whichone
Forum Fanatic
- Jan 3, 2018
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"In Greece, if a man called Papadopoulos has a daughter, she will likely be named Papadopoulou, the genitive form, as if the daughter is "of" a man named Papadopoulos.I knew about the Slavic "Xxxova" to "Xxxov" and similar, but when in Lithuania (it was a couple years ago) I really stumbled across the fact that indeed if a girl told you her full name, you knew whether she was married or not.
The Icelandic variation isn't a family name as such - they don't have a family name (thus it changes every generation). Russian even has both and the last name is often less important than the patronym. So Vladimir, son of Igor Petrov, would be Vladimir Igorovich Petrov - and more likely known to his acquaintances as Vladimir Igorovich than Vladimir Petrov.
Of course many names which are now "normal" family names started off as patronyms - basically everything ending in "-son", the Scottish "Max Xxx", Irish "O'Xxx" and so forth, but by now do not indicate the name of your father anymore.
In Lithuania, if the husband is named Vilkas, his wife will be named Vilkienė and his unmarried daughter will be named Vilkaitė. Male surnames have suffixes -as, -is, -ius, or -us, unmarried girl surnames aitė, -ytė, -iūtė or -utė, wife surnames -ienė."
I knew son & dottir, from Norse traditions, but I had no idea the similar custom was so widespread in Baltic & Slavic nations & I certainly did not know that Greece used a similar system.
Where did you go, for your education? Oxford? Cambridge?
Nah, F95 Zone.
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