Most of The population of Russia received surnames only towards the end of the 19th century. The “second name” gradually took root among the people, and it is all the more interesting to find out how this happened.
The first owners of surnames in Rus' were noble residents of Veliky Novgorod. Since the 12th century, this area has been in a special position: it received the status of an independent republic and independently conducted business with neighboring states such as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This is where the fashion for surnames came from. And it has become much more convenient to keep track of troops this way: you won’t confuse one Mikhail, Ivan or Boris with another. For example, here is the earliest famous lists victims with the names: “Novgorodets fell: Kostyantin Lugotinits, Gyuryata Pineshchinich, Namst, Drochilo Nezdylov son of a tanner...” (First Novgorod chronicle of the older edition, 1240).
Following the Novgorodians, princes and boyars acquired surnames in the 14th-15th centuries. The first were usually named after the lands that belonged to them. So the owners of the estate on the Shuya River became the Shuiskys, on Vyazma - the Vyazemskys, on Meshchera - the Meshcherskys, the same story with the Tverskys, Obolenskys, Vorotynskys and other -skys. By the way, -sk- is a common Slavic suffix; it can also be found in Czech surnames(Comenius), and in Polish (Zapototsky), and in Ukrainian (Artemovsky). The moment of origin of a surname is considered to be its preservation by descendants even after the loss of the corresponding lands.
Whose will you be?
The boyars received their surnames by the baptismal name of the ancestor or his nickname: such names answered the question “whose?” (implied “whose son?”, “what kind?”) and included possessive suffixes. The suffix -ov- was added to worldly names ending in hard consonants: Smirnoy - Smirnov, Ignat - Ignatov. -Ev- - to names and nicknames ending in b, -ii, -ey or ch: Bear - Medvedev, Yuri - Yuryev, Begich - Begichev. Well, the suffix -in- was given to surnames formed from names with the vowels “a” and “ya”: Apukhta -Apukhtin, Gavrila - Gavrilin, Ilya -Ilyin.
The most famous story the emergence of the boyar family - about the Romanovs. Their ancestor Andrei Kobyla had three sons: Semyon Stallion, Alexandra Elka Kobylin and Fyodor Koshka. They gave birth to the Zherebtsovs, Kobylins and Koshkins. The latter bore this surname for several generations until they decided that being called by a nickname was not too noble. And they first became the Yakovlevs (after the great-grandson of Fyodor Koshka) and the Zakharyins-Yuryevs (after the names of his grandson and another great-grandson), and after that they were completely entrenched in history as the Romanovs (after the great-great-grandson of Fyodor Koshka).
Many are surprised by such surnames as Durnovo, Sukhovo, Zhivago, Chernago, Sedykh, Fominykh. In fact, there is nothing strange about them, the same answer to the question “whose?”, only a little outdated or plural: Bad - Durnovo, Zhivoy - Zhivago, Sedye - Sedykh.
Russians - non-Russian surnames
The nobles were next in line to receive surnames. Among them there were a lot of people who came to serve the Russian sovereigns from other countries. It all started with surnames of Greek and Polish-Lithuanian origin at the end of the 15th century, and in the 17th century they were joined by the Fonvizins (German von Wiesen), the Lermontovs (Scottish Lermont) and other surnames with Western roots.
Surnames that were given to illegitimate children have foreign language roots. noble people: Sherov (French cher “dear”), Amantov (French amant “beloved”), Oksov (German Ochs “bull”), Herzen (German Herz “heart”). By-product children generally “suffered” a lot from their parents’ imagination. Some of them didn't bother to come up with new name, but simply shortened the old one: so from Repnin Pnin was born, from Trubetskoy - Betskoy, from Elagin - Agin, and from Golitsyn and Tenishev the “Koreans” Go and Te came out.
The Tatars also left a significant mark on Russian surnames. This is exactly how the Yusupovs (descendants of Murza Yusup), the Akhmatovs (Khan Akhmat), the Karamzins (Tatar punishment “black”, Murza “lord, prince”), the Kudinovs (distorted Kaz.-Tatar. Kudai “God, Allah”) and other.
