Hello! My apologies if this isn’t the right community but it seemed to be the one with the highest likelihood of finding an answer. If there would be a better comm, please let me know and I’ll move the post there.
The context of my question is that I’m writing some fiction that will almost definitely never see the light of day but, nonetheless, I want to be authentic and culturally respectful, even if I’m the only one who ever reads it. It takes place in the late 21st century so, seems that there should be some solid grounding to be believable.
Some of the characters are of Ukrainian descent and I was wondering if those familiar enough could give me some guidance. I’ve read some places that the -ka suffix may be added to a name to be a diminutive/friendly short name (somewhat like Nick -> Nicky in English). Is this correct? Are there other common ways to modify Ukrainian names?
How about feminizing traditionally masculine names, like Mykyta?
Thank you!
There is no “feminizing” in the Ukrainian language. There are different names for men and women. And a few are very similar like Olexandr for men and Olexandra for women. Still these are different names.
-Ka is used, indeed. You can make Mykytka from Mykyta. But the usage is not straightforward, you won’t be able to use it without knowing (or “feeling”) the language. Olexandr won’t be Olexandrka. But Sanyok or Shura.