Increasingly, one can hear the opinion that native Russian surnames have the following suffixes: -ov, -ev, -in, -yn.
Where did the surnames with suffixes -ov and -ev come from?
According to statistics, surnames with suffixes -ov and -ev have about 60% of the population of Russia. Such surnames are considered primordially Russian, suggesting that they have a generic origin.
Initially, Russian surnames came from patronymics. For example, Ivan, who was the son of Peter, was called Ivan Petrov. After surnames came into use in the 13th century, they began to be given, focusing on the oldest man in the genus. So, not only sons, but also grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Peter became Petrovs.
To diversify surnames, they began to be given based on nicknames. So, the descendants of Beloborodov also received the name Beloborodov, passing it on to their descendants from generation to generation.
They began to give surnames and depending on the occupation of a person. Therefore, the Goncharovs, Kuznetsovs, Plotnikovs, Popovs and others appeared sonorous surnames. You can be sure that Kuznetsov's great-grandfather had a forge, and Popov had priests in his family.
Surnames with the suffix -ev were given to those people whose names, nicknames or the name of the specialization of their ancestors ended in a soft consonant. This is how the Ignatievs, Bondarevs and others appeared.
And where did the surnames with the suffixes -in and -yn come from?
About 30% of the population of Russia have surnames ending with the suffixes -in and -yn. These surnames could come from the names, nicknames and professions of ancestors, as well as from words that end in -а and -я.
So the surname Minin means "son of Mina". By the way, Mina is a popular female name in Rus'.
For example, the surname Semin comes from the name Semyon. Interestingly, the name Semyon comes from Simeon, which in ancient times meant "heard by God." This is how they formed popular surnames- Nikitin, Ilyin, Fomin and many others.
Also, some surnames indicate the belonging of a person's ancestors to a particular trade. For example, the surname Rogozhin indicates that the ancestors of a person traded matting or were engaged in its production.
It is impossible to say with absolute certainty, because even now many disputes continue, however, it is assumed that the names Pushkin, Gagarin, Zimin, Korovin, Ovechkin, Borodin also came from the names of things, phenomena, animals or professions.
Nevertheless, experts say that initially you need to find out which word underlies the surname, and only then can we talk about professional pursuits or nicknames of distant ancestors, from which the surname came.
Surname - the name of the family, which a person receives by inheritance. Many people for a long time live and do not even think about what their last name means. Thanks to the surname, one can not only determine who the great-grandfathers were, but also determine the nationality of its owner. In the article we will try to figure out which nationality this or that surname belongs to.
You can find out the origin of your surname in several ways, which are described in the article, among them one can single out the determination of the origin by the endings of surnames.
Surname endings
With the help of certain endings, you can find out what nationality the surname belongs to:
- English. It is very difficult to single out certain endings indicating the English. Most of the surnames are derived from English words, indicating the place of residence: Wales, Scott, or the profession of a person: Smith is a blacksmith, Cook is a cook.
- Armenians. Most of Armenian surnames ends in - yang: Aleksanyan, Burinyan, Galustyan.
- Belarusians. Belarusian surnames end in -ich, -chik, -ka, -ko: Tyshkevich, Fedorovich, Glushko, Vasilka, Gornachenok.
- Georgians. It is very simple to identify a person of Georgian nationality, their surnames end in - shvili, - dze, - ah, - wah, - ni, - li, - si: Gergedava, Geriteli, Dzhugashvili.
- Jews. If the surname has the root Levi or Cohen, then its owner belongs to Jewish nationality: Levitan, Koganovich. But you can also meet surnames with endings - ich, - man, -er: Kogenman, Kaganer.
- Spaniards and Portuguese have surnames with endings - ez, - from, - az, - from, oz: Gonzalez, Gomez, Torres. There are also surnames that indicate the character of a person: Alegre - joyful, Malo - bad.
- Italians. If we talk about Italians, then their surnames end in - ini, - ino, - illo, - etti, - etto, - ito: Puchinni, Brocki, Marchetti. The prefix di and da can indicate that the genus belongs to a certain territory: da Vinci.