Local, but not princes
After the nobles, ordinary service people began to receive surnames. They, like the princes, were also often called by their place of residence, only with “simpler” suffixes: families living in Tambov became Tambovtsevs, in Vologda - Vologzhaninovs, in Moscow - Moskvichevs and Moskvitinovs. Some were satisfied with the “non-family” suffix, denoting a resident of a given territory in general: Belomorets, Kostromich, Chernomorets, while others received the nickname without any changes - hence Tatyana Dunay, Alexander Galich, Olga Poltava and others.
I am Kastorsky
The surnames of spiritual ministers were formed from the names of churches and Christian holidays (Rozhdestvensky, Uspensky), and were also artificially formed from Church Slavonic, Latin and Greek words. The most interesting of them were those that were translated from Russian into Latin and received the “princely” suffix -sk-. Thus, Bobrov became Kastorsky (Latin castor “beaver”), Skvortsov became Sturnitsky (Latin sturnus “starling”), and Orlov became Aquilev (Latin aquila “eagle”).
"Strange" surnames
Peasants' surnames late XIX centuries were rare. The exceptions were non-serf peasants in the north of Russia and in the Novgorod province - hence Mikhailo Lomonosov and Arina Rodionovna Yakovleva.
After the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the situation began to improve, and by the time of universal passportization in the 1930s, every resident of the USSR definitely had a surname. They were formed according to already proven models: the suffixes -ov-, -ev-, -in- were added to names, nicknames, places of residence, and professions.
They turned out to be quite nice Petrovs, Ivanovs, Bochkarevs, Kuznetsovs, Melnikovs, Pryakhins and others. However, the Perdunovs, Smertins and other Fools emerged from somewhere. It is clear that they also originated from the nicknames: Fart, Death, Fool, which, deservedly or not, were given to their neighbors by their fellow tribesmen. But even the parents themselves sometimes called their children quite offensive names: Unloving, Nenash, Bad, Blockhead, Kruchina. How in your right mind could you name your child that? The thing is that our ancestors were very superstitious and hoped to protect their child from the evil eye with such an unpleasant nickname. In this regard, it is not a fact that any modern Almazov will be more successful than Neschastlivtsev or Idiotov.
And finally... Photo above. The child's face is blurred.. Why? Yes, because when photography first appeared, in order to take a good photo by those standards, you had to sit still for several minutes. Adults sat naturally, but you can’t explain this to a child. Therefore this is the result. By the way, this photo is most likely of fairly wealthy peasants, since photography was very expensive at that time.
In this article, we will suggest various methods that will help you in your investigation.
Names have been used to clarify the family of the bearer since their inception. In ancient times, people used such nicknames to designate the sphere professional activity, peculiarities appearance or personal characteristics characteristic of a particular community.
It is these details that have attracted the attention of many people who want to know the origin of their middle name in order to discover many previously unknown secrets. By revealing your origins, you will be able to understand the following:
- Who were your ancestors?
- Where were they born?
- Who did they work with?
- Distinctive character traits and appearance.
- What class did they belong to?
Surname as family history: then and now
Previously, such designations were used for convenience. They were not permanent, and over time a person could earn himself a new nickname. Now this expression has a completely different function. The second name is used to denote blood ties and belonging to a particular family. It carries with it the history of the family and the continuity of generations.
Previously, not every person could receive hallmark kind. It had to be earned. Often, the presence of such a designation implied noble roots and served as a symbol of uniqueness, difference from everyone else. Now everyone receives it from birth and does not give it due attention. Few people are interested in information that is hidden in one word.
Despite this, it is still possible to find your origins, your ancestors and pay tribute to them to this day. With the development of the Internet, this has become even easier. Now, to understand how to find out the history of origin and the meaning of your last name, you can use specialized online portals. They store archives. With their help, you can not only find brothers or sisters, but also calculate the place and approximate date of birth of your great-grandfathers, the cause of death and other important branches of the development of your family.
Don't be discouraged if you don't find anything in the archives. There is a second way. In this case, you need to turn to experts who will help you find your roots and also conduct an analysis. The study will examine all available data. After this, the specialist will be able to tell you a lot of new things about your family and name, and will also draw up a family tree.
