Patronymics

The patronymic is an element of a personal name which is derived from the given name of the person’s father. For example, the Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin’s patronymic, Sergeevich, derives from Sergeĭ, the given name of his father. The patronymic is a standard part of both masculine and feminine personal names in many East European countries. In most of these countries, the patronymic takes different gender forms (e.g., Sergeevich is masculine, and Sergeevna is feminine).

The patronymic normally appears between the given name and the surname (Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin). In some countries, however, the patronymic can be used in place of a surname (see, for example, the chapters on Bulgarian Personal Names, Azerbaijani Personal Names, and Kyrgyz Personal Names).

Many authors abbreviate their given name and patronymic in publishing (e.g., “V.B. Kataev” on the title page), with their full name often provided elsewhere in the resource (e.g., “Vladimir Borisovich Kataev” in the colophon). This pattern was particularly common in Soviet publications and is still much in use today, particularly in Russian resources. A more recent trend sees the patronymic abbreviated and the given name kept in full: for example, Anna A. Zalizni͡͡ak for Anna Andreevna Zalizni͡͡ak. Some authors, on the other hand, choose to publish without any use of their patronymic.