Top 100 most popular surnames. The most famous Russian surnames

Few people wonder what is the most common generic nickname in the world or in a single country? Such information is also useful and interesting to know. Some nicknames are rare, and some, on the contrary, are owned by several million people. In this article, you will learn about the most numerous carriers of generic names around the world and several individual countries.

The most common surname in Russia

According to the studies of various scientists who came to one end result, the most popular surname in Russia belongs to the Smirnovs. The origin of this generic name goes back to the time of the peasants. Quiet, calm, quiet children were called meek. Since then, the middle name has taken root, gained a lot various forms(Smirnitsky, Smirenko, etc.) and became the most popular in Russia. Famous names of Russian citizens: Ivanovs, Petrovs, Sidorovs, Popovs, Kuznetsovs, Sokolovs.

Popular surnames in VK

In this social network what female or male nicknames you just will not meet. Someone provides authentic data about themselves, and someone invents for themselves beautiful second names (usually girls). Such a phenomenon can be found on the pages of young ladies, because who wants unfamiliar young people visiting the resource to see Durakova or Kisloukhova on the monitor screen? There is only one way out - to create an unusual, original pseudonym for yourself. By the way, everything is standard with the guys - the most common middle name is Ivanov. What popular Vkontakte surnames for girls can be found:

• generous;
• Christmas;
• Motherland;
• Armand;
• Vorontsov;
• Romanov and others.

In the world

Most a large number of identical middle names that can be found all over the world belongs to the Chinese - Li (more than 100 million people). Representatives of this eastern country occupy three leading places in the ranking of family nicknames on the planet (also Zhang and Wang). This trend can be traced because there are about five hundred variations of middle names in China, and a population of one billion three hundred thousand people. in plain language There are many people and few options. Interesting information: The most popular surname in the world (Li) means strength in Chinese.

English surnames

Second names in England were given depending on the profession of a person, place of residence. In the first place is the generic nickname Smith, which was formed from the Yiddish meaning of the blacksmith profession. The second place is occupied by Jones, which literally means the son of John, and the third - Williams - from the name of William. Other common English surnames:

• Thomas;
• Davis;
• Brown;
• Taylor;
• Evans;
• Johnson.

Popular American Surnames

The US state was formed relatively recently, if we draw parallels with the whole world, however, even there there is a kind of rating of namesakes. Almost all family names have English origin. Some popular surnames in America, which are often found even among popular people and celebrities:

• Johnson;
• Brown;
• Davis;
• Miller;
• Anderson;
• Taylor;
• Jackson and others

Russians

In addition to the Ivanovs, Smirnovs, Petrovs and Sidorovs, other popular Russian generic names. Some common Russian surnames originated from professional activity ancestors - Kuznetsov, Goncharov, Bondarchuk. Geographical names, objects on the territory where people lived - another source of inspiration for those who assigned middle names: Moskvin, Ozerov, Luzhkov. Often the source was "bird" or "animal" surnames, for example:

• Sokolov,
• Lebedev,
• Solovyov,
• Sorokin,
• Medvedev,
• Kozlov;
• Bykov.

German

In Germany, middle names began to be used at the end of the 18th century, and their origin is similar to the stories of the origin of such a process in other European countries. The most common German surnames are taken, as a rule, from the names of professions:

• Müller is a miller;
• Fisher is a fisherman;
• Schmidt is a forge worker;
• Schneider - tailor;
• Bauer is a peasant;
• Weber is a weaver, etc.

Jewish

Jewish middle names appeared at the same time as in Russian Empire, thanks to the adoption of the relevant law. In those days, two titles were common among Jewish clergy: Levi and Cohen. From them the most popular Jewish surnames, overgrown with time in numerous forms. As in other countries, it has become widespread to give names according to the place of residence, the name of animals, features of appearance or professions:

• Preiger (tailor);
• Shuster (shoemaker);
• Glazier (glazier);
• Kleiner (small);
• Stiller (quiet), etc.