How to find out family history by last name
Before you answer main question, let's look at how middle names were formed in our country. The main reason their emergence became necessary to introduce an identifier. With the growth of villages, towns and villages, more and more people with the same names appeared.
Nicknames were given to people as an identification mark. Some chose it for themselves, while others got it because of their features. Serfs could not choose a nickname on their own. They were called whatever their owner wanted. This is where it came from a large number of unpleasant and humiliating names. Experts say that Shcherbakov (a) is primarily a reference to distinctive feature appearance, disproportionately large gap between the teeth.
The easiest way to find out the history of ancestors is by surname for residents of Veliky Novgorod. Chronicles have been kept in the city for eight centuries. According to ancient papers, this is where the first nicknames appeared. Ancient archives contain information about the participants in the Battle of the Neva.
U upper strata Societies indicating ancestral affiliation appeared in the 1300s. They were given for special merits or spoke of attachment to a certain area. The most famous are Donskoy, Shuisky or Nevsky. With the advent of foreign borrowings into Russian speech, surnames in a foreign style appeared: Karamzin or Fonvizin.
While the rich and famous people received big names, the common people were left without them. Despite all the attempts of Peter I to streamline the peasants, significant changes Did not happen. It was during these years that it came into use this term. It was borrowed from Latin, where “familia” means blood ties and family.
During the reign of Peter I, audits began to be carried out - an analogue of the population census. Having a permanent nickname passed down from generation to generation would make things easier. But in those years there was no such tradition.
If a person did not have a permanent nickname, this meant that he belonged to the lower class of society. Constant changes in the second name occurred with the birth of each new generation. This continued throughout the existence of the Russian Empire.
Works written in those years will confirm this. Not in any of the world famous works no special designations are given for serfs. The works of Pushkin, Lermontov or Gogol confirm that only the nobility have a second name.
The family name did not appear just like that. It was invented in such a way that it corresponded to its bearer. The reason for the appearance could be the area in which the person lived, his profession or other distinctive features. Here are several examples of the formation of such words, allowing you to find out the origin of the family by surname.
- By nationality- Polyakov, Tatarinov, Kozak, Shvedov, Khokhlov.
- By place of birth and residence - Sibiryak, Muromets, Samarin, Volgograd, Cherepovets, Arkhangelsk, Vyazemsky, Belozersky, Vyazmitin, Yaroslavtsev.
- By profession - Goncharov, Kuznetsov, Rybakin, Kozhevnikov, Bochkarev, Kalashnikov, Konovalov, Bortnikov, Reznikov, Serdyukov.
- By the name of the holiday on which a person was born - Annunciation, Sretensky, Vvedensky, Znamensky, Preobrazhensky, Voznesensky, Trinity, Rozhdestvensky, Uspensky, Resurrection, Pokrovsky.
- According to the instrument he worked with - Serpov, Altov, Molotov, Shilov.
- Derived from the names of birds or animals - Lastochkin, Bykovsky, Golubinsky, Medvedev, Orlovsky, Lebedinsky, Lisitsyn, Pavsky, Barsov, Zverev, Volkov, Utkin, Vorobyov.
- By the names of the parents: Ivanov, Illarionov, Georgiev, Alexandrov, Dmitriev, Alekseev, Pavlov, Petrov, Romanov, Fedorov, Egorov, Andreev.
- By intra-family relations- Malyshev, Menshikov, Starshov.
- By distinctive features appearance - Belyaev, Chernyshov, Ryzhov, Chernyak, Lobach, Golovach, Levshin, Gubin, Glazunov.
- By personal characteristics- Molchanov, Mirolyubov, Tikhomirov, Chistyakov, Myagkov, Tikhonravov, Smelov, Smekhov, Pesnopevtsev, Ostroumov, Slavolubov.
- By analogy with flowers and plants - Landyshev, Vinogradov, Lileev, Narcissus, Rose, Violet, Ancharov, Tsvetkov, Apricot, Cypress, Kedrov, Almond.
- By natural phenomena, cardinal directions - Zarnitsky, Yugov, Klyuchevsky, Vostokov, Nebosklonov, Vetrinsky.
