Bulgarian Personal Names

The aim of the current page is to provide information about the structure of Bulgarian personal names and discuss some of the cataloging issues involved. Note that Macedonian names also often follow similar patterns; however the “v” is often lacking in the name suffixes, e.g., the Macedonian names Ivanoski or Mileski, variants of Ivanovski or Milevski.

1. Bulgarian personal names have the following structure:

Personal (given) name + patronymic + surname (family name)
e.g., Boris Petrov Georgiev

2. Bulgarian surnames often have the following endings (with an “-a” ending for the feminine names):

Male: -ov, -ev, -ski, -in

Female: -ova, -eva, -ska, -ina

In Western countries, women sometimes keep the same ending as their husband on the surname: e.g., Nevena Khristov instead of Nevena Khristova.

Name authority example (in MARC format):

100 1 Apostolov, Evgeni

400 1 Apostolov, Evgeni Todorov

400 1 Apostolov, Evg. ǂq (Evgeni)

670 Ikonomika i efektivnost na zdraveopazvaneto, 1984: ǂb title page (Evgeni Apostolov)

cover (Evg. Apostolov) added title page (Evgeny Apostolov) colophon (prof. Evgeni

Todorov Apostolov)

3. A patronymic is derived from the father’s personal name and also has a gender dependent suffix:

e.g., Petǔr Stoi͡͡anov Ivanov (male)

Lili͡͡ana Stoi͡͡anova Ivanova (female)

Unlike patronymics in modern Russian (which have distinct suffixes), Bulgarian patronymics were often used as surnames as well; e.g., if the father's name was not a specific family name, the child would take his patronymic as a family name, so names in a chain of generations would shift. For example, the son of Petŭr Stoi͡anov Ivanov would be Georgi Petrov Stoi͡anov, his son would be Asen Georgiev Petrov, his son would be Marin Asenov Georgiev. This practice, which occasionally still can be found to this day, often caused confusion, especially since Bulgarians can drop their family name and use the patronymic as a surname: for example, Stefan Georgiev Stefanov may be known as Stefan Georgiev.

In many cases the etymology of Bulgarian patronymic and family names derives from a given name. The more popular endings of family names derived from given names -- -ov, -ev (male) and -ova, -eva (female) -- are morphologically identical to patronymics. For example, it is not always easy to distinguish between surname and patronymic when it is derived from a given name such as Petrov, Georgiev, Khristov, Ivanova, Borisova, etc. The male endings -ski, -in and female -ska, -ina, on the other hand, usually indicate a surname. E.g., the last names Perenovski, Kirin, Stamboliĭska, Radina cannot be confused with patronymics.

This naming practice can present particular challenges in identifying personal names and creating name authority records. The fuller form of the name including the patronymic usually appears in the copyright statement, or in the equivalent of the CIP information on the title page verso. An effort should be made to determine whether the person generally uses his or her family name or patronymic as a surname. Establishing the name under which a person is known could also involve searching for usage in bibliographic databases such as OCLC, VIAF, Wikipedia, publishers’ sites, and other web resources.

Example of patronymic used as a surname (in MARC format):

100 1 Georgiev, I︠A︡ncho

400 1 Mikhaĭlov, I︠A︡ncho Georgiev

670 Sot︠s︡ialna efektivnost na empirichnite sot︠s︡iologicheski izsledvanii︠a︡, 1988: ǂb title

page (I︠A︡ncho Georgiev) copr. (I︠A︡ncho Georgiev Mikhaĭlov)

In this case, “Georgiev” is clearly a patronymic although the person decided to use it as his surname and the title page indicates the preferred usage.

If known, the patronymic can also be useful for breaking a conflict.

Example of a patronymic breaking a conflict (in MARC format):

100 1 Todorova, Irina ǂq (Irina Li︠u︡benova)

670 Deteto v roditelskoto, osinovitelskoto, priemnoto semeĭstvo i institut︠s︡ionalnii︠a︡

dom, 2013: ǂb title page (Ирина Тодорова = Irina Todorova)

670 Bulgarian union catalog online, accessed Aug. 22, 2014: ǂb bib. rec. for same

work, www.cobiss.bg (Тодорова, Ирина Любенова = Todorova, Irina Li︠u︡benova)

For discussion of Bulgarian names and naming patterns, see Wikipedia, n. d., “Bulgarian name”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_name.

A useful source for forms of Bulgarian names is also the catalog of the National Library of Bulgaria “St. Cyril and St. Methodius”: http://www.nationallibrary.bg/cgi-bin/e-cms/vis/vis.pl?s=001&p=0032&g

Revised: Sept. 14, 2015