In France

Second names in France appeared with the royal decree of 1539, according to which each clan must have its own name, be inherited, be recorded in state bodies / church documentation. Some of the most popular: Bertrand, Thomas, Robert, Dubois. For the most part, generic nicknames were formed from proper names, professional occupations to whom the ancestors were devoted. What is the most common surname in France? According to scientists, this is the name of the genus Martin, which has about 250 thousand people.

Ukrainian

Most famous surnames Ukrainians end in "ko" - Shevchenko, Pisarenko, Goncharenko, Skripko. A few more forms of endings: -la / -lo (Pritula, Minyaylo); -ba/-yes (Dziuba, Hunger); -uk / -yuk (Bondarchuk, Vasyuk), -y (Khmelnitsky) and so on. It was customary to distribute nicknames among the people, as in other European countries, tsarist Russia– Derived from professions, locations of derived names. Many "callings" came from the Cossacks (sharp, sometimes offensive) - Krivoruchko, Tyagnibok, Neizhsalo.

Some common Ukrainian surnames from the top ten list:

• Shevchenko;
• Boyko;
• Miller;
• Kovalenko;
• Bondarenko;
• Tkachenko.

Polish

The recognizable “nazvysko” (this is how the pans and ladies call the generic nickname) in Poland ends in -sky, which is typical for many Slavic peoples, but was very common in this European country. An example can be seen on famous people: Kovalsky, Tsiolkovsky, Dzerzhinsky, Brzezinsky. Modern middle names have a slightly modified form, in which the last letter “y” may be missing - Zyulkowski, Sarktowski, etc. Some Popular Polish surnames from the top ten:

• Novak;
• Wuychik;
• Kowalski;
• Vishnevsky;
• Lewandowski;
• Kaminsky and others.

As one said famous character Soviet cartoon Captain Vrungel: "Whatever you call a ship, so it will sail." Indeed, do middle names affect whether a person becomes famous or not? It doesn’t matter what territory, place on the map people lived or will live in, because in a few generations anyone can acquire a foreign nickname due to moving, marriage or for other reasons. Girls and boys, having Russian, German or English roots, thanks to their ancestors, become French, Poles or Ukrainians.

Video

What are the most common surnames in Russia today? Which one is the most common? Probably, you will say that the most common surname is Ivanov. And you can't go wrong. We have prepared a list for you, which includes the most common surnames in Russia. Also, we will give some examples of the origin of the most common surnames in Russia.

List of Balanovskaya

A group of researchers led by Elena Balanovskaya published in 2005 in the journal "Medical Genetics" a work entitled "Family Portraits" of five Russian regions.

The criterion for inclusion in the list of a surname was as follows: it was included if, within three generations at least five carriers of this surname lived in the region. First, lists were compiled for five conditional regions - Northern, Central, Central-Western, Central-Eastern and Southern.

• The first 25 surnames from this list, the so-called "all-Russian surnames":

Smirnov, Ivanov, Kuznetsov, Sokolov, Popov, Lebedev
Kozlov, Novikov, Morozov, Petrov, Volkov, Solovyov
Vasiliev, Zaitsev, Pavlov, Semyonov, Golubev, Vinogradov
Bogdanov, Vorobyov, Fedorov, Mikhailov, Belyaev, Tarasov, Belov

A similar list was compiled by V. A. Nikonov on the basis of the telephone directory of Moscow in the 80s of the XX century. He, on the basis of extensive material (surnames of about 3 million people), identified the most common Russian surnames (according to his data, Smirnov, Ivanov, Popov and Kuznetsov) and compiled a map of the distribution of these and other most common surnames.

At the end of the 20th century, Nazarov A.I. compiled new list 100 most frequent surnames of residents of St. Petersburg, in which there are 17 new surnames compared to the previous list. Also, many surnames in it are not in the same places as at the beginning of the 20th century. The most popular: Ivanov, Vasiliev, Smirnov, Petrov, Mikhailov.

Zhuravlev's list is a modern edition.

