Bulgarian names

[AleG]

I have a question about Bulgarian names.

Last September, when Dimitar became a Manchester United player, his official site uploaded a video with an interview with his mother Margarita Berbatova. I know Dimitar’s father is Ivan. And Dimitar’s complete name is Dimitar Ivanov Berbatov.

So, these questions go to Bulgarian boys and girls, men and women, or anyone who knows please tell:

1. Do Bulgarian names for the first child have to include the name of the parent in some form? Like father Ivan, son Ivanov?
2. Do women lose their parent’s name when they marry? Or their family name becomes their middle name? Margarita Berbatova, lost her family name? Her husband name is completed with and "a" for females?
3. If Dimitar had a sister, would she be named Berbatova? Does the father's name is included? "Ivanova Berbatova"?

Do you know how Bulgarian names are created? Please, explain. Thanks.

[Andrea]

I have found this, I hope it can help!

The complete Bulgarian name consists of a given name, a patronym, and a family name.
For their given names, Bulgarians use many traditional Slavic names in addition to Christian European names. Bulgarian vocabulary words are also sometimes used as names. Recently there has been a revival of some historic Bulgar names such as Asen and Ivaylo. (Bulgar was the Turkic language spoken by the Bulgar people before they adopted a Slavic language.)

Bulgarian names are normally written in the Cyrillic alphabet, the usual alphabet of the Bulgarian language. When they are represented in the Latin alphabet (of English and other western European languages) they are transcribed, which can result in multiple spellings for a single name depending on the transcription.

The word name in Bulgarian is име (ime), plural имена (imena).

Traditionally, the Bulgarian given names are either of Slavic (e.g. Radoslava, Zhelyazko, Dobri, Ralitsa, Lyubomir, Svetla, Zhivko, Nayden) or Christian origin (e.g. Petar, Mariya, Ivan, Teodora, Georgi, Nikolay, Mihail, Paraskeva, Dimitar) from Greek, Latin or Hebrew. The Slavic names may describe the appearance or character of the person, may constitute a wish or even stem from pre-Christian conjuring rituals and meant not to attract the evil spirits. In addition, some Bulgarian names are theorized to be of Thracian (e.g. Neno, Dako, Boto, Geto) or Bulgar (Boris, Boyan, Biser) origin.

Since the Bulgarian National Revival and the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878 names of successful medieval Bulgarian rulers, like Asen, Asparuh, Ivaylo, Samuil or Krum, have also gained a lot of popularity.

Traditionally, the parents would often name their child after an older relative, so that his/her name would live on in the family. Today, however, these are not binding conditions and are often ignored: parents often pick a name without conforming with these traditions, however it is really up to the parents as still many of them continue to observe these traditions.

Many Bulgarian given names have a diminutive and shorter version, which is almost always used in an informal context. For example, the diminutive of Nadezhda is Nadya, of Todor — Toshko, of Nikolay — Niki or Kolyo, of Georgi — Gosho, Zhoro or Gogo, of Hristo — Itso, of Ivayla — Iva, of Lyubomir — Lyubo, of Ivan — Vanka, etc. Often these diminutive names become independent and "official" given names.

Usage
Typically, a Bulgarian person would inherit the last name of his father's family (family name), as well as a patronymic based on his father's given name, with a gender-agreeing suffix usually added. For example, Stoyan Georgiev Draganov would be the son of Georgi Petkov Draganov. The same person's daughter would bear the names Georgieva Draganova.

When marrying, today a woman may often choose either to adopt her husband's family name, retain her maiden name or combine the two using a hyphen. For instance, when marrying Nikolay Petrov, Mariya Bogdanova could become Petrova, remain Bogdanova or adopt Petrova-Bogdanova or Bogdanova-Petrova. Historically, she would adopt her husband's name. In any case, a woman retains her patronymic, which she has inherited from her father.
In most cases (though by no means always), the etymology of Bulgarian patronymics and family names closely corresponds to that of given names. Many families bear the name of the family's founder, adding the patronymic Slavic suffix "–ov/–ev" (men) or "–ova/–eva" (women) (e.g. Ivanov, Radeva, Parvanov, Petrova, Asenov, Tsvetanova). Family names may indicate the occupation of the founder, his nickname or origin, in which case names of Ottoman Turkish or Greek etymology can be found in addition to those of Slavic origin (e.g. Kolarov, Kalaydzhieva, Popova, Cholakov, Kovacheva, Daskalov, Uzunova).

