Is it true that in Russian culture, a woman’s last name must end with the letter “A”? Russian language, and in all other Slavic russian second marriage. This includes Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, and others.

These endings are especially common in Ukraine, but appear also throughout Russia and Belarus, for example Petrenko, Martyniuk, Rushailo, Prytula. Curiously, the ending -iv, which is quite common in Western Ukraine, doesn’t change for women, even though it is etymologically close to -ev and -ov, which do change. This one is popular in some areas of Russia, for example Chernykh, Sakharnykh. These are used in all the Slavic countries, but are especially popular in Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia. About the last point with -vich: To complicate things further, in last names it’s the same for men and women, but in patronymics it is -vich for men and -vna for women.

All people in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine have patronymics in addition to the last name. As an example, if a Russian woman’s name is Alexándra Bogdánovna Petróva, you can know that her father’s name is Bogdán Petróv. Some last names are Slavic words, but without a typical last name ending, such as Poltorak, Oryol, Chernets, and they don’t change either. In the Czech and Slovak languages this is applied even to names of foreign women.