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# Matronyms instead of patronyms among the nobility of Rus and Europe
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/v-istorii-izvestny-sluchai-kogda-vmesto-otchestva-detiam-davalos-matchestvo-imenovanie-po-materinskoi-linii-i-na-rusi-i-v-evrope/
- Published: 2017-05-18T13:59:32.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:53:05.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Aristocracy, Monarchies, Mores

History knows cases in which children were given a matronymic instead of a patronymic, that is, a name derived from the mother's line, both in Rus' and in Europe. For example, when the mother was of nobler stock, or when the child was illegitimate. So it was with Oleg, the son of Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich by his concubine Nastasya, who was styled Oleg Nastasyich (and not Yaroslavich). The son of Mstislav Vladimirovich likewise bore a matronym: as the child of the prince's second wife, and thus stepmother to Mstislav's children by his first marriage, he was called Vladimir Macheshich (and not Mstislavich). Sweyn, the nephew of Cnut the Great, was also named after his mother, the king's sister Estrid.