Russian Genealogical Word List

This list contains Russian word with their English translations. The words included here are those that you are likely to find in genealogical sources. If the word (or some form of it) that you are looking for is not on this list, please consult a Russian-English dictionary. A version of the Russian Genealogical Word List in PDF is also available.

To best make use of the genealogical word list, please read Russia Languages,

In Russian, the endings of most words vary according to gender, number, and usage in a sentence. Who—Whose—whom, or marry—marries—married are examples of words in English with variant forms. This word list gives only the basic forms of each Russian word, which usually also means the masculine. As you read Russian records, be aware that almost all word vary with usage, including names of people and places. It is important to recognize when a name is written in a different form and to not misinterpret it as another name.

Alphabetical Order
Аа Бб Вв Гг Дд Ee Ёё Жж Зз Ии Йй Kk Лл Mм Нн Oo Пр Pp Сс Тт Уу Фф Хх Цц Чч Шш Щщ Ъъ Ыы Ьь Ээ Юю Яя

No words begin with the hard sign (Ъъ) or the soft sign (Ьь), and very few with the letters Ёё, Йй, Щщ, or Ыы.

Prior to 1918, when the current Russian spelling reforms were instituted, the alphabet included letters no longer used. These were updated and changed. These letters include:

Transliteration Aid
Transliteration is a conversion of text from one script to another. For example, the Russian word бракосочетание in Cyrillic script would be transliterated to “brakosochetanie” the English Romanized script.

бракосочетание --> brakosochetanie

There are different transliteration systems for the same language, so not all transliterations will be the same. Here is an automatic online transliterator that is very helpful.

Transliterating Russian to English in One Step, online automatic transliterator by Steve Morse.

Transliteration allows us to pronounce and recognize words in scripts we are not familiar with. It can also help us turn a place name on an English document into a real Russian place name, as you can also transliterate from English to Russian.

Other Word Lists

 * Doukhobor Genealogy (under "Russian Terms." These are all transliterated and there is no Cyrillic)
 * Cornell Lexicon Bridge (a resource from Cornell University)

Online Dictionaries

 * Gramota (online Russian dictionary in Russian)
 * Cambridge English-Russian Dictionary
 * Dict.com Russian-English Dictionary
 * Викисловар (Russian Wiktionary) this website is in Russian, but provides information regarding declension. Type a Russian word in the search box in the right hand corner (искать в Викисловаре) and press enter. Even if the word entered is declined (has a grammatical case ending), Wiktionary will redirect you to the original word (nominative case). A typical entry defines the word (if you are using Google Chrome, right click to translate the page to English to learn the definition of the word), as well as meanings, synonyms and often pronunciation. On the right hand side, you will find a table with the word declined in all cases. A translation of the table is included below. Using this table will allow you to easily determine which case your word is in.

Variant forms of words
In Russian, the endings of most words vary according to gender, number, and usage in a sentence. Who—Whose—whom, or marry—marries—married are examples of words in English with variant forms. Many sources (word lists, dictionaries, etc.) give only the basic, or nominative and masculine form. As you read Russian records, be aware that almost all words vary with usage.

Gender
Russian words for persons, places, and things (nouns) are classified as masculine, feminine, or neuter. For example, брат (brother) is a masculine word, дочь (daughter) is a feminine word, and свидетельство (certificate) is a neuter word.

Words that describe persons, places or things (adjectives) will have either masculine, feminine, or neuter endings depending on what noun they are describing. For example, in Russian you would write старый брат (old brother), старая сестра (old sister), and старое свидетельство (old certificate). In dictionaries and in the “Russian Genealogical Word List” generally only the masculine form is given.

Plurals
Plural forms of Russian words usually end in ы, и, а, or я. They are usually only found in the singular in dictionaries or in the word list.

Noun declensions
The endings of Russian words can also vary depending on the grammatical uses of the words. Russian grammar requires specific endings (called “cases”) on nouns used in the possessive, as the object of a verb, and with a preposition, among others.

Adjectives also must match the nouns they modify in gender, quantity, and grammatical form (case). Russian nouns fall into several classes, each with its own set of grammatical endings. Many dictionaries have grammatical sections which show complete noun and adjective endings. The changing of word endings is called “declension” and there are six different cases in Russian.

Given names
An important note is that it is essential to recognize when a name is written in a different form, and to avoid misinterpreting it as another name. For example, “the child of Ivan” would be “ребенок ивана.” That only means that “иван” is in a different case. It does NOT mean that is a feminine form of the name, that his name is different, that he has variant names, or that “ивана” is a different person than “иван.”

Verbs
Words that show action (verbs) also vary depending on who and how many are doing the action and whether the action is past, present, or future. The variation for verbs is called “conjugation.” For example, the Russian word жить (to live) will appear with various endings. Note that most but not all verbs follow this pattern:

Names and Places
For words not typically found in dictionaries (place names and given/family names) try using the following resources:

Places:

List of Gubernia in the Russian Empire

Russia Gazetteers

Google

Russian Names:


 * Словарь русских фамилий (Dictionary of Russian Surnames)


 * Словарь Русских Личных Имен (Dictionary of Russian Given Names)


 * Словарь-справочник русских личных имен (Dictionary/Handbook of Russian Given Names)


 * French, German and Russian Name Dictionary

Polish Names Written in Russian:

Use these resources to help you find the proper spelling of a Polish name. This handout will help you transliterate from Russian into Polish.


 * Slownik Nazwisk (Dictionary of Surnames) to learn how to use this website, see the instructions here.


 * Polish Given Names with Dimunitives and English Equivalents


 * Male Polish Names Wiktionary 1


 * Male Polish Names Wiktionary 2


 * Female Polish Names Wiktionary 1


 * Female Polish Names Wiktionary 2

German Names Written in Russian:

This handout will help you transliterate from Russian into German.


 * SGGEE handout, see page 7
 * Germans from Russia Surnames (particularly the Volga Region)
 * Male German Names Wiktionary
 * Female German Names Wiktionary
 * Digital Dictionary of Surnames in Germany

Months of the Year
For months of the year in Cyrillic handwriting, see SGGEE handout, "Examples of how the months are handwritten"

Cardinal Numbers
For numbers in cursive, see SGGEE Cyrillic Handouts.pdf.

General Word List
This general word list includes words commonly seen in genealogical sources. Numbers, months, and days of the week are listed.

Й
No Russian words begin with Й. Only some foreign words.