Transliteration of Names for International Passport
If you are traveling, you will most likely face the need to transliterate your first and last name — for documents and airline tickets. An error in writing the data can cost you time and even disrupt your travel plans. Let's figure out the main rules for transliteration for an international passport.
Are there any peculiarities in transliterating Russian first and last names?
The main difficulty of transliteration is that Russian letters do not have a direct analogue in Latin and are conveyed by combinations of Latin letters. For example, Ж, Х, Ц, Ч, Ш, Ъ, Ю, and Я are represented by two characters, while Щ is represented by four. It's no wonder that Russian exchange students abroad came up with a prank: introducing themselves to Starbucks baristas with the word “nezashchishchayushchikhsya”!
Thus, Evgenia will be EVGENIIA, Sofia — SOFIIA, Yuri — IURII. And surnames: Shchetinkin — SHCHETINKIN, Khotskina — KHOTSKINA, Chashina — CHASHINA.
Transliteration for an international passport often causes confusion for people with Russian first and last names that contain the combination “КС”. Previously, they were replaced by X, but according to new rules, this combination of letters is written in the Latin alphabet as KS: Alexander — ALEKSANDR, Maxim — MAKSIM, Ksenia — KSENIIA.
Spelling error: what to do?
If you find discrepancies with the current transliteration standard in your new international passport, the document will have to be redone. However, the replacement procedure depends on at what stage the error occurred. First, check the application: if you incorrectly filled in your first or last name, the responsibility will lie with you. You will have to re-collect the documents and pay the state fee.
However, if you provided the correct data and an MVD employee made a mistake, you will not have to re-collect documents and pay the state fee. A new passport must be issued to you within two hours.
Services for transliterating first and last names
You can write down your data yourself, using the table above, or seek help from online services. Websites that will help you correctly write Russian first and last names in Latin letters:
On kupi.com for first and last names written in Russian letters, transliteration is applied automatically. All according to the rules, of course.
