when a couple gets married the women will take the man’s last name. Some famous women will keep there last name and other women may also do it for professional reasons. Some will even take a hyphenated name. For example, If Miss Jones marries Mr. Smith she may take the name Mrs. Smith-Jones.

These days it seems like people are always trying to come up with unique boutique names for their children. In the past, things were much simpler. For example during the 1960’s the top boy’s names were:

• Michael
• David
• John
• James
• Robert
• Mark
• William
• Richard
• Thomas
• Jeffrey

    There are four boys in my family and not only are all our first names on this list but so are half of our middle names. Obviously, my parents were not that original. They just followed cultural norms. Sometimes children are given first or middle names that were used by their relatives. For example, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s middle name came from his mother’s maiden name.  Russians do not have middle names. What seems like a middle name is actually the patronymic name. This is a version of the father’s name that means some thing like “daughter of” or “son of.” I guess this is like the Bible; Jesus was begot of Joseph (well that is probably what the neighbors thought anyway?) who was begot of Heli and so on and so on until Adam and Eve were begot of God.

Of course, it is also common to give the first son the same name as his father. The father would be John Smith Senior (Sr.) and the son would be John Smith junior (Jr.). If this tradition continued in future generations then you would have John III (the third), John IV, John V and John VI. Of course, if you had a really awesome name like say George Foreman for example then you could name all five of your sons George and have George Sr. thru George VI all running around the same house. I’m not quite sure what would happen if someone called and asked for George.

            I had a little trouble keeping up with all the Russian nicknames. Natalya = Natahia. Aleksandra = Sasha etc. The one that seems most amusing to Americans is Anastasiya = Nastya . Of course we also have our John = Jack, Edward = Ted, Richard = Dick and William = Bill.

Americans seem to have a picture or idea pop into their head for some Russian names. If they hear Boris & Natasha older Americans will think of an animated cartoon from the 1960s. Anastasia will invoke the image of the last Russian Royal Family and just do an image search on Google to see what they would think of for the name “Igor”.  Of course, many of the Russian names are mispronounced by English speakers. Igor for example doesn’t sound the way Americans think.

On a final note, I have heard of something called “Name Day”. I think I first learned of  this from a guide book. There are a number of days of the year noted as the day for a certain name. One name might have four of so days. Some of the days originate from when a Saint was born. Apparently, someone would take the first such day after their birthday for another special day. While I have heard of this tradition; I have never heard it mentioned once while I have been in Ukraine. It may have been more popular before the Revolution. There are a number of literary references including being mentioned in War & Peace.

Posted by John