Brightly Painted Wood Mini Horse Figurine. Signed. What is the Language?

Not old. A souvenir based on local folk art, I think.
Hoping someone can recognize the language right off the bat.
Approximately
5.25 inches long
by 4 inches height.

 

Greek would be my first guess, although modern Russian script is a close second. I bet Figtree can help.

 

What is the 4th letter of the last word?

 

Writing is either russian, bulgarian or serbian, and it is title and surname

 

The style and colours scream Russia...

 

It looks Russian.

 

I agree with those who've said it's Russian.

I bought something very similar as a gift some 15-20 years ago at a store in NYC... The store was called something like St Petersburg House - I'm not sure if it's still there.

edited to add:
Just remembered that I bought some Slivovitz for the giftee's parents at the same time!

 

Hehe....

 

Now that I amlooking longer at the writing I am sure that it is a one word:
Only I am now not sure if it is artists signature or the name of the horse, since its translation is "daughter of Mercury". It could be a surname as well

 

Thanks everyone. I'll go with the Russian idea and see what turns up. Russia is so huge, it will be fun to see if I can pin it down to the specific area.
"Daughter of Mercury"! That sounds so dramatic. I thought she looked racy with the orange flames in the mane and tail. Thanks for the translation Makanudo.

 

Sorry I'm late to seeing this one, but it sounds like Makanudo has done some good analysis.

If one word, it could be the surname Меркурьева (Merkurieva or Merkureva in our alphabet). That is a legitimate surname. And would be a woman. But I was having a big problem reading the writing so I could be incorrect. Makanudo, which letters are you reading it as? I suspect the same, or similar.

If that is the surname, I would say it's definitely Russian.

Also, nobody mentioned that the left part is the year 2004. The letters after the date are год. which is an abbreviation for the word "year." The Russians always put that after the date, but they often abbreviate to just г., the first letter.

Oh, and I should mention that I do not think that end part is the name of the horse or the title of the piece. In Russian they would put quotation marks around that. I think it's more likely to be a surname, although anything is possible.

Fig

 

Merkureva, yes. With a soft "r".
My Russian is on begginers level, but when it comes to family names we in Serbia have similar system. God or g. again same as here.