of -ovich, et al.

[John Dunn]

There is a partial answer to be found in L.M Shchetinin, Imena i nazvanija, Rostov-on-Don, 1968, pp. 98-100.  He claims that the universal use of the patronymic in -(ov)ich was not established until after the October revolution.  He also notes that Catherine the Great issued instructions about who was entitled to the full patronymic and that from Catherine's reign up to the revolution only those who held one of the one first five ranks in the tabel' o rangax were entitled to the full patronymic; ranks 6-8 got the 'short' patronymic in -ov and the rest were referred to by name and surname alone. 

Presumably that applied to official documents only (cf. Akakij Akakievich), but Shchetinin quotes from some late nineteenth-century knigi obyskov brachnyx, in which the officiating priest writes down names using the -ov patronymic, but which the participants sign using the full patronymic.  This suggests that the answer to question 3 is 'yes' and to question 4 is (a).

John Dunn.

,-----Original Message-----
From: Jules Levin <ameliede at EARTHLINK.NET>
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Date: Sat, 26 May 2007 22:21:44 -0700
Subject: [SEELANGS] of -ovich, et al.

Dear colleagues,
A question has again come up on another list, and I need to inform 
myself re the following questions:

1.  When did the use of -(ov)ich/-ovna with patronymics become a) 
conventional, b) legally required for all ethnic Russians?

2.  When, if different, did it become required for non-Russians of the Empire?

3.  Was the use of -ov/-ova specifically as the patronymic EVER 
sanctioned/tolerated/found occasionally...in the "modern" Empire?

4.  If you saw such a form in the hand-written "otchestvo" column of 
a local late 9th Century provincial tally of some sort, of ethnic 
non-Russians (Poles, Lithuanians, Jews, all identified as such), 
would your first assumption be a) actual use of -ov as a genuine 
patronymic, b) scribal confusion/error, c) other???

Thank you for any enlightenment on this topic.
Jules Levin 

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John Dunn
Honorary Research Fellow, SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
University of Glasgow, Scotland

Address:
Via Carolina Coronedi Berti 6
40137 Bologna
Italy
Tel.: +39 051/1889 8661
e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk
johnanthony.dunn at fastwebnet.it

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