Having deciphered given name, you can find a lot of new information about your roots. The Goncharovs and Kuznetsovs had potters and blacksmiths in their families. The Yaroslavtsevs have roots from Yaroslavl. Some of Rozhdestvensky’s forefathers were born on January 7, and the Chernyshevs had a grandfather or great-grandfather from dark color hair or eyes. This is how the meaning of words helps you find out the history of your family and your ancestors by last name.
We should also talk about seminarian nicknames. They appeared much later, in the 1600s. Their bearers were clergy, and among the common people such designations began to be called priestly. These names were created intentionally and arose out of the desire of the clergy to be closer to the people.
Nicknames were deliberately made euphonious and pleasant to perceive. This emphasized the prestige of the profession of those who left worldly life.
How to determine the origin of a surname by ending
In most cases, second names of the church type were formed using two suffixes -skyi and -tsky. The most popular include:
- Derzhavinsky.
- Trinity.
- Sergievsky.
- Dostoevsky.
- Vetrinsky.
- Apolonsky.
- Zarnitsky.
- Desnitsky.
- Bethlehem.
- Athenian.
- Benemansky.
- Pavsky.
Such nicknames were based on words from Latin vocabulary. The source of inspiration was the names of saints, philosophers or the area where they were from. Most often, when compiling middle names, a direct transliteration from a foreign language was used.
Nowadays such nicknames are rare, and their pronunciation surprises people.
If the designation emphasizing your belonging to the family contains -sky and -tsky instead of the traditional suffixes ov/ev or yn/in, one of your ancestors was a clergyman or confessor.
How and where to find out the origin and history of your family by last name
If you decide to make family tree or just studying your family history, you will need information about the profession and field of activity of your ancestors. When deciphering a nickname, it can be revealed that someone was a man of art, a brave warrior, or a skilled craftsman. Such information can not only tell you a lot about your roots, but will also allow you to decide on your choice of specialty in the future.
To obtain such information, you need to contact the archives. On the Internet you can find resources where chronicles, historical papers and other useful documents are freely available. The only negative is that not every site allows you to use the sources for free.
We advise you to start your independent analysis with morphemic analysis. To do this, take your last name and highlight the prefix, suffix and ending. Next, you will need to find out what word or phrase your genus name comes from. To do this, let's take a look at characteristic features names within different classes in Rus'.
Nobles
This word denoted a group of people who were at the royal court and had many privileges. Prestigious status was passed down from generation to generation, and the surname of representatives of this category remained unchanged.
Let's consider typical names nobles:
- Many members of the high nobility received their title in the early 1600s. These include the Eropkin family.
- Those who became a prince, count or baron were entered into genealogical books. These are the Urusovs, Lenchevskys, Sushinskys.
- Foreign nobles took middle names from foreign languages with characteristic prefixes “von” or “de”.
Merchants
Representatives of this class have always been held in high esteem in Rus'. This was precisely the factor due to which merchants gained the opportunity to specially name their dynasty much earlier than others.
Let's look at the most famous generic designations:
- Tretyakov.
- Mamontov.
- Shchukin.
- Eliseev.
- Bakhrushin.
- Demidov.
Servants
How to find the origin of such a surname? People who were in the service of the state and the king also had their privileges and could bear a distinctive name that emphasized blood ties. In most cases, it was given in the area where wars and battles took place: Karelin, Kazantsev.
Peasants
Despite all the attempts of the state to keep records of this class, officially the former servants acquired a permanent name only after the coup and revolution at the beginning of the twentieth century. Often, a nickname reflected a person’s profession or external features. The most common ones include:
- Brewers.
- Melnikov.
- Kuznetsov.
- Karetin.
- Belykh.
How and where to find out the history of the family
Let's look at a couple of tips that will help you with this.
Ask your family for help
Talk to your moms and dads and grandparents. They will tell you a lot of new information: where are your mother and father from, what was your maiden name on your mother's side, who are your distant relatives? Record everything important points: dates of birth and death, Family status and information about the profession of your ancestors.
Organize your workspace.
You won't be able to keep everything in your head. Get a notebook or notebook to keep records and record all the data received. To simplify the task, you can create family tree and mark your grandparents in it, tracing all the branches of your family.