- Germans. German surnames mostly end in - man - er and they indicate the type of human activity (Becker - baker, Lehmann - landowner, Koch - cook) or contain some characteristic (Klein - small).
- Poles. Surnames ending in -sk; - ck; -y indicate the belonging of a person (or his ancestors) to the Polish nationality: Godlevsky, Kseshinsky, Kalnitsky, and their roots go back to the time of the creation of the Polish nobility (gentry).
- Russians. Surnames ending in -ov, -ev, -in, -skoy, -tskoy: Ignatov, Mikhailov, Eremin. Russian surnames in structure are patronymics, which are formed from the names: Ivan - Ivanov, Grigory - Grigoriev; but among the examples you can find surnames formed from the name of the area where the family lives: White Lake - Belozersky.
- Ukrainians. To the endings that show that a person belongs to Ukrainian nationality, include: - ko, - uk / yuk, - un, -ny / ny, - tea, - ar, - a: Tereshchenko, Karpyuk, Tokar, Gonchar, Mirny. Surnames mainly show that the clan belongs to a certain craft.
Onomastics
It is worth noting that the science that studies proper names and their origin is called onomastics. Its section - anthroponymy - studies the origin of human names and their forms, one of which is the surname. It touches upon the history of their origin and transformation as a result of long-term use in the source language.
You will need
- A sheet of paper, a pen, the ability to do morphemic analysis of a word, etymological dictionary Russian language, dictionary foreign words.
Instruction
Take a piece of paper and a pen. Write your last name and highlight all the morphemes in it: root, suffix, ending. This preparatory stage help you determine which family name your family belongs to.
Notice the suffix. Since in Russian more often than others foreign surnames meet, these can be the following suffixes: “enko”, “eyko”, “ovsk / evsk”, “ko”, “point”. That is, if your last name is Tkachenko, Shumeiko, Petrovsky or Gulevsky, Klitschko, Marochko, you should look for distant relatives on the territory of Ukraine.
Look at the root of the word if the suffix did not answer the question of what nationality your last name is. Often one or another, object, animal, becomes its basis. An example is the surname Gonchar, Ukrainian Gorobets (in translation - Sparrow), Jewish Rabin ("rabbi").
Count the number of roots in a word. Sometimes the surname consists of two words. For example, Ryabokon, Beloshtan, Krivonos. Similar names belong to Slavic peoples(Russians, Belarusians, Poles, etc.), but are also found in other languages.
Assess your surname in terms of belonging to the Jewish people. Common Jewish surnames include the roots "Levi" and "Kohen", found in the surnames Levitan, Levin, Kogan, Katz. Their owners descended from ancestors who were in the rank of clergy. There are also surnames that originated from male (Moses, Solomon) or female names (Rivkin, Beilis), or formed from a merger male name and suffix (Abrahams, Jacobson, Mandelstam).
Remember if Tatar blood flows in your veins? If your surname consists of a combination of words and suffixes "in", "ov" or "ev", then the answer is obvious - they were in your family. This is especially well seen in the example of such surnames as Bashirov, Turgenev, Yuldashev.
Determine which language the surname belongs to, based on the following clues:
- if it contains the prefix "de" or "le", look for roots in France;
- if the surname is heard English name territory (eg Welsh), quality of person (Sweet) or profession (Carver), relatives should be sought in the UK;
- the same rules apply to German surnames. They are formed from the profession (Schmidt), nickname (Klein), name (Peters);
- Polish surnames can be recognized based on the sound - Kovalchik, Senkevich.
Look in the dictionary of foreign words if you have difficulty assigning a surname to a particular language.
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If your last name is Jewish origin, it can be used to determine the territory of residence of the ancestors. So, Slavic Jews bear the names Davidovich, Berkovich, Rubinchik. In sound, they are very similar to Russian patronymics and diminutive names of objects. The surnames of Polish Jews are distinguished by suffixes. For example, Padva.
To compose family tree or to find distant relatives, but at the same time not to make a mistake in interpreting the surname by nationality, one should rely not only on the root and suffix, but also on the environment. After all, the most common name Ivan has a Hebrew past, and the surnames formed from it are found among Russians, Maris, Mordvins, Chuvashs - Ivanaev, Vankin, Ivashkin, Ivakin, etc. Therefore, do not be too lazy to look into the etymological dictionary.
