Why do so many East European women's last names always end in "ova?"

Answer by  tschebyshev (252)

Most cultures in the world do not feel the need to alter surnames to differentiate the genders, but for some reason, east europeans feel that this is necessary. I wonder if it is becoming passe as the world modernizes.

Answer by  shalom (271)

I like it because you can tell if the person is a woman or a man before meeting him or her and pre-determine how you will act towards them.

Answer by  somerset (801)

The ending denotes belonging to. So a women belongs to her father or husband. It could be taken in a positive way, women were protected by the men, but today it probably might have a more negative connotation, such as belonging to somebody like a piece of property.

Answer by  jlaird (190)

The ova ending means of. So it's like the woman is of the man's last name, as in belonging to. It's an old Slavic practice that probably won't be changing anytime soon.

Answer by  Anonymous

In Croatia, we are East European but we don't do this silly practice. In Croatia, women are people too.

Answer by  greysquirrel (239)

Russians and Ukrainians have different rules about how they change a woman's last name than other Slavic countries. Slovakia for example, only uses -ova and -ska endings.

Answer by  altos (224)

Names ending in -o however, don't get any change in the ending of their name. They're treated like their male counterparts.

Answer by  sunny83 (157)

It's the most common ending given to women, but it's not the only. For names ending in -sky, the women change it to -ska (e.g., Kozlovsky's wife or daughter is Kozlovska). For names ending in -in, change it to -ina. So, Kuzmin becomes Kuzmina.