Suffixes
Although most popular, "–ov/–ev" and respectively "–ova/–eva" are not the only patronymic and given name suffixes. The second most popular suffix is "–ski/–ska" (sometimes "–ki/–ka") (e.g. Zelenogorski, Stoykovska, Petrinska), which, besides often being merely a version of an "–ov/–ev" or "-–ova/–eva" name, may also often indicate origin (e.g. Sofiyanski — "from Sofia", Stamboliyski — "from Istanbul").

Another suffix is "–in/–ina" (e.g. Kunin, Ganina, Radin). Unlike all other Bulgarian patronymics and family names, these stem from a female name (e.g. "of Kuna", "of Gana", "of Rada"). They are most common in the region of Razlog and Bansko.

For these three most popular suffixes, there is also a plural form used when referring to the family as a whole or several members of it (as opposed to a single member). For "–ov/–ova" and "–ev/–eva" it is "–ovi/–evi", for "–ski/–ska" it is "–ski" and for "–in/–ina" the form is "–ini".

Historically, the universal suffix "–ich" was quite popular in some regions (bearers of such names include Gavril Krastevich, Hristofor Zhefarovich, Petar Parchevich, Kiril Peychinovich, etc.), particularly among the Roman Catholic Bulgarians, but has today largely fallen out of use and is more typical for the Serbo-Croatian name system.

In addition, other suffixes also existed: for instance, names like Tihanek, Kozlek, Lomek (suffixed "–ek") were historically dominant in the town of Koprivshtitsa.[1] (Internet Archive link)

Names lacking a suffix, though often foreign-sounding, have been more popular in the past, but still exist today (e.g. Beron, Tomash), despite being quite uncommon.

Most popular names
According to one study using telephone directory data, the ten most popular given names are Ivan, Georgi, Dimitar, Petar, Mariya, Hristo, Todor, Nikolay, Vasil and Stefan. The top ten family names are Ivanov/a, Georgiev/a, Dimitrov/a, Petrov/a, Nikolov/a, Hristov/a, Stoyanov/a, Todorov/a, Iliev/a and Vasilev/a.[2]

According to a different study, the most popular names given to babies born in the first half of 2006 were:[3]

Male: Georgi (674 babies), Aleksandar (616), Martin (577), Ivan (551), Dimitar (433)
Female: Viktoriya (510), Mariya (474), Aleksandra (347)

[AleG]

Thanks, Andrea. This is a very good research. It answers all my questions. Apparently the children loose all ties to their mother's family name; unlike our latin american names.

This thing about the Cyrillic alphabet and the Slavic origin makes me wonder: In which language does Vidic (from Serbia) talks to Dimitar (from Bulgaria) when they congratulate each other when scoring? I have seen the map, those Countries are very close! They might have words in common, right? Like Portuguese and Spanish...

[Andrea]

You' re welcome! It's great the info I've found it was useful.
I don't really know in which language Vidic and Berba speak to each other but I suppose they understand what they say, cause they are from the same region of East Europe. Maybe you're right and in Bulgaria and Servia there are a lot of common words like in Spain and Portugal. After all, both countries are pretty close so it might mean that at least they get some words.
Cheers
Andrea

[Mira]

Hmm, well ,no exactly. Whateva the child is- boy or a girl -> his or her second name is formed from the vater`s one. For example ,a girl named Cristina (her dad`s name is Boris ) , so her first two names will be Cristina Borisova.Yeah, the femal names become an 'a' at the end.The last name doesn`t change , intil the woman is married.Then she receives the last name (cognomen) of her husband.
If Berbatov had a sister (i have the feeling that you`d really liked that ;) ) , her name would be *** Ivanova Berbatova.Yes,you`re right about it . That are the most important things about Bulgarian names , but if you still have some questions , feel free to ask.

[AleG]

Thank you, mira.

It is a little strange to learn that the father's FIRST and last name became part of his daughter name. That caught my attention in the Olympics, with all the Russian and eastern Europe countries. In my country, women do not get officially the husband's name.

I have a new doubt, what about Serbian and Bulgarian languages? Do you have words in common? Can you understand most of what a Serbian says?

[Carolina]

The Bulgarian and the Serbian language are almost a same thing.Like two dialects of Slavic.The interesting is that , Serbian can be written in two different alphabets Cyrillic and the Serbian Latin.But the Cyrillic script is Serbia's official under the 2006 Constitution of Serbia.

[AleG]

Thank you Carolina. Do you speak Serbian and Bulgarian?

[Carolina]

Yes . I live in Bulgaria. I can't speak good Serbian but if a man from Serbia talks to me I will understand 99% of all that he says to me.

[Di]

This information is very interesting, thank you very much.