Tajikistan entered into force a ban on the “Soviet-format” names

Almaty. April 29. Silkroadnews – Tajikistan entered into force official ban on naming children using “Soviet-format” names and surnames, Tajik Telegraph Agency (TajikTA) reports.

“The official ban on naming children using the “Soviet-format” names and surnames comes into force in Tajikistan: from now on it is prohibited to use the surnames and patronymic names with endings “-ov”, “-ich”, “-ovna” and “-yevna,” Tajikistan’s department of civil status registration informs.
“Soviet-format” endings will be replaced with the national ones, such as, e.g., “-zod”, “-zoda”, “-pur”, “-iyen”, “-phar”, etc.

The ban is applied only to the persons of Tajik national origin.

Others (national minorities) may name their children at their discretion.

The new edition of art. 20 of the law consists of 11 points and provides that the child’s name is registered with the consent of the parents, according to the requirement of paragraph 1 of art. 20, which states: “At the state registration of birth every person shall have the right to name, surname and patronymic with account of the national Tajik culture’s values. Proper names giving in the Republic of Tajikistan shall be carried out according to the culture, national traditions and the Catalogue of Tajik national names as approved by the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan”.

Thus, it is forbidden to give children names that are alien to the national culture, are the names of objects, animals and birds, use the words demeaning the human dignity or dividing people into classes.
In particular, it is prohibited to use such names suffixes as “mullah”, “caliph”, “hodge”, “shaykh”, “wali” “ohun”, “amir”, “sufi”, etc., which can cause a communication misunderstanding.