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Ukraine

Naming Customs

Understanding customs used in surnames and given names can help you identify your ancestors in records. Learn to recognize name variations and see clues in names.

Online Tools

• Ukraine Surname Map
• Given Name Equivalents This table, based on the resource Słownik imion, alphabetizes names in Latin, with equivalents in other languages, including Ukrainian (in Latin alphabet).
• Behind the Name: Ukrainian Given Names
• Behind the Name: Ukrainian Surnames
• FamilySearch's surname experience - enter your last name to find its meaning and origin

Surnames

Eastern Slavic naming customs are the traditional way of identifying a person's given name and patronymic name in many Eastern European countries.

They are commonly used in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and to an extent in Kyrgyzstan and Georgia (country).

Names consist of a GIVEN NAME (Dane im'ya), a PATRONYMIC (im'ya po batʹkovi), and a SURNAME (prizvyshche).

Name	Example: Cyrillic alphabet	Example: Anglicised form
First name (given name)	Дмитро	Dmitro
Patronymic	Васильвич	Vasylvych
Family name (surname)	Клименко	Klymenko

Many Ukrainian family names have distinctive endings:

• ENKO (common in central and eastern Ukraine)
• IŠYN / -YN
• NYJ
• UK / -IUK
• C’KYJ
• YCH
• CHUK
• IV

It is customary to use patronymics as middle names. Patronymics are derived from the father's given name and end with -vych. The female patronymics end in -ivna.

MALE
Given Name: Mykhailo
Patronym: Vasylvych (=son of Vasyl)
Surname: Shevchenko

Given Name: Mykola
Patronym: Mykolavych (=son of Mykola)
Surname: Melnychuk

FEMALE
Given Name: Nataliya
Patronym: Mykolaivna (=daughter of Mikhail)
Surname: Panchenko

Given Name: Maryna
Patronym: Andriyivna (=daughter of Andriy)
Surname: Semenyuk

History

Naming practices for early period are first name (baptismal name, usually that of a Biblical saint), followed by the everyday or common first name, patronymic, and rarely a surname.

Names started only as a given name, adding the patronymic around the 10th century, and finally the surname only in the late 15th or early 16th century. The surname did not become common, in fact, until the 18th century.

Given Names

• Almost all first names are single. Doubled first names (as in, for example, French, like Jean-Luc) are very rare and from foreign influence. Most doubled first names are written with a hyphen: Mariya-Tereza.
• Given names are provided at birth or selected during a name change.
• Orthodox Christian names constitute a fair proportion of given names, but there are many exceptions including pre-Christian Slavic names, Communist names, and names taken from ethnic minorities in Russia.
• The evolution of given names dates back to the pre-Christian era, though the list of common names changed drastically after the adoption of Christianity. In medieval Russia two types of names were in use: canonical names given at baptism (calendar or Christian names, usually modified) and non-canonical.
• The 14th century was marked by the elimination of non-canonical names, that ended by the 18th century.

Słownik imion (Dictionary of names)

In many Ukrainian records, given names are translated into Latin. One of the best resources to identify the Ukrainian (or other language) version of a Latin name is the Słownik imion, or dictionary of names. This information has been indexed into a searchable online table. A digital copy of the book is available online. An index to all variant names is located at the back of the book. The Ukrainian names are given in the Latin alphabet rather than in Cyrillic.

For Further Reading

• A GUIDE TO NAMES AND NAMING PRACTICES, UK Names Guide
• Eastern Slavic naming customs in Wikipedia

• Additional sources are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog:
  • Ukraine - Names, Personal
  • Ukraine - Names, Personal - Dictionaries