Declining Foreign Names in Russian

In other videos we've looked at how to decline Russian names ending in -ов/-ев/-ёв and -ин/-ын. But what about foreign names - especially those that don't fit the normal patterns of Russian names?
In this video we'll look at how to manage names like Chaplin, Okudzhava, Obama, Merkel, Rostropovich, and others. It may seem complicated, but it really just comes down to a question of whether to add Russian endings, or not.
Whenever a word or name is brought in from another language, there's the potential for variation, disagreement, and confusion, and we won't cover every possible name in this video. If you'd like more details, I recommend this page at gramota.ru:
www.gramota.ru/...
To review the basics of Russian family names in -ов/-ев/-ёв and -ин/-ын, see this video: • Declining Common Russi...
If you find these videos helpful, please consider supporting the channel by buying me a coffee. Спасибо!
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Photo acknowledgement in the thumbnail: photo of statue of Okudzhava courtesy of salech hcelas, CC BY 3.0 creativecommon..., via Wikimedia Commons

[@kombuchamushroompeople]

как всегда, спасибо за очень информативное видео!

[@akoff5340]

Quality content

[@CrazyDreamer1001]

Thank you!

[@Florian-sh9nf]

Я это очень люблю!

[@ghen3x]

What about (female) names ending in a soft sign, if that fits their pronunciation? Would it make them decline like regular female nouns/names on -ь? And is there any tendency to adjust names, just to make them match the regular rules? E.g. Sophie => София, instead of literal Софи?

[@russiangrammar]

Female names ending (in transliteration) in a soft sign seem to follow the general rule that female names ending in any consonant don't change: у Мишель Пфайффер, с Жаклин Кеннеди. I suppose that whether a Sophie chose to be called София would just be a personal choice. ))

[@cool.ebiaka]

we do not modify such names ending in a vowel. For example, we never decline Sophie Marceau - люблю Софи Марсо, гуляю с Софи Марсо. Or люблю песни Сильви Вартан, читаю о Мэри Поппинс, слушаю Нелли Фуртадо, подписался на Арасели Эрнандес. Тhe same about all those Natalies, Maries, Valeries and so on, except for mythic heroines and medieval and ancient historical personalities, e. g. we do modify Жанна д'Арк (Jeanne d'Arc), Лорелея (Lorelei), Пасифая (Πασιφάη/Pasiphaë). However, those ending in consonant we do modify as a rule: Жоржетта for Georgette, Франсуаза for Françoise, Клотильда for Clotilde, since the final e is mute.

[@iblackfeathers]

any related rules for neuter names? what about cars like tesla, prius, etc? or do they fall under feminine due to cars being called машина?

[@russiangrammar]

Good question; some native speakers hesitate about these rules too. According to this page (newslab.ru/article/223842), names of foreign companies and brands should decline according like nouns; чёрный мерседес, сесть в старенькую Хонду. On the other hand, a commenter wrote that нести (Nestea) should be masculine since it's a kind of чай. There seems to be a tendency not to decline a brand in Latin letters; in one source I found both 'батареи, производимые Tesla' and 'один из главных мифов про Теслу' just a few lines apart. If you mention the category first, then the noun may not decline: меня везли на автомобиле «хонда». But the article I referenced complains how many people get it wrong, so my advice would be to do a search for a given term to get a sense of usage; check with gramota.ru; and be ready for someone somewhere to disagree. :)

[@CrazyDreamer1001]

I've noticed that in news articles names of foreign companies, websites, newspapers etc aren't even transcribed to Cyrillic. Some examples just from today: В России заблокировали агрегатор рецензий Metacritic Bild узнал об отмене визита Штайнмайера в Киев из-за «опасной обстановки» Акции Alibaba потеряли 70% стоимости. Isn't this difficult for Russians who never learned a foreign language? I never see Cyrillic in articles in English or in my native Swedish.

[@dmitryche8905]

​@@CrazyDreamer1001yes, it's not difficult. In the 90s-00s, often sold phones without Cyrillic letters and we wrote in Russian but in Latin letters.

[@Afdch]

idk why did we stop declining "Ukrainian" surnames ending in -o. I still see a lot of declinations in the past sources, and even today in spoken language. like, Козаченко, у Козаченки etc. tbh I quite like this declining but I don't dare to do it, especially when said person is present 😬

[@russiangrammar]

Yes, gramota.ru writes: 'Отметим, что украинские фамилии такого типа последовательно склонялись в художественной литературе XIX века (у Шевченки; исповедь Наливайки; стихотворение, посвященное Родзянке)'. But I don't know if there's an explanation for why that shift (from declining them like feminine nouns to non-declining) happened. They mention it in 13.1.10 here too: new.gramota.ru/spravka/letters/71-rubric-482

[@polyanagula]

@@russiangrammar I heard a theory that during the WW2 in the army they didn't decline such names and locations (e.g. тушино) to avoid confusion or misunderstandings (e.g. if commands are given by radio and connection is bad). and since the military aspect affected the lives of all people so much, this military habit became more common among the whole population. I don't know if it 100% true or if is the only explanation.