A Kyrgyz lawmaker wants to "de-Russify" Kyrgyz names by dropping the male and female name endings typically associated with ethnic Russian names.
Nurkamil Madaliyev, a lawmaker from the Ar-Namys (Dignity) party, told RFE/RL on Friday that he had sent a bill to the country's parliament regarding Kyrgyz names that were Russified during the Soviet era.
According to the bill, the Russian ending — "ov/ev" for men, and "ova/eva" for women — would be replaced with "tegin, which is the traditional Kyrgyz suffix and denotes "lineage of."
The bill would also see Russian patronymics that end in "ich" for men and "ovna/evna" for women replaced by the Kyrgyz endings "uulu" (son of) and "kyzy" (daughter of), respectively.
While many Kyrgyz citizens dropped their Russified names after the collapse of the Soviet Union, others have readopted them in recent years, saying it makes life easier as a migrant worker in Russia, the report said.
About 1 million Kyrgyz were earning their living in Russia as of December 2014, Reuters reported.
In the past 10 months alone, 38,000 Kyrgyz have officially Russified their names, RFE/RL reported Friday, citing Kyrgyz officials.
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