Russian Surname Transliteration
July 19, 2015 3:00 PM Subscribe
What possible Russian surname is "Goloumachaya" when badly transliterated into Roman script? It comes from a mid-1900s English source, but has no search results on the internet.
Additional information: I believe the name is a woman's, and may be linked to Soviet athletics.
Additional information: I believe the name is a woman's, and may be linked to Soviet athletics.
I am not your best expert on Russian, but I enjoy the language, and I couldn't resist playing around with this a little.
the -aya ending would be a woman's name, since -aya is a feminine ending. The male form of the name might be something like Goloumach. These are the same surname, since Russian declines surnames into masculine and feminine forms.
I tried to reverse-transliterate this and googled the following forms, with two different vowels I thought might be that "ou" sound, in both masculine and feminine forms
голюмаk
голюмакая
голумаk
голумакая
The only one of these that got any hits at all was голумаk, which returned Ася Голумак, who is simply identified as a user from St. Petersburg at this site. Googling a transliteration of his name led to a person named Acia Golumak. That led me to Acıya Gülmek, who seems to be a contemporary filmmaker, though I can't read any of the material on him so maybe he's an actor. His name is on a bunch of youtube stuff, anyway.
For what it's worth, when I put my transliteration of Golumakaya into google translate, it identified the language as Belarusian. Also (keeping in mind that I am not fluent in Russian though I've studied it), that "m" feels out of place, like a Russian name would be more likely to have, say, a "v" there. There are google hits for various people named Golouv (голув) but none for any of the possible feminine forms of that I can come up with, Goluva or Goluvkaya.
That was me sharing my unhelpful investigations. But maybe my wrong path will suggest a right path to someone. I agree with privet that more of the context would be helpful.
posted by not that girl at 3:27 PM on July 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
the -aya ending would be a woman's name, since -aya is a feminine ending. The male form of the name might be something like Goloumach. These are the same surname, since Russian declines surnames into masculine and feminine forms.
I tried to reverse-transliterate this and googled the following forms, with two different vowels I thought might be that "ou" sound, in both masculine and feminine forms
голюмаk
голюмакая
голумаk
голумакая
The only one of these that got any hits at all was голумаk, which returned Ася Голумак, who is simply identified as a user from St. Petersburg at this site. Googling a transliteration of his name led to a person named Acia Golumak. That led me to Acıya Gülmek, who seems to be a contemporary filmmaker, though I can't read any of the material on him so maybe he's an actor. His name is on a bunch of youtube stuff, anyway.
For what it's worth, when I put my transliteration of Golumakaya into google translate, it identified the language as Belarusian. Also (keeping in mind that I am not fluent in Russian though I've studied it), that "m" feels out of place, like a Russian name would be more likely to have, say, a "v" there. There are google hits for various people named Golouv (голув) but none for any of the possible feminine forms of that I can come up with, Goluva or Goluvkaya.
That was me sharing my unhelpful investigations. But maybe my wrong path will suggest a right path to someone. I agree with privet that more of the context would be helpful.
posted by not that girl at 3:27 PM on July 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
Closest I've gotten is Голомах, assuming the "ch" is "х". 4,700 results on Google; seems to be a Ukrainian surname. No results for Голумахая or Голумахий.
posted by pravit at 4:51 PM on July 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by pravit at 4:51 PM on July 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
I put my old Russian teacher from the University of Leeds to work for you. Her contacts came back with a couple of "best guess" responses, but nothing definitive:
Good luck!
posted by ZipRibbons at 5:46 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
"It could simply be Golomachaya, but I don't really know. Russian surnames — especially Russified Ukrainian surnames — are a bit like poetry. Take "Pipka-Besnovataya" for example (a real name which sounds ridiculous and rude)."And:
"It could be a geographical name — Golubyachy. Or it may well be completely made up, especially if it originated during the Civil War."The only other thing I thought of is that the "m" could be a mistake. In handwritten Russian, the lower case "t" looks like a latin "m"... but I'd be surprised if that got you anywhere useful.
Good luck!
posted by ZipRibbons at 5:46 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
It is not a Russian surname and it is not close to a Russian surname. As pravit says, the best shot at getting an answer is to post as much of the context as possible so we have something to go on. If it's from a book or handwritten document, post a photo; other names from the same source would be a great help, so we can see what (for instance) "ch" is likely to mean (if a French system of transliteration is being used, it would be ш, which in English systems is "sh").
posted by languagehat at 6:24 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by languagehat at 6:24 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
It comes from a mid-1900s English source,
I wouldn't be confident that any of the consonants other than the G and maybe the L are correct. English ears have a terrible time with Slavic sounds.
posted by cotton dress sock at 7:01 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
I wouldn't be confident that any of the consonants other than the G and maybe the L are correct. English ears have a terrible time with Slavic sounds.
posted by cotton dress sock at 7:01 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks for all the replies. The source is from reporting on a court case, so I think that maybe it was given orally rather than a written transliteration as I assumed. It is the only Russian name mentioned.
I wouldn't be confident that any of the consonants other than the G and maybe the L are correct. English ears have a terrible time with Slavic sounds.
It may be the reporter has sadly mangled the name beyond recognition. Oh well, thanks to all who gave it some thought.
posted by Thing at 7:43 AM on July 20, 2015
I wouldn't be confident that any of the consonants other than the G and maybe the L are correct. English ears have a terrible time with Slavic sounds.
It may be the reporter has sadly mangled the name beyond recognition. Oh well, thanks to all who gave it some thought.
posted by Thing at 7:43 AM on July 20, 2015
Голомако also seems to be a surname, 16500 results. Doubt you get much closer than that.
posted by pravit at 3:25 PM on July 20, 2015
posted by pravit at 3:25 PM on July 20, 2015
It appears to be a Belarusian surname; the problem with it is that it's indeclinable, so there is no such form as "Golomakaya"—a woman with that name is still Голомако.
posted by languagehat at 5:25 PM on July 20, 2015
posted by languagehat at 5:25 PM on July 20, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by pravit at 3:05 PM on July 19, 2015