In the

Republic of Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russi ...

, an Azerbaijani name typically consists of an ''ad'' (name), ''ata adı'' (

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...

), and ''soyad'' (surname), following Russian/Soviet-influenced naming customs. This article focuses on Azeri names as used in Azerbaijan; elsewhere, conventions for Azeri personal names may differ.

Law

Names are regulated by the Civil Code of

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

. Besides name and surname, patronymics are also in use, but mostly in legal documents, not in daily use. For example, while

Ilham Aliyev Ilham Heydar Oghlu Aliyev (born 24 December 1961) is an Azerbaijani politician who has been the fourth president of Azerbaijan since 2003. He is also the leader of the New Azerbaijan Party since 2005. The son and second child of former Aze ...

is known by his name and surname, his full name is ''Ilham Haydar oghlu Aliyev'' (''oghlu'' means son). Likewise, for women the patronymic form ''qızı'' (meaning daughter, sometimes exonymized as ''gyzy'') is used, as in

Sakina Abbas qızı Aliyeva Sakina Aliyeva (, 15 April 1925 – 6 October 2010) was an Azerbaijani-Soviet politician. From 1951, she served in various capacities in the Nakhchivan Regional Committee of the Communist Party. In 1963, she was elected Chair of the Presidium ...

. It is 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 citizens can change their name, surname and even patronymic name as Family Code allows. Same law also allows complete removal of surnames leaving only first name and patronymic names, however their legal surname would change to XXX as a standard, to avoid problems with surname-less passports.

Given names

Azerbaijani names include names with Turkic (e.g.

Turkish name A Turkish name consists of an ''ad'' or an ''isim'' (given name; plural ''adlar'' and ''isimler'') and a ''soyadı'' or ''soyisim'' (surname). Turkish names exist in a "full name" format. While there is only one ''soyadı'' (surname) in the full ...

), Germanic, Slavic, Persian,

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and Caucasian origin. 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 A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

. 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

s, Azeri name are limited by law to one name per child. However, there are compound names like ''Mammadhasan'' (made of Mammad and Hasan) or ''Aliakber'' (made of Ali and Akber).

Surname origins

Highly influenced by Russian naming customs, as use of surnames in Azerbaijan started in the 1900s with the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

; most surnames end with suffixes ''-ов'' (-ov), ''-ев'' (-yev) meaning "belonging to". Before Russian rule, Azerbaijanis were known usually by their respective clan or tribal names, but Stalinist rule speeded up arbitrary

Russification Russification (), Russianisation or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians adopt Russian culture and Russian language either voluntarily or as a result of a deliberate state policy. Russification was at times ...

of these surnames. For example, if brothers Ali, Hasan and Huseyn were children of the same father, their children were surnamed respectively Aliyev, Hasanov and Huseynov, which can cause 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

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, the 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

s 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 the father is not known, any children will carry their matrineal surname.Republic of Azerbaijan, Family Code 44-48
/ref>

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 cannot name their daughters Elizabeth or their sons George but ethnic Russian citizens can.

References

{{Personal names in various cultures Names by country

Law