Chapter CCXXXII: Section II: Russia

The European portion of the vast empire of Russia is nationally Slavonic, but much mixed with Tatar; and the high nobility is descended, at least according to tradition, from the Norsemen. The royal line is, through intermarriages, almost Germanized. The Church continues the faith, practice, and ritual of the Greek Church, but in the old Slavonic tongue, from which the spoken language has much deviated.

The Greek element greatly predominates in the nomenclature: native saints have contributed a few Slavonic specimens, and a very few inherited from the Norsemen occur; but the race of Rurik seem very quickly to have adopted Russian names. The Tatar population hardly contributes a Christian name to history, and the Germans almost always, on their marriage with the Russian imperial family, assumed native, _i. e._ Greek or Roman-Greek, names. The present fashions in nomenclature are, however, best explained in the following letter from an English lady residing in Russia:—

'Children (and grown-up persons in their own family) are, I may say, universally called by their diminutives. In society the Christian name and patronymic are made use of, and you seldom hear a person _addressed_ by his family name, though he may be spoken of in the third person as “Romanoff,” or “Romanova” (surnames take the gender and number of their bearers), except by his superiors, such as a general to his young officers, &c.

'The patronymic is formed by the addition of _vitch_, or _evitch_, to the Christian name of a person’s father; as Constantine Petrovitch, Alexander Andréevitch, in the masculine; and of _ovna_, or _evna_, in the feminine, Olga Petrovna, Elizavetta Andréovna.

'I would call your attention to the error that is generally made in the newspapers, where these patronymics are spelt with a _W_, whereas they really are spelt and pronounced with a _V_.

'The diminutives can always be traced to the root, being derived from the first, or the accented syllable, of the full name, with the termination of a little fond syllable, _sha_, _ia_, _inka_, _otchka_, _oushka_; for instance, Mária, Másha, Mashinka—Olga, Olinka, Olitchka: Ian, John, Vanoushka, Vanka—Alexandre, Alexandra, Sasha, Sashinka. Not in one diminutive are there such glaring differences of spelling and sound, as Dick for Richard, Polly for Mary, Patty for Martha.

'Perhaps it is not superfluous to mention, that there are diminutives of reproach as well as of affection; if you scold Olga, she becomes Olka; Ivan, Vanka; and so on. This form, however, is seldom made use of by well-educated people, except in fun; though there are some who do not hesitate to make free use of it in their kitchens and nurseries, in a private sort of a manner. Among the lower orders, and especially in the country, it is not considered reproachful, but is the general form of appellation. You observe, that this is formed by the addition of _ka_ to the principal syllable.

'I find, on attentive search in the “_Monument of Faith_,” a sort of devotional book of prayer and meditations applied to every day of the year, and with the names and a short-biography of each saint, that there are 822 men’s names and 204 women’s in the Russian calendar. Of these, you will be surprised to hear twelve only are really Slavonic. Unfortunately I am unable to inform you of their meanings, notwithstanding every inquiry among the few educated inhabitants of this little out-of-the-way town; but if ever I have an opportunity of seeing a real “Sclavonophile,” as searchers into Russian antiquities are called, I will not fail to ask about it. The names are as follows:—

‘1 Boris (_m._), grand duke; murdered in 1015.
‘2 Gleb (_m._), brother to Boris; murdered in 1016.
‘3 Vetcheslav (_m._), Duke Chetsky.
‘4 Vladimir (_m._), grand duke; baptized in 988 (1st Christian grand
duke).
‘5 Vsévolod (_m._), duke; he changed his name to Gabriel when
baptized; died in 1138.
‘6 Igor (_m._), grand duke of Tchernigoff, 1147. (Norse.)
‘7 Razóomnik (_m._); this name is taken from _rázoom_, which means
sense, wisdom, and signifies a wise, sensible person.
‘8 Olga (_f._), grand duchess, god-mother to Vladimir. She was the
first Christian duchess. (Norse.)
‘9 Ludmilla (_f._), god-mother to Vsevold, and martyred in the cause
of Christianity.
‘10 Véra (_f._), means faith.
‘11 Nadéjda (_f._), hope.
‘12 Lubov, charity, love.

‘All the other names are of Greek, Latin, or Hebrew origin (with a very few exceptions, of which I will speak afterwards), and though they generally differ in termination, yet they are to be recognized instantly. I observe that in Greek names _K_ is used, and not the sound of _S_, as in Kiril, Kiprian (Cyril, Cyprian). Also that _Th_ takes the sound of _F_, as Féodore, Fomá (Theodore, Thomas). But the _Th_ is represented by a letter distinct from that by which _Ph_ or _F_ are represented, the former being written Θ and the latter Ø, but both have exactly the same sound. _U_ sometimes becomes _V_ when used in the middle of names, as Evgenia (Eugenia), Evstafi (Eustace). _B_ in many instances becomes _V_, as in Vasili (Basil), Varvara (Barbara), Varfolomey (Bartholomew).

‘The names of other origin are very few, viz.:—

'Avenir—Indian;
Arisa—Arabian;
Daria—Persian;
Sadof—Persian;
Erminigeld—Gothic.

‘German names, I may say, are not to be found in the Russo-Greek calendar.

‘When I say that there are 1026 Christian names in the calendar, I must explain that the number of saints is infinitely greater; there being from two or three to twenty or thirty every day of the year, the 29th of February included. There are sixty-one St. John’s days, thirty St. Peter’s, twenty-seven St. Féodor’s, twenty-four St. Alexandre’s, eighteen St. Gregory’s, sixteen St. Vasili’s, twelve St. André’s, ten St. Constantine’s, &c.

‘Sometimes the same saint is fêted two or three times in the year, but the different saints of the same name are very many. The female saints are in less number. Maria and Anna each occur ten times in the year, Euphrosinia six times, Féodora eight, and so on. In proportion to the number of saints so are the names of the population; so that Ivan is the most common; next, I think, comes Vasili, André, Pëtre, Nicolas (Nikolâï), Alexandre.

‘The lower orders have no idea of dates; they always reckon by the saints’ days. Ask a woman the age of her baby, she will say, “Well, I suppose it is about thirty weeks old.” “What is its name?” “Ivan.” “Which Ivan?” you ask, your calculations being defeated by the sixty-one St. Johns. “Why, the Ivan that ‘lives’ four days after dirty Prascóvia.” You then understand that the child must have been born about the 10th or 12th October, as the blessed saint is irreverently called “dirty Prascóvia” from falling on the 14th October, a very muddy time of the year in holy Russia.

‘One name only can be given at baptism, and it must be taken from the orthodox calendar. German, French, and English names not to be found there cannot be bestowed, nor can a surname, as in England.’