Hello! My apologies if this isn’t the right community but it seemed to be the one with the highest likelihood of finding an answer. If there would be a better comm, please let me know and I’ll move the post there.
The context of my question is that I’m writing some fiction that will almost definitely never see the light of day but, nonetheless, I want to be authentic and culturally respectful, even if I’m the only one who ever reads it. It takes place in the late 21st century so, seems that there should be some solid grounding to be believable.
Some of the characters are of Ukrainian descent and I was wondering if those familiar enough could give me some guidance. I’ve read some places that the -ka suffix may be added to a name to be a diminutive/friendly short name (somewhat like Nick -> Nicky in English). Is this correct? Are there other common ways to modify Ukrainian names?
How about feminizing traditionally masculine names, like Mykyta?
Thank you!
Adding an “a” works for some names, like Vladyslav becoming Vladyslava, Yaroslav becoming Yaroslava, Myroslav becoming Myroslava, Roman becoming Romana (uncommon), or Teodor becoming Teodora, but not for many of the others. Viktor and Viktoriia are a thing, like in English. Same for Yevhen and Yevheniia.