Another list of the most popular Russian surnames (500 surnames), but more modern, was compiled in early XXI century, a team of employees of the Department of Etymology and Onomastics of the Institute of the Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences under the leadership of A.F. Zhuravlev.

• The first 25 surnames from this list:

Ivanov, Smirnov, Kuznetsov, Popov, Vasiliev, Petrov, Sokolov, Mikhailov, Novikov, Fedorov, Morozov, Volkov, Alekseev, Lebedev, Semyonov, Egorov, Pavlov, Kozlov, Stepanov, Nikolaev, Orlov, Andreev, Makarov, Nikitin, Zakharov

Curious origin and meaning of some of them

The most common surname in Russia is Ivanov.

Initially, this is a patronymic from the form Ivan from the male name John. Ivanov is a primordially Russian surname, since the derivative name was in use for several centuries, among the peasantry it captured literally all men.

IN Russian capital now there are thousands of Ivanovs, among them there are even Ivan Ivanovichs. And this is despite the fact that the name Ivanov is not very typical for Moscow. But it is common in major centers. However, in some areas its absence, although not complete, is due to the fact that the name Ivan was used in other forms, patronymics from which they became the progenitors of surnames.

There are over a hundred of these forms. For example, the surname Ivin can be attributed here, since almost all Ivins got their surname not from the name of the Iva tree, but from Iva, a diminutive form of the popular male name. Another form of the name is Ivsha. Also diminutive forms Ivan - Ishko and Itsko. The latter is more characteristic of Smolensk dialects or Belarusian language. Ishko is a South Russian dialect or Ukrainian language.

Also, the ancient forms of the name Ivan are Ishunya and Ishuta. Former surname Ivanov used with an emphasis on the letter a. Now more often the stress is placed on the last syllable. It is worth noting that some carriers of this surname often insist on the accent on a. This seems to them nobler than the second pronunciation.

In Moscow, the number of Ivanovs is relatively small. Much more of them live in regional centers. It is also necessary to note a huge number of forms of this surname: Ivanchikov, Ivankovy and many others. By the way, other surnames were formed in exactly the same way, which have names at their core: Sidorovs, Egorovs, Sergeevs, Semenovs and many others.

No less common is the surname Smirnov.

Only in Moscow there are about seventy thousand owners of such a surname. Why so much? Everything is simple. Previously, in a large family, peasant parents sighed with relief if quiet, not noisy children were born. This is a rather rare quality and is captured in the name of Smyrna. It, therefore, was often the main name of a person in life, since the church name was immediately forgotten.

The Smirnovs came from the Smirnys. Researchers note that this is the most common surname over a vast territory that covers the entire Northern Volga region, but most often the Smirnovs are found in the Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Ivanovo and neighboring regions. When moving away from this zone, the surname is less common. The earliest references to this surname refer to the Vladimir tithe, when the following was written on birch bark: “Ivan Smirnov, son of Samarin” or “Stepan, the humble son of the Kuchuks.” Gradually, the noun meek changed the emphasis. In addition to the familiar surname, there are other derivatives that are less common, these are Smirenkin, Smirnitsky, Sminin, Smirensky.

It should also be added that the surname Smirnov is the ninth among the most common in the world. Today it is worn by more than 2.5 million people. In Russia, most people have such a surname in the Volga region and the central regions: Kostroma, Ivanovo and Yaroslavl.

The surname Kuznetsov is the third most popular

It is easy to guess that the surname came from the kind of human activity. In ancient times, the blacksmith was quite respected and wealthy man. Moreover, blacksmiths were often considered almost sorcerers and were a little afraid. Still: this man knew the secrets of fire, he could make a plow, a sword or a horseshoe out of a piece of ore.

The surname Kuznetsov comes from the naming of his father by occupation. The blacksmith used to be necessary and famous person in their village, therefore they called such a surname everywhere. By the way, there are thousands of Kuznetsovs in Moscow, however, they are inferior in number to the Ivanovs.

