Emomali Rakhmonov wants to be Emomalii Rakhmon
Recently Rahmonov in his speech for the local intelligentsia expressed a wish to return to the cultural roots and use a national toponymy. He wants to cut off the Russian ending “ov” of his family name.
“We should return to our cultural roots and use our national toponymy. In different documents, even in international ones, my name is spelled in various manners. But I want to be called Emomalii Rakhmon by name of my father,” he said.
It is the first time that Rakhmonov makes this wish public and obviously it is a signal for the rest of the population to get rid of russified names. However, it is not new for people in Tajikistan. Many have changed their names right after the collapse of Soviet Union. The first and the main advocate of this form of naming was the Islamic Renaissance Party. Said Abdullo Nuri was among the first if not the first who acquired this form of naming in Tajikistan after the Soviet era.
The only thing that I don’t understand here is - why Rakhmonov says that he wants to be called Emomalii Rakhmon by the name of his father. It is known that his father’s name is Sharif but not Rakhmon. Maybe the reporting news agency made a wrong citation.
on March 22nd, 2007 at 4:47 pm
There are actually three former Soviet countries were I know that a relatively substantial number of people — mostly intelligentsia so far, including younger intelligentsia — who did that: Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and also more and more in Kazakhstan.
In the other republics the move seems extremely marginal.
I think switching to de-russianised names is a good thing. Personally, I always found these russianised Muslim/Central Asian names to be quite awry and artificial.
on March 22nd, 2007 at 8:18 pm
I remember watching “Pamir Dushanbe” (our ex local football team) on away games to Lithuania where they played against Jalgiris during Soviet times. I remember each time a Tajik player scored, the Lithuanians in addition to Russian -ov and - ev tacked on their own endings to Tajik names and on the score-board they read something like this: Shirinbekovas, Muhammadievs. applied also to Russian players on the team. That was so redundant.
Switching to de-russianised names is a good thing. I think the names will sound better and more importantly, easier to pronounce.
on March 23rd, 2007 at 5:30 am
Ha ha, funny thing, if you look at the trackbacks you can see that the Conjecturer summarizes the post this way - “Emomali Rakhmonov wants to Turkesize his name to Emomalii Rakhmon. Umm… Cool?”
on March 24th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
This is a very good decision of our President Imomalii Rahamon. I praise this move. We shall through all the remaining garbage of USSR era from our national identity which there is no need for that garbage. Because the Russian themselves have changed their names and drop (-ovs, -evs and ect.) so why we keep those things.
on March 26th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Brother Feroz:
I agree that going back to Muslim/Central Asian names is a good thing, but this surprised me though:
“Because the Russian themselves have changed their names and drop (-ovs, -evs and ect.) so why we keep those things.”
Where do you get that from?
on March 26th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
“Where do you get that from?”
I am sure he just made it up in the heat of the moment :). Kindda adds credibility to his words (for those who don’t know enough about Russia)
on March 27th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Some prominent Russians (eg. Putin, Miller) have no -ov/-ev names indeed yet this has always been the case in Russian society.
on March 28th, 2007 at 12:19 am
“Some prominent Russians (eg. Putin, Miller) have no -ov/-ev names indeed yet this has always been the case in Russian society.”
true, but he is talking about the change in Russian society…
on March 28th, 2007 at 8:14 am
Well yes, a.f.a.I.k. there is no such tendency.
on March 29th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Emamali Rahman (or Emomali Rahmon, not wrong Russian-style “Rakhmon”) did right to change his name and get rid of Russian-imposed Slavic endings.
The Russian name-endings were colonialist inheritance.
But this decision seems to be a blow to Russian politicians and Media. Many of the Russian media lashed out at the Tajik president for “discriminative norms/laws” and one even equated removing of Russian name-ending with what it termed “violence/abuse/oppression against Russian-speakers” in Tajikistan. What a nonsensical myth!
Firtsly, President Rahman did not order all Tajikistan’s citizens to change their names, he just observed the Language law that was in force since 1989. He changed his name according to that law so that other people, especially officials follow his example. There is nothing wrong with it, the politics of Tajikistan should have Tajik face, rather than Russian. By the way, until now many bureacrats created obstacles before parents naming their children in traditional way. Many parents paid so much in bribe in order for their children not to have Russian name-endings before. Rahman’s decision will simply ease the procedure of naming, which is the sole right of parents and removes obstacles created by bureacrats to this date.
Secondly, Pres. Rahman’s decision is not compulsory and anyone who wants to keep his/her Russian name-ending, he/she can keep. There is no compulsion.
Thirdly, Traditional Tajik naming only applies to Tajiks and local ethnic groups who had their own traditions of naming, it does not apply to Russian or Russian-speaking people of Tajikistan, who are free in chosing their names and naming their children.
The fact that as if Pres Rahman banned the last bell and farewell parties is also wrong. He did not ban the holidays or parties at all, he banned wrong ways of celebrating or organizing these events.
Nowadays many tajik graduates collect huge money and hire cars and drive around the cities and towns with no order, violating all norms and rules, last year five graduates died in an accident west of Dushanbe, tajik Capital. Such ways of organizing such events could be banned everywhere in the world. Everything has a limit and should be according to laws.
Best wishes,
Faramarz
on March 29th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
BWT, brother Feroz (see above) might have a point if he means that a number of *Tatar and Bashkir Muslims in Russia* took name changes (eg. from Abdullayev to Abdullin, Fakhrullayev to Fakhrullin, … ).
But there is not tendency of name changes dropping -ev/-ov amongst the ethnic/’real’ Russians. The only examples I know of were Russians who migrated to the US and ‘americanised’ their first names (eg. Yevgenii became Eugene, Anastasia became Nancy).
on March 29th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
“Thirdly, Traditional Tajik naming only applies to Tajiks and local ethnic groups who had their own traditions of naming, it does not apply to Russian or Russian-speaking people of Tajikistan, who are free in chosing their names and naming their children.”
Faramarz,
This is a hypothetical,
But let’s for a moment imagine, Rakhmonov would pass a law and name changing would be compulsory for everyone in TJK, including Russians. Then Ivanov would be Ivanzoda? Petrov - Petrovulloev? :)))))))
Did you know that in Lithuania all Russians bear Lithuanian endings on their last names?
Example: Vladimir Starkovs
on May 12th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
Actually ‘Emomalii Rahmon’ is wrong. His father’s name’s ‘Sharif’, so he should b called “Emomalii Sharif”, which is the right way.
I encourage the move taken by our President, however it must be applied to each and every citizen of TJK having name WITHOUT ‘ov’. Only then, it’ll be perfect.