Consult family archives
Find all old documents, birth certificates and other important papers. With their help you will find information about the profession and roots of your ancestors. In the same way, you can find people who will provide new information and help in further searches.
Today we found out how to find the origin of your last name and connect the data obtained with the history of the family, and told you what you will need for this. Don't waste time - start yours own investigation right now.
Where do our surnames come from? Most of the population of Russia received surnames only towards the end of the 19th century. The “second name” gradually took root among the people, and it is all the more interesting to find out how this happened. Is a surname not a luxury? The first owners of surnames in Rus' were noble residents of Veliky Novgorod. Since the 12th century, this area has been in a special position: it received the status of an independent republic and independently conducted business with neighboring states such as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This is where the fashion for surnames came from. And it has become much more convenient to keep track of troops this way: you won’t confuse one Mikhail, Ivan or Boris with another. Here, for example, is the earliest known list of the dead with the names: “Novgorodets fell: Kostyantin Lugotinits, Gyuryata Pineshchinich, Namst, Drochilo Nezdylov son of a tanner...” (First Novgorod chronicle of the older edition, 1240). Following the Novgorodians, princes and boyars acquired surnames in the 14th-15th centuries. The first were usually named after the lands that belonged to them. So the owners of the estate on the Shuya River became the Shuiskys, on Vyazma - the Vyazemskys, on Meshchera - the Meshcherskys, the same story with the Tverskys, Obolenskys, Vorotynskys and other -skys. By the way, -sk- is a common Slavic suffix; it can be found in Czech surnames (Komensky), and in Polish (Zapototsky), and in Ukrainian (Artemovsky). The moment of origin of a surname is considered to be its preservation by descendants even after the loss of the corresponding lands. Whose will you be? The boyars received their surnames by the baptismal name of the ancestor or his nickname: such names answered the question “whose?” (implied “whose son?”, “what kind?”) and included possessive suffixes. The suffix -ov- was added to worldly names ending in hard consonants: Smirnoy - Smirnov, Ignat - Ignatov. -Ev- - to names and nicknames ending in b, -ii, -ey or ch: Bear - Medvedev, Yuri - Yuryev, Begich - Begichev. Well, the suffix -in- was given to surnames formed from names with the vowels “a” and “ya”: Apukhta -Apukhtin, Gavrila - Gavrilin, Ilya -Ilyin. The most famous story of the origin of the boyar family is about the Romanovs. Their ancestor Andrei Kobyla had three sons: Semyon Zherebets, Alexander Elk Kobylin and Fyodor Koshka. They gave birth to the Zherebtsovs, Kobylins and Koshkins. The latter bore this surname for several generations until they decided that being called by a nickname was not too noble. And they first became the Yakovlevs (after the great-grandson of Fyodor Koshka) and the Zakharyins-Yuryevs (after the names of his grandson and another great-grandson), and after that they were completely entrenched in history as the Romanovs (after the great-great-grandson of Fyodor Koshka). Many are surprised by such surnames as Durnovo, Sukhovo, Zhivago, Chernago, Sedykh, Fominykh. In fact, there is nothing strange in them, the same answer to the question “whose?”, only a little outdated or in the plural: Durnoy - Durnovo, Zhivoy - Zhivago, Sedye - Sedykh. Russians - non-Russian surnames Next in line to receive surnames were the nobles. Among them there were a lot of people who came to serve the Russian sovereigns from other countries. It all started with surnames of Greek and Polish-Lithuanian origin at the end of the 15th century, and in the 17th century they were joined by the Fonvizins (German von Wiesen), the Lermontovs (Scottish Lermont) and other surnames with Western roots. The surnames that were given to the illegitimate children of noble people have foreign language roots: Sherov (French cher “dear”), Amantov (French amant “beloved”), Oksov (German Ochs “bull”), Herzen (German Herz “heart” ). By-product children generally “suffered” a lot from their parents’ imagination. Some of them did not bother to come up with a new surname, but simply shortened the old one: this is how Pnin was born from Repnin, Betskoy from Trubetskoy, Agin from Elagin, and the “Koreans” Go and Te came from Golitsyn and Tenishev. The Tatars also left a significant mark on Russian surnames. This is exactly how the Yusupovs (descendants of Murza Yusup), the Akhmatovs (Khan Akhmat), the Karamzins (Tatar punishment “black”, Murza “lord, prince”), the Kudinovs (distorted Kaz.