Most often, the surname was found in Penza province. Well, in general, throughout the country, the distribution of the Kuznetsovs is limited due to the use of the Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian dialects, but from the west to the south-west the surname with the basis "blacksmith" still spreads. It is worth noting that other peoples also have very frequent surnames, where the base means "blacksmith". The British have the surname Smith, and the Germans have Schmidt.

Here it is worth noting such a fairly common Russian surname as Kovalev. Although the words "koval" in Russian literary language and no. But in Ukraine and in the south of Russia, a blacksmith was called that.

But Kuznechikhin and Kovalikhin are formed from the name of a woman - the wife of a blacksmith. Kovankov and Kovalkov are Russified Belarusian and Ukrainian surnames. The names of birds and animals are also one of the sources of surnames and nicknames.

The origin of the surname is quite obvious - Popov.

Initially, Popov meant "son of a priest", "son of Pop". And here it is worth noting that not all Popovs or Popkovs are descendants of priests. Pop (or Popko) as a personal name was quite common among the laity. Religious parents gladly named their children Popili and Popko. However, sometimes the name Popov was given to an employee of the priest, a farm laborer.

This surname is common especially in the north of Russia. The calculation of the Popovs showed that in the Arkhangelsk province quite often there is a person with such a surname per thousand people.

Thousands of Popovs and in the Russian capital. Researchers suggest that in the north of Russia the surname spread due to the fact that the election of the clergy there, including priests, took place among the inhabitants.

The basis of the surname Vasiliev was the church name Vasily.

The male baptismal name Vasily goes back to Greek word basileus - "ruler, king." Among the patrons of the name are the holy martyr Basil the Athenian, the holy martyr of the 4th century Basil of Ankiria, the Novgorod saint Basil the Blessed, who performed the feat of foolishness and tirelessly denounced lies and hypocrisy.

It should be noted that surnames formed from full form name, had mainly the social elite, nobility, or families who enjoyed great authority in the area, whose representatives the neighbors respectfully called full name, in contrast to people from other classes, who were called, as a rule, diminutive, derivative, everyday names.

In addition, some Vasilievs have noble origin. In the history of Russia there are several noble families Vasiliev.

No less interesting is the origin of the surname - Petrov.

The surname Petrov goes back to the canonical male name Peter (translated from other Greek - “stone, rock”). Peter was one of the apostles of Christ, he founded christian church and was considered a very strong patron for a person.

The surname Petrov is one of the 10 most frequent in Russia (in some territories up to 6-7 people per thousand).

The name Peter became especially widespread in the 18th century, when this name began to be given in honor of Emperor Peter I. Surnames formed from the full form of the name had mainly the social elite, to know, or families that enjoyed great authority in the area, whose representatives were respectfully neighbors called by the full name, in contrast to other classes, which were called, as a rule, diminutive, derivative, everyday names.

The patron of the name Peter was a Christian saint, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ - Peter. In Catholicism, it is believed that the apostle Peter was the first bishop of Rome, that is, the first pope. He was canonized in both the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

In Rome, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul was introduced, as the two most revered apostles, called the chief holy apostles for their especially zealous service to the Lord and the spread of the faith of Christ.

In Rus', they believed that if you give a child the name of a saint or great martyr, then his life will be bright, good or difficult, because there is invisible connection between the name and destiny of a person. Peter, eventually received the name Petrov.

The surname Mikhailov is no less popular.

The basis of the surname was church name Michael. The male baptismal name Michael, translated from Hebrew, means "equal, like God." The surname Mikhailov was based on his old everyday form - Mikhailo.

Among the patrons of this name is the most revered biblical character. The Revelation of John the Theologian tells of the heavenly battle of the archangel Michael and his angels with the seven-headed and ten-horned dragon, as a result of which the great dragon, the ancient serpent, called the devil and Satan, was cast down to earth.

Also in Russia, surnames have always been popular, which were based on the name of birds and animals. Medvedevs, Volkovs, Skvortsovs, Perepelkins - this list is endless. Among the first hundred most common Russian surnames"Beasts" are very common.

