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  1. jazzman

    jazzman Member

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    russian names???

    Discussion in 'Character Development' started by jazzman, Dec 31, 2010.

    Gday all xxx hit a wall and I need some help x i need a russian surname that can either be translated to English, or can also be an english sounding name for a main character who has russian heritage x any ideas would be awesome xxx ta
     
  2. jazzman

    jazzman Member

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    more clarification

    Just as an add on to make more sense.
    The Swedish Hanson can be used as en Englisg surname
    The German Becker can be used as an english surname
    and so on....
     
  3. Philomena

    Philomena New Member

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    Behind the Name is your best friend :)

    Also, aren't surnames generally called by their country of origin? Such as my own personal surname being as English as it gets, but my friend whose surname might be something like Gutermuth doesn't really hold a candle at disguising his or her Germanic roots. That being said, here are some Russian names I found that are relatively normal in an English speaking environment. Boy/Girl color coded.

    Abram, Elena, Klara, Ivan, Larissa, Natasha, Viktor, Aleksandr.
     
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  4. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    i don't see why anyone would 'translate' a russian name to english... there are long ones like baryshnikov tchaikovsky and short ones like gogol and trotsky... no russian last names i've ever come across would be english-sounding...

    why don't you just google for russian surnames and pick one?

    phil... he wanted surnames [last names]...
     
  5. Dante Dases

    Dante Dases Contributor Contributor

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    What Maia says. It may be worth undertaking some research into Russian naming conventions. As I understand it, there's some complex goings-on behind any given surname, so to make it believable you'd need to follow those conventions.
     
  6. Pook

    Pook New Member

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    Seconded*
     
  7. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    also, keep in mind that in russian, females have an 'a' tacked onto the end of the family surname... thus 'ivanov' would be the father and the sons' last name, while the wife and daughters would use 'ivanova'...
     
  8. jesus_calderon

    jesus_calderon New Member

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    Go here and check the table under "Characters" section. That should give you some ideas.
     
  9. Leah Woods

    Leah Woods Active Member

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    Ditto that. Russian surnames are more complex than English, so for it to sound believable you'd need to do research. As for lists of surnames I'd be careful, sometimes those surnames can't exist in reality or mean something completely different.

    There's also the fact that there are patronymics and actual family surnames. Be sure you don't mix them up, because patronymics change with every generation and depend on father's name.
     
  10. East

    East New Member

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    :--)
     
  11. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    scroll up 3 posts and you'll see that's already been noted... and explained...
     

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