Azerbaijani name

An Azerbaijani name consists of an ad (name), patronymic name and soyad (surname).

Law

Names are regulated by the Civil Code of Azerbaijan. Besides name and surname, patronymics also is in use, however mostly in legal documents, not in daily use. For example, while Ilham Aliyev is known by his name and surname, his full name is Ilham Haydar oghlu Aliyev (oghlu means son).[1] It's prohibited to give insulting, sarcastic or non-gender names to children by law. Children automatically inherit their parents' surname upon registration. However, children may change their surname suffixes by age of 10 by their own will. Full name change is only accepted after turning 18, when citizen can change their name, surname and even patronymic name as Family Code allows.[2] Same law also allows complete removal of surnames leaving only first name and patronymic names, however their surname would change to XXX as a standart.[3]

Given names

Azerbaijani names include names with Turkic, Germanic, Slavic, Persian, Arabic and Caucasian origin.[4] There are several published onomastic dictionaries in Azerbaijani including more than 15.000 names. However, there are officially recorded 180.000 different names in registrar of Ministry of Justice.[5] Names are mostly gender specific, however new females names could be invented by adding -ə to a male name (for example, male name Ilham could easily be converted into a female name Ilhama). Unlike Turkish names, Azeris don't use more than one name for children, it's also prohibited by law. However, there are compound names like Mammadhasan (made of Mammad and Hasan) or Aliakber (made of Ali and Akber).[6]

Most popular names in 2010-2015 period

Male Popularity (per person) Female Popularity (per person)
Yusif 20436 Zahra 19405
Ali 13953 Nuray 15559
Huseyn 13925 Fatima 14446

Given surnames

Highly influenced by Russian naming customs, as use of surnames in Azerbaijan started in XIX century with Russian Empire; most surnames end with suffixes -ов (-ov), -ев (-yev) meaning "belonging to". Although before Russian rule, Azerbaijanis mostly were known by their respective clan or tribal names,Stalin era speeded up arbitrary Russification of these surnames. For example, if there were brothers Ali, Hasan and Huseyn who were children of same father, their children were surnamed respectively Aliyev, Hasanov and Huseynov which caused problems in pedigree research.

Clan surnames

Certain surnames derives from clan names of old nobility such as Safavi, Bakikhanov and others. Most of these were already adopted by nobility in early stages of Russian Empire domination in Caucasus. Older surnames also have suffix -ski like Shikhlynski or Hajinsky. Others mostly incorporate noble titles like bey or khan with addition of suffixes like -ov or -li (for instance, Rustamkhanli or Amirkhanov).

Profession surnames

Such surnames were historically derived from profession of progenitor of family. For example, Sarkarov would mean that progenitor of family was a tax collector.

Toponymic surnames

This type of surnames are made up with person's birthplace. For example, Seyid Azim Shirvani was born in Shirvan.

Suffixes

Besides -ov and -yev, there are other surname suffixes: -li4, -zadeh, -soy and -gil. Adopted from Slavic naming customs, -ov/-yev is gender specific suffix (for females, these would be -ova/-yeva. However, rest are unisex. Least popular and relatively new suffixes are -soy and -gil. Patronymic names can also be converted into surnames. For example, if desired, Ali Huseyn oghlu (meaning Huseyn's son Ali) can be converted into full name like Ali Huseynoghlu but his descendants will carry surname Huseynoghlu as well, even if their father is not named Huseyn.

Suffixless surnames

Much like Turkish names Azerbaijani law also accepts suffixless surnames, exceptions are surnames including noble titles like Agha, Khan or Bey.

Specific cases

Children born out of wedlock can still bear surnames of their biological parents even if they are not married, they have same rights as any other children. If father is not known, any children will carry their matrineal surname.[7]

LGBT

Azerbaijani law also allows transgender citizens to change their name according to their preferred gender, there are no official statistics about these requests, however.[8]

Minority names

There are several law prohibitions for names, but none of those apply to ethnic minorities and they are free to use names according to their cultures. This means ethnic Azerbaijanis can't name their daughter Elizabeth but ethnic Russian citizens can.

References

  1. ↑ Republic of Azerbaijan Civil Code, 26.1
  2. ↑ Republic of Azerbaijan Family Code, 6.4
  3. ↑ Barda local was given surname 'XXX' - Musavat.com
  4. ↑ A. Pashayev, A. Bashirova - Explanatory dictionary of Azerbaijani names, Baku, Mutarjim, 2011
  5. ↑ No more names like 'Tractor', 'Lemonade' for children - Milli.az
  6. ↑ Is it possible to give children more than one name? - Milli.az
  7. ↑ Republic of Azerbaijan, Family Code 44-48
  8. ↑ Statistics announced about people who changed their name, patronymics and surname - Azadliq.info
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