My father-in-law who spoke Russian as a youth says Tchaikovsky’ name has
its origin in the word for “tea”; is this true? I have never found this fact
and wonder if it is just a similar word or even the same word but has no relationship.
Can you please clear this up?
Victor Glenn
The Russian word for tea is "Chai" [Чай], which happens to be the first
syllable of the composer's name. But the surname Tchaikovsky comes from a
type of bird - specifically a gull - which in Russian is "Chaika" [Чайка].
The composer's great-grandfather was actually called Fedor Chaika, and his
descendants turned this noun into an adjective, making Tchaikovskii [Чайковский]
So in short, a more literal translation of the name Tchaikovsky would be
"gull-like" (!).
Brett Langston