Dombrovski and Dombrovskaya?

elpipe

Maybe this is the wrong forum but I'll give it a shot!

Dombrovski and Dombrovskaya, is that just the male and female version of the same surname or is it two comletely different surnames?

pinkypinky

I speak Russian and while I've never heard that surname before I would make an educated guess at it being just the male and female versions of the same name. I just read a book where an Eastern European couple both had the female version and it really bugged me that the author hadn't bothered to do a tiny bit of research!

Exile 1798

elpipe wrote: »

Maybe this is the wrong forum but I'll give it a shot!

Dombrovski and Dombrovskaya, is that just the male and female version of the same surname or is it two comletely different surnames?

I know "ski" is male and "ska" is the female form of rendering a name in many slavic languages. Your particular example is "skaya" though so I'm not sure.

elpipe

pinkypinky wrote: »

I speak Russian and while I've never heard that surname before I would make an educated guess at it being just the male and female versions of the same name. I just read a book where an Eastern European couple both had the female version and it really bugged me that the author hadn't bothered to do a tiny bit of research!

From what I know "-ski" is the male version and "-ska" is usually the female version, but I have never heard of "-skaya" before.

Ha, yeah, that's bad. A lot writers seem to make these annoying mistakes when dealing with foreign languages/cultures.

FiSe

It could be two different surnames or Polish and Russian version of the same surname.
Male version: Dumbrovki / Dumbrovskij
Female version: Dumbrovska / Dumbrovskaja -aya or whatever the spelling is

pinkypinky

I forgot to check this thread after I responded the first time. Totally agree - in Polish and Czech - ski/ska, in Russian, skaya is a very common feminine ending for names, adjectives, etc. You also see ov/ova as in Gorbachov/Gorbachova.

Dannyboy83

Yarp, male/female name ending
Unlike English, Female names virtually always end in a in slavic languages.
Mightn't occur to you at first, but could be handy to know.;)

The Sky/Skaya is not constant, can change similar to O', Mac, Mc, but it's a
"familia/surname", we interpet the -skaya as meaning 'of' the same way we do in Irish.
So Romanovskaya, would be a female descendent of Roman/Romanov.

They have a separate system for patronymics, you can read about Russian Patronymics here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronymic#Russian



Think of the song "Essen" by Verka Serduchka , near the end, he says "Romanovskaya, ty hochesh seks?"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYVSYvCEcek

Dannyboy83

elpipe wrote: »

From what I know "-ski" is the male version and "-ska" is usually the female version, but I have never heard of "-skaya" before.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_name_affixes
As a general rule:
-ski (Polish, Bulgarian, Macedonian. Also Russian but more often transliterated as -sky), "originating from", "estate of"
-ska (Polish, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Ukrainian) Feminine equivalent of -ski
-ská (Czech, Slovak) Feminine equivalent of -ský
-skaya (Russian) Feminine equivalent of -sky
-skyi, -skiy (Ukrainian)
-sky (Russian)
-ský (Czech, Slovak)


Doesn't always hold true tho.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2010/10/poland_and_lithuania
:pac:

Moomoo1

yes

they are polish surnames (Dombrowski/Dombrowska) that have been russified.