Declension of Proper Names

First Names and Patronymics

Both first names and patronymics are declined like nouns:

	Masculine	Feminine
NOM.	Иван Петрович	Анна Петровна
GEN.	Ивана Петровича	Анны Петровны
DAT.	Ивану Петровичу	Анне Петровне
ACC.	Ивана Петровича	Анну Петровну
INSTR.	Иваном Петровичем	Анной Петровной
PREP.	Иване Петровиче	Анне Петровне

Last Names

(a) Male and Female proper names ending in -ов(a), -ев(a) or -ин(a) (Чехов, Тургенев, Пушкин) are declined as follows:

	Masculine	Feminine	Plural
NOM.	Чехов	Пушкина	Тургеневы
GEN.	Чехова	Пушкиной	Тургеневых
DAT.	Чехову	Пушкиной	Тургеневым
ACC.	Чехова	Пушкину	Тургеневых
INSTR.	Чеховым	Пушкиной	Тургеневыми
PREP.	Чехове	Пушкиной	Тургеневых

(b) Last names with adjectival endings -ий or -ой are declined like adjectives in the masculine, feminine, and plural.

(c) Last names ending in -ич are declined like regular nouns in the masculine and in the plural:

Я написал Ивану Милорадовичу.

Я написал Милорадовичам.

Last names ending in -ич are not declined in the feminine: Я написал Елене Милорадович.

(d) Russian last names with somewhat unusual endings, such as Седых or Дурново, are not declined. Neither, as a rule, are Ukranian names ending in -ко:  Шевченко, Родзянко, and the like.

(e) Foreign names ending in a consonant, in -ь, or in -й are declined like nouns. The declension is limited to the masculine and the plural:

памятник Христофору Колумбу	a monument to Christopher Columbus
закон Бойля-Мариотта	the law of Boyle-Mariotte
эксперименты Фарадея	the experiments of Faraday
династия Тюдоров	the Tudor dynasty

 Note the diflercnce in the instrumental case endings between Russian names and foreign ones:   

Это написано Чеховым.

Это написано Байроном.

Most feminine foreign names and all foreign names ending in a vowel are not declined:

концерт Селин Дион	a concert of Celine Dion
стихи Эйми Лауэлл	the poems of Amy Lowell
роман Дюма	a novel by Dumas
картины Моне	the paintings of Monet

Exception: Masculine nouns ending in an unstressed -a, such as Коста or Капабланка, may be declined.

играть против Капабланки

to play against Capablanca

Geographical Names

(a) Most geographical names, both Russian and foreign, are declined regularly as nouns:

около Киева	near Kiev
на Волге	on the Volga
в Лондоне	in London
между Сeной и Марной	between the Seine and the Marne
в Финляндии	in Finland

(b) Some Russian geographical names in -о are not declined:   в Ровно, в Домодедово, в Марьино.

(c) Foreign geographical names ending in -e, -и, -о, -у are not declined:

недалеко от Кале	not far from Calais
в Чили	in Chile
на берегах Арно	on the shores of the Arno
В Перу	in Peru