According to researchers, Russian surnames are more often associated with birds than with animals or fish. This is partly justified by the cult of birds among Russians.

However, on the other hand, the main reason is not in the cult of birds, but in the everyday and economic role of birds in the life of a Russian person: this is a wide industrial hunting, and poultry farming, which was noted in every family, and much more.

Among the "bird" the most common surname in Russia is Sokolov.

This patronymic is from the non-church Russian male name Sokol. According to some estimates, in St. Petersburg, the surname ranked 7th in frequency, and of the surnames that were formed from non-canonical names, Sokolov was second only to Smirnov.

However, given surname, as mentioned above, appeared not only thanks to the name of the bird, but also thanks to the old Russian name. In honor of the beautiful and proud bird, parents often gave their sons the name Falcon. It was one of the most common non-church names. In general, it should be noted that the Russians very often used the names of birds to create names. Some scientists even believe that this is due to the cult of birds that our ancestors had.

"Bird" surname Lebedev

Another "bird" surname that made our list. Researchers argue about its origin. most plausible version The appearance of the surname Lebedev is its origin from the non-church name Lebed.

Some scientists associate this surname with the city, which is located in the Sumy region.

There is a version that connects the origin of this surname with a special group of people - "swans". These are serfs who were supposed to deliver swans to the princely table. Such was special kind tribute.

It is possible that this surname arose due to the admiration of a person for this beautiful bird.

There is another theory regarding the surname Lebedev: it is believed that it was given to priests because of the euphony.

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About 7 billion people live on our planet. There are many names and

surnames that were formed over the centuries by our ancestors. Have you ever wondered what are the most common surnames? In this article we present a selection of the most around the world and in Russia.

Common Russian surnames

Surely you would be interested to know what is the most common Russian surname? Unfortunately, this question cannot be answered unambiguously. Let's just say there are quite a few of them. The list below is based on the book "Russian Surnames" by B.G. Unbegaun, published in 1972. Before compiling this list, the author of the book studied the St. Petersburg address book of 1910 and analyzed all the names of that time presented in it. So, before you are the 100 most common Russian surnames.

Please note that the names are listed alphabetically, not by importance. If you read the list, you probably noticed in it the names of German origin - Schultz, Schmitt, Miller. By their presence, one can judge ethnic composition that time.

World surnames
Now let's look at the most common surnames in the world. The first place is occupied by the surname Lee (about 100 million people worldwide, and the most famous of them is Bruce Lee). The second place is the surname Zhang, which also has about 100 million inhabitants. Third place - Van. It is used as a prefix to Belgian and (eg Jean Claude Van Damme). The fourth place in the list "The most common surnames" belongs to the surname Nguyen (about 36 million people). Fifth place - Garcia (it is worn by about 10 million people).

It is most prevalent in countries South America, Philippines and Spain. Sixth place - Gonzalez (10 million people). This surname is from Spain. Seventh place belongs to the surname Hernandez (8 million people), which has Spanish-Portuguese roots. Eighth place - Smith (4 million people). The ninth place is occupied by the Russian surname Smirnov. Closes the top ten rating "The most common surnames" - German surname Muller.

We are used to the fact that every person has a surname. And are there exceptions? Are there many surnames in the world? When and where did the very first appear? Which of them are the most popular all over the world and in individual countries? If you are interested in the answers to these questions, read about everything in order in the article.

Inheritance from ancestors is different

Now it is impossible to imagine a person without a surname. However, there are such people. For example, in Iceland people manage only with a personal name and patronymic (patronymic). And at the beginning of the XX century. in this country, even a law was issued prohibiting native Icelanders from having a surname. Since then, only foreigners or those with foreign roots have it. In addition, residents of the underdeveloped states of Africa and Asia do not have surnames; nicknames are used there to distinguish them. In the rest of the world, people have long been accustomed to using generic names and cannot imagine their life without them. Over time, the most common and popular surnames stood out. And some, on the contrary, have become rare and outlandish.

Comes from antiquity

The origin of this specific generic