-Tatar. Kudai “God, Allah”) and other. Local, but not princes After the nobles, simple service people began to receive surnames. They, like the princes, were also often called by their place of residence, only with “simpler” suffixes: families living in Tambov became Tambovtsevs, in Vologda - Vologzhaninovs, in Moscow - Moskvichevs and Moskvitinovs. Some were satisfied with the “non-family” suffix, denoting a resident of a given territory in general: Belomorets, Kostromich, Chernomorets, while others received the nickname without any changes - hence Tatyana Dunay, Alexander Galich, Olga Poltava and others. I Kastorsky The surnames of spiritual ministers were formed from the names of churches and Christian holidays (Rozhdestvensky, Assumption), and were also artificially formed from Church Slavonic, Latin and Greek words. The most interesting of them were those that were translated from Russian into Latin and received the “princely” suffix -sk-. Thus, Bobrov became Kastorsky (Latin castor “beaver”), Skvortsov became Sturnitsky (Latin sturnus “starling”), and Orlov became Aquilev (Latin aquila “eagle”). Until the end of the 19th century, peasant surnames were rare. The exceptions were non-serf peasants in the north of Russia and in the Novgorod province - hence Mikhailo Lomonosov and Arina Rodionovna Yakovleva. After the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the situation began to improve, and by the time of universal passportization in the 1930s, every resident of the USSR definitely had a surname. They were formed according to already proven models: the suffixes -ov-, -ev-, -in- were added to names, nicknames, places of residence, and professions. They turned out to be quite nice Petrovs, Ivanovs, Bochkarevs, Kuznetsovs, Melnikovs, Pryakhins and others.
Most of the Russian population received surnames only towards the end of the 19th century. The “second name” gradually took root among the people, and it is all the more interesting to find out how this happened.
Is a surname not a luxury?
The first owners of surnames in Rus' were noble residents of Veliky Novgorod. Since the 12th century, this area has been in a special position: it received the status of an independent republic and independently conducted business with neighboring states such as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This is where the fashion for surnames came from. And it has become much more convenient to keep track of troops this way: you won’t confuse one Mikhail, Ivan or Boris with another. Here, for example, is the earliest known list of the dead with the names: “Novgorodets fell: Kostyantin Lugotinits, Gyuryata Pineshchinich, Namst, Drochilo Nezdylov son of a tanner...” (First Novgorod chronicle of the older edition, 1240).
Following the Novgorodians, princes and boyars acquired surnames in the 14th-15th centuries. The first were usually named after the lands that belonged to them. So the owners of the estate on the Shuya River became the Shuiskys, on Vyazma - the Vyazemskys, on Meshchera - the Meshcherskys, the same story with the Tverskys, Obolenskys, Vorotynskys and other -skys. By the way, -sk- is a common Slavic suffix; it can be found in Czech surnames (Komensky), and in Polish (Zapototsky), and in Ukrainian (Artemovsky). The moment of origin of a surname is considered to be its preservation by descendants even after the loss of the corresponding lands.
Whose will you be?
The boyars received their surnames by the baptismal name of the ancestor or his nickname: such names answered the question “whose?” (implied “whose son?”, “what kind?”) and included possessive suffixes. The suffix -ov- was added to worldly names ending in hard consonants: Smirnoy - Smirnov, Ignat - Ignatov. -Ev- - to names and nicknames ending in b, -ii, -ey or ch: Bear - Medvedev, Yuri - Yuryev, Begich - Begichev. Well, the suffix -in- was given to surnames formed from names with the vowels “a” and “ya”: Apukhta -Apukhtin, Gavrila - Gavrilin, Ilya -Ilyin.
