How Jewish Names Changed in Historical Records

Understanding Name Changes in Russian and Soviet Records

Genealogical research in the former Russian Empire can be challenging due to the frequent variation of personal names across different records and time periods. These changes were not random, but the result of evolving administrative systems, language reforms, and social adaptation.

Russification of Jewish Names

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many Jewish residents of the Russian Empire, including those in Henichesk, began adapting their names to align with Russian linguistic and administrative norms. This process—often referred to as Russification—was not uniform or strictly enforced, but developed gradually as individuals interacted with state institutions, education systems, and broader Russian society.

In many cases, Yiddish or Hebrew given names were replaced with Russian equivalents or phonetic approximations. For example, Berko might appear as Boris, Moshe as Moisey, and Rakhil as Rozaliya. These adaptations often made it easier to navigate official documents, business transactions, and social environments where Russian was the dominant language.

Surnames could also shift in spelling due to phonetic interpretation, transliteration into Cyrillic, or clerical variation. As a result, the same family name may appear in multiple forms across different records.

From Metric Books to ZAGS

Before the Russian Revolution, vital records (births, marriages, and deaths) were recorded in Metric Books, which were maintained by state-recognized religious authorities, including rabbis for Jewish communities. These records often identified individuals using a combination of given name, patronymic description, and surname, though names were not always recorded consistently.

Following the 1917 Revolution, the Soviet government replaced religious record-keeping with civil registration offices known as ZAGS (Zapis Aktov Grazhdanskogo Sostoyaniya). Under this system, naming conventions became standardized across the population.

The use of patronymics—formed from the father’s given name—became a required and permanent part of legal identity. These followed standardized forms, such as:

• -ovich / -evich for males

• -ovna / -evna for females

For example, the son of Berko might be recorded as Berkovich, and the daughter as Berkovna. This transition explains why the same individual may appear differently in pre- and post-Revolutionary records.

Spelling Reforms and Name Variations

In 1918, the Soviet government introduced a major reform of Russian orthography, simplifying the alphabet and standardizing spelling. This reform eliminated archaic letters such as Ѣ, І, and Ѳ, and removed the final hard sign (ъ) from most words.

As a result, names recorded before 1918 often appear in slightly different forms afterward. For example:

• Pre-reform: Гранойнеръ

• Post-reform: Гранойнер

In addition, certain letters were—and still are—used inconsistently in everyday writing:

• е / ё (ё is often written as е)

• и / й (й is often written as и, especially in handwritten or informal records)

A native Russian speaker would typically recognize these variations as representing the same sound or name, but non-native researchers may not, which can make genealogical searches more challenging. These inconsistencies can produce multiple spellings of the same name, even within a single set of records.

Implications for Genealogical Research

These linguistic and administrative changes mean that a single individual may appear under multiple name variations across different records. Differences in spelling, structure, or language do not necessarily indicate different people, but often reflect:

• changes in record-keeping systems

• evolving spelling conventions

• phonetic interpretation by clerks

• or adaptation to Russian-language norms

When conducting research, it is essential to search for multiple variants of both given names and surnames, and to consider historical context when interpreting records.

A Half-Century of Identity: A Five-Decade Archival Comparison (1916–1967)

This case study follows one family across fifty years of records—from the late Imperial period through the Soviet era—illustrating how names could change significantly over time due to shifting administrative systems, language standardization, and social adaptation.