Sources:
- what is the nationality of the name
- If your last name ends in ov / -ev, -in then I will
The word surname in translation means family (lat. familia - family). Last name is given name tribal community - united primary social cells connected by blood ties. How do the names of surnames arise, what is the principle of the formation of Russian surnames, in particular, surnames with "-ov".
The emergence of surnames
The emergence and spread of surnames in Rus' was gradual. The first nicknames were acquired by the citizens of Veliky Novgorod and its subordinate lands. Chronicle evidence draws our attention to this fact, talking about the Battle of the Neva in 1240.
Later, in the XIV-XV centuries, generic names began to acquire princes. Nicknamed after the name of the inheritance that they owned, having lost it, the princes began to leave for themselves and their descendants its name as a family name. So the Vyazemsky (Vyazma), Shuisky (Shuya) and other noble families appeared. At the same time, those derived from nicknames began to be fixed: Lykovs, Gagarins, Gorbatovs.
Boyarsky and then noble families, in the absence of their inheritance status, were formed to a greater extent from nicknames. Also, the formation of a surname from the name of the ancestor has become widespread. Bright to the reigning family in Russia - the Romanovs.
Romanovs
The ancestors of this old boyar family were ancestors who wore different time nicknames: Mare, Koshka Kobylin, Koshkins. The son of Zakhary Ivanovich Koshkin, Yuri Zakharovich, was already called both by his father and by his nickname - Zakharyin-Koshkin. In turn, his son, Roman Yuryevich, bore the surname Zakhariev-Yuriev. The Zakharyins were also the children of Roman Yuryevich, but from the grandchildren (Fyodor Nikitich - Patriarch Filaret), the family continued under the name of the Romanovs. With the surname Romanov, Mikhail Fedorovich was elected to the royal throne.
Last name as identification
The establishment by Peter I in 1719 of passports for the convenience of collecting the poll tax and the implementation of the recruitment gave rise to the spread of surnames for men of all classes, including peasants. At first, along with the name, the patronymic and / or nickname were entered, which then became the owner's surname.
The formation of Russian surnames on -ov / -ev, -in
The most common Russian surnames are formed from personal names. As a rule, this is the name of the father, but more often the grandfather. That is, the surname was fixed in the third generation. At the same time, the personal name of the ancestor passed into the category of possessive adjectives formed from the name with the help of the suffixes -ov / -ev, -in and answering the question “whose?”
Whose Ivan? - Petrov.
In the same way in late XIX- at the beginning of the 20th century, Russian officials formed and recorded the names of the inhabitants of the Russian Transcaucasus and Central Asia.
There are many misconceptions about nationality certain surnames. So, some surnames are traditionally considered Jewish, while others are Russian. Although this may not be the case.
Myths about Jewish surnames
So, any of our compatriots identifies as Jewish surnames Abramovich, Bergman, Ginzburg, Goldman, Zilberman, Katzman, Cohen, Kramer, Levin, Malkin, Rabinovich, Rivkin, Feldstein, Etkind.
It is generally accepted that all surnames with the suffix "-sky" or "-ich" are Jewish in Russia. But in fact, these are most often the surnames of Polish or Ukrainian origin, indicating the name of the area where the person's ancestors come from. And they can be worn by both Jews and Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians ... And such surnames as Preobrazhensky or Rozhdestvensky were given to graduates of seminaries, most of whom were Russians.
Another mistake is to consider all surnames with the suffixes "-ov" or "-in" Russian. In Russia, indeed, most surnames have such suffixes. But they all have different origin: some were given by the names of the parents, others - by professional affiliation, others - by nicknames. With administrative records in documents, surnames could be “Russified”. So, who would think that the Russian composer Rachmaninov Jewish roots? But the surname Rachmaninov owes its origin to the Jewish "rahman", which means "merciful" - this is one of the names of God.
What are the surnames of Jews in Russia?
The mass emigration of Jews to Russia began in the time of Catherine II, after the annexation of Poland. In order to assimilate with the local population, representatives of the Jewish people sometimes took surnames similar to Russian or Polish ones: Medinsky, Novik, Kaganovich.
