Did you know this before?

[SF_Express]

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?

 

[Moderator1]

Uh, uh, yeah.

"ova" means something like woman of

Martina Navratilova's dad is Navratil.

Hana Mandlikova's dad is Mandlik.

 

[spnited]

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

 

[Twoback]

SF, you are not alone.
New to me.

 

[zeke12]

Kind of like Johnson, Thomson and Svenson?

Although those dropped the feminine diminutives somewhere along the way.

 

[novelist_wannabe]

Uh, uh, yeah.

"ova" means something like woman of

Martina Navratilova's dad is Navratil.

Hana Mandlikova's dad is Mandlik.

Wouldn't those be Navratlov and Mandlikov?

 

[SF_Express]

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.

 

[slappy4428]

Uh, uh, yeah.

"ova" means something like woman of

Martina Navratilova's dad is Navratil.

Hana Mandlikova's dad is Mandlik.

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

 

[JayFarrar]

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.

 

[Moderator1]

Uh, uh, yeah.

"ova" means something like woman of

Martina Navratilova's dad is Navratil.

Hana Mandlikova's dad is Mandlik.

Wouldn't those be Navratlov and Mandlikov?

Maybe some countries do it that way. They're Czech and they used the whole "ova."

 

[Just_An_SID]

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?

 

[OTD]

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

I think that's just in Iceland.

 

[leo1]

and in japanese, men's names end in 'san' as in daniel-san or miyagi-san!

 

[sportsed]

Hey: Don't CALL me dottir.

Not fit to.

 

[Chi City 81]

Hey: Don't CALL me dottir.

Not fit to.

Nice. :D

 

[You're With Me Leather]

Didn't the "Mc" in Irish names originally mean "son of?"

 

[BillyT]

In Iceland, the phone book is by first name because there are only so many last names.

Many countries use a patronymic to indicate "son/daughter of."

Most are not gender specific like the Mc- and Mac- of the Scots and the O' of the Irish.

If you are friendly with someone in Russia, you use his first name and his father's name in this fashion: "Alexander Ruslanovich."

 

[danhawks]

the 'ova' part signifies the connection to the father or the husband, from what I understand.

it's not just the 'a' it's the 'ova'

because it ain't ova til it's navratilova!

 

[Columbo]

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.

And... Iceland is green and Greenland is icy.

 

[blondebomber]

And "Fitz" in Ireland means "******* son of" ... So Fitzpatrick at some point long ago was a ******* son of a guy named Patrick. Fitzsimmons, Fitzgerald, Fitzhugh and so on ...