Kovtun () is a Ukrainian gender-neutral surname derived from the Slavic word for the hair appearance called

Polish plait Polish plait (Latin: ''Plica polonica'', or ''plika'', ''Kołtun'' in Polish meaning matted), less commonly known in English as plica or trichoma, is a particular formation of hair. This term can refer to either a hairstyle or a medical condit ...

, as a nickname for a person with unkempt hair, " mophead". The Polish form of the surname is Kołtun; the difference is due to the linguistic phenomenon of

L-vocalization ''L''-vocalization, in linguistics, is a process by which a lateral approximant sound such as , or, perhaps more often, velarized , is replaced by a vowel or a semivowel. Types There are two types of ''l''-vocalization: * A labiovelar approxi ...

. In Russian language the surname retains its Ukrainian form, "Kovtun", although the hair style is ''"koltun"'' in Russian. Notable people with the surname include:

Kovtun

Anatolij Kovtun Anatolij Kovtun (31 December 1960 – 22 February 2005) was a Ukrainian basketball player and a member of the Soviet Union national basketball team. He won the Soviet championship twice, with CSKA Moscow and BC Budivelnyk Kyiv, and the Icelandi ...

(1960-2005), Ukrainian basketball player * Andriy Kovtun (born 1968), Ukrainian football player * Dmitry Kovtun (1965-2022), Russian businessman and ex-KGB agent *

Illia Kovtun Illia Yuriiovych Kovtun (; born 10 August 2003) is a Ukrainian Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. He is the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, 2023 World all-around silver medalist and 2021 World Artistic Gymnastics Championship ...

(born 2003), Ukrainian gymnast *

Marina Kovtun Marina Vasilievna Kovtun (; born 10 March 1962) is a Russian politician who was Governor of Murmansk Oblast from April 2012 until March 2019. She worked in various Murmansk government agencies, including tourism management, prior to her appointm ...

(born 1962), Russian politician *

Maxim Kovtun Maxim Pavlovich Kovtun (; born 18 June 1995) is a retired Russian figure skater. He is a three-time European medalist (silver in 2015 and 2017, bronze in 2016) and four-time (2014, 2015, 2016, 2019) Russian national champion. On the junior level, ...

(born 1995), Russian figure skater *

Natalya Kovtun Natalya Kovtun (; born 27 May 1964) is a sprint athlete who represented the Soviet Union and later Russia. She specialized in the short sprints and also ran relay races, winning the silver medal in 4 × 100 metres relay at the 1991 World Championshi ...

(born 1964), Russian sprinter * Oleksiy Kovtun (born 1995), Ukrainian football defender * Olena Kovtun (born 1966), Ukrainian table tennis player *

Yuri Kovtun Yuri Mikhailovich Kovtun (; born 5 January 1970) is a Russian football coach and a former defender, well known as a 1990s Russia national football team player, as well as Dynamo Moscow and Spartak Moscow stopper. He is an assistant coach of Ka ...

(born 1970), Russian football defender

Koltun, Kołtun

* Daniel S. Koltun (1933-2014), American physicist * , Polish racer *

Leonid Koltun Leonid Koltun (; born 7 September 1944) is a retired Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spa ...

(born 1944), Ukrainian football coach *

Mykhaylo Koltun Bishop Mykhaylo Koltun, C.Ss.R. (; born 29 March 1949 in Polonychi, Busk Raion, Lviv Oblast, Ukrainian SSR) is a Ukrainian Greek Catholic hierarch as an Eparchial Bishop of Sokal–Zhovkva since 21 July 2000. Previously he served as an Eparchial B ...

(born 1949), Ukrainian bishop *

Sarah Koltun Sarah Elizabeth Anne Koltun (born July 6, 1993) is a Canadian curler from Kamloops, British Columbia. She currently plays second on Team Corryn Brown. Career At just 13 years old, Koltun's first national championship was at the 2007 Canadian ...

(born 1993), Canadian curler *

Vladlen Koltun Vladlen Koltun (; born 1980) is an Israeli-American computer scientist and intelligent systems researcher. He currently serves as distinguished scientist at Apple Inc. His main areas of research are artificial intelligence, computer vision, machi ...

, Israeli-American computer scientist and intelligent systems researcher

Kovtun

Koltun, Kołtun

See also