There is also a group of surnames of non-Jewish origin, which, however, are mostly worn by Jews: Zakharov, Kazakov, Novikov, Polyakov, Yakovlev. That's how it happened historically.
Jewish surnames that we take for Russians
Often the names of Russian Jews were given according to their professional affiliation or the profession of their parents. So, the seemingly Russian surname Shkolnikov comes from “schoolboy” (as the servant was called in Ukrainian Orthodox Church). Many Jews have this surname. Surname Shelomov - from "shelom". Its representatives were craftsmen in the manufacture of helmets. Dyers and Sapozhnikov - these are the names of Jews whose ancestors were engaged in painting and sewing shoes. These were common Jewish professions in pre-revolutionary Russia. We are used to considering the Russian surname Moiseev, but it comes from Jewish name Moses! The same with the surname Avdeev. But Abramov is indeed a Russian surname: in Rus' there was also the name Abram!
The surnames Shapkin, Tryapkin, Portyankin originated from Jewish nicknames. Few people think that the Jewish names are Galkin, Dolin, Kotin, Lavrov, Plotkin, Sechin, Shokhin, Shuvalov...
Everyone knows that Lenin's comrade-in-arms, chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov, was a Jew. It was even said that real name Katz. But in fact, he never changed his last name: Sverdlov is a fairly common surname among Jews.
To determine nationality by last name, you need to remember the morphemic analysis from school curriculum Russian language. A direct indication of nationality is contained in the root of the surname and its suffixes. For example, the suffix "eyko" in the surname Shumeyko is proof of the Ukrainian origin of the family.
To determine nationality by last name, it is sometimes necessary to study many books
You will need
A sheet of paper, a pen, the ability to make a morphemic analysis of a word, an etymological dictionary of the Russian language, a dictionary of foreign words.
Instruction
- Take a piece of paper and a pen. Write your last name and highlight all the morphemes in it: root, suffix, ending. This preparatory step will help you determine what nationality your family name belongs to.
- Notice the suffix. Since Ukrainian is more common in Russian than other foreign surnames, these can be the following suffixes: “enko”, “eyko”, “ovsk / evsk”, “ko”, “point”. That is, if your last name is Tkachenko, Shumeiko, Petrovsky or Gulevsky, Klitschko, Marochko, you should look for distant relatives on the territory of Ukraine.
- Look at the root of the word if the suffix did not answer the question of what nationality your last name is. Often this or that profession, object, animal, bird becomes its basis. As an example, we can cite the Russian surname Gonchar, Ukrainian Gorobets (translated into Russian - Sparrow), Jewish Rabin (which means "rabbi").
- Count the number of roots in a word. Sometimes the surname consists of two words. For example, Ryabokon, Beloshtan, Krivonos. Similar surnames belong to the Slavic peoples (Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Poles, etc.), but are also found in other languages.
- Assess your surname in terms of belonging to the Jewish people. Common Jewish surnames include the roots "Levi" and "Kohen", found in the surnames Levitan, Levin, Kogan, Katz. Their owners descended from ancestors who were in the rank of clergy. There are also surnames that originated from male (Moses, Solomon) or female names (Rivkin, Beilis), or formed from the merger of a male name and a suffix (Abrahams, Yakobson, Mandelstam).
- Remember if Tatar blood flows in your veins? If your surname consists of a combination of Tatar words and the suffixes "in", "ov" or "ev", then the answer is obvious - there were Tatars in your family. This is especially well seen in the example of such surnames as Bashirov, Turgenev, Yuldashev.
- Determine which language the surname belongs to, based on the following clues:
- if it contains the prefix "de" or "le", look for roots in France;
- if the English name of the territory (for example, Welsh), the quality of a person (Sweet) or the profession (Carver) is heard in the surname, relatives should be sought in the UK;
- the same rules apply to German surnames. They are formed from the profession (Schmidt), nickname (Klein), name (Peters);
- Polish surnames can be recognized based on the sound - Kowalczyk, Sienkiewicz. Look in the dictionary of foreign words if you have difficulty assigning a surname to a particular language
