Russian given names' short forms

[PM88RU]

Here's a questions maybe you can answer!

I've been recently rewatching "The Americans" (AMAZING SHOW), and I noticed that all of the people that work at the Russian Embassy in DC almost always refer to each with both their first and last names.

Is this typical in Russia?

It's like every time you have a conversation with a co-worker named James Smith, you would literally say, "Hello James Smith, I'm working on it", or "Sorry, James Smith I don't have that information".

What gives?

You’re messing up last name with a father’s name,

That is typically an “official” kind of referring (to add a father’s name) and is more commonly used during public events or external meetings as a maximum respectful form of referring to anyone.

Historically, I believe, it is related to paying respect to the person and his ancestors and it used to be this way worldwide a few centuries ago.

As a perfect example of this I always remember Avicenna aka Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn bin ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Ḥasan bin ʿAlī bin Sīnā al-Balkhi al-Bukhari .

Eastern nationalities like Jews or Arabs still do pay attention to things like this as this is a part of a culture and traditional values, imo.

Russians are in the middle, trying to use occasionally both of these different approaches: Eastern (solid long name) and Western/Modern (shorter ones) complemented by the lexical diversity and variety of Russian language.

 

[aylib]

Here's a questions maybe you can answer!

I've been recently rewatching "The Americans" (AMAZING SHOW), and I noticed that all of the people that work at the Russian Embassy in DC almost always refer to each with both their first and last names.

Is this typical in Russia?

It's like every time you have a conversation with a co-worker named James Smith, you would literally say, "Hello James Smith, I'm working on it", or "Sorry, James Smith I don't have that information".

What gives?

I think that is incorrect, as Russians would use first name + patronymic, as opposed to first+last name.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Here's a questions maybe you can answer!

I've been recently rewatching "The Americans" (AMAZING SHOW), and I noticed that all of the people that work at the Russian Embassy in DC almost always refer to each with both their first and last names.

Is this typical in Russia?

It's like every time you have a conversation with a co-worker named James Smith, you would literally say, "Hello James Smith, I'm working on it", or "Sorry, James Smith I don't have that information".

What gives?

In formal settings or as a sign of respect yes

 

[LuckyDay]

Mikhael = Misha isn't it?

 

[Silky Johnson]

I'm not so sure.

From another forum I found this explanation:

Depends.

Most Sasha's I know, including myself, are actually Alexander's but almost exclusively go by Sasha. Other Russian diminutives are more for close friends and family. I don't know why.