The most famous story of the origin of the boyar family is about the Romanovs. Their ancestor Andrei Kobyla had three sons: Semyon Zherebets, Alexander Elk Kobylin and Fyodor Koshka. They gave birth to the Zherebtsovs, Kobylins and Koshkins. The latter bore this surname for several generations until they decided that being called by a nickname was not too noble. And they first became the Yakovlevs (after the great-grandson of Fyodor Koshka) and the Zakharyins-Yuryevs (after the names of his grandson and another great-grandson), and after that they were completely entrenched in history as the Romanovs (after the great-great-grandson of Fyodor Koshka).
Many are surprised by such surnames as Durnovo, Sukhovo, Zhivago, Chernago, Sedykh, Fominykh. In fact, there is nothing strange in them, the same answer to the question “whose?”, only a little outdated or in the plural: Durnoy - Durnovo, Zhivoy - Zhivago, Sedye - Sedykh.
Russians - non-Russian surnames
The nobles were next in line to receive surnames. Among them there were a lot of people who came to serve the Russian sovereigns from other countries. It all started with surnames of Greek and Polish-Lithuanian origin at the end of the 15th century, and in the 17th century they were joined by the Fonvizins (German von Wiesen), the Lermontovs (Scottish Lermont) and other surnames with Western roots.
The surnames that were given to the illegitimate children of noble people have foreign language roots: Sherov (French cher “dear”), Amantov (French amant “beloved”), Oksov (German Ochs “bull”), Herzen (German Herz “heart” ). By-product children generally “suffered” a lot from their parents’ imagination. Some of them did not bother to come up with a new surname, but simply shortened the old one: this is how Pnin was born from Repnin, Betskoy from Trubetskoy, Agin from Elagin, and the “Koreans” Go and Te came from Golitsyn and Tenishev.
The Tatars also left a significant mark on Russian surnames. This is exactly how the Yusupovs (descendants of Murza Yusup), the Akhmatovs (Khan Akhmat), the Karamzins (Tatar punishment “black”, Murza “lord, prince”), the Kudinovs (distorted Kaz.-Tatar. Kudai “God, Allah”) and other.
Local, but not princes
After the nobles, ordinary service people began to receive surnames. They, like the princes, were also often called by their place of residence, only with “simpler” suffixes: families living in Tambov became Tambovtsevs, in Vologda - Vologzhaninovs, in Moscow - Moskvichevs and Moskvitinovs. Some were satisfied with the “non-family” suffix, denoting a resident of a given territory in general: Belomorets, Kostromich, Chernomorets, while others received the nickname without any changes - hence Tatyana Dunay, Alexander Galich, Olga Poltava and others.
I am Kastorsky
The surnames of clergy were formed from the names of churches and Christian holidays (Rozhdestvensky, Uspensky), and were also artificially formed from Church Slavonic, Latin and Greek words. The most interesting of them were those that were translated from Russian into Latin and received the “princely” suffix -sk-. Thus, Bobrov became Kastorsky (Latin castor “beaver”), Skvortsov became Sturnitsky (Latin sturnus “starling”), and Orlov became Aquilev (Latin aquila “eagle”).
"Strange" surnames
Until the end of the 19th century, peasant surnames were rare. The exceptions were non-serf peasants in the north of Russia and in the Novgorod province - hence Mikhailo Lomonosov and Arina Rodionovna Yakovleva.
After the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the situation began to improve, and by the time of universal passportization in the 1930s, every resident of the USSR definitely had a surname. They were formed according to already proven models: the suffixes -ov-, -ev-, -in- were added to names, nicknames, places of residence, and professions.
They turned out to be quite nice Petrovs, Ivanovs, Bochkarevs, Kuznetsovs, Melnikovs, Pryakhins and others. However, the Perdunovs, Smertins and other Fools emerged from somewhere. It is clear that they also originated from the nicknames: Fart, Death, Fool, which, deservedly or not, were given to their neighbors by their fellow tribesmen. But even the parents themselves sometimes called their children quite offensive names: Nelyub, Nenash, Bad, Blockhead, Kruchina. How in your right mind could you name your child that? The thing is that our ancestors were very superstitious and hoped to protect their child from the evil eye with such an unpleasant nickname. In this regard, it is not a fact that any modern Almazov will be more successful than Neschastlivtsev or Idiotov.
