Did you know this before?

Borderline biz:

Until Marat Safin/Dinara Safina, I had never really thought to notice that (a lot of) Russian men's names mostly end in consonants (like v), and women's end in vowels (mostly a).

So Sergei Fedorov's sister would be Ludmilla Fedorova.

Think about Russian women's names (Sharapova, etc.) and sure enough.

I'm 50, been in this business a long time and never thought about it.

Is this just something everybody knew except me?

 

It applies not just to Russian names but to many Eastern European countires..

 

SF, you are not alone.
New to me.

 

Kind of like Johnson, Thomson and Svenson?

Although those dropped the feminine diminutives somewhere along the way.

 

Wouldn't those be Navratlov and Mandlikov?

 

Some are 'ova' and some are just 'a'

It all makes sense now, I guess I had just never given it much thought. A lot of the athletes are in two sports that aren't exactly in my wheelhouse -- hockey and tennis -- although with track and field, I might have noted.

 

And Maria Sharapova's "daddy" is Moddy...

 

In more useless trivia...
In Iceland, men's names end in "son" and women's names end in "dottir."
So using Moddy as an example, his son would be Moddyson and his daughter would be Moddydottir.

 

Scandinavian names use son or dotter at the end of the name to signnify male or female.

But what if you had a sex change. . . would you have to change the name as well?

 

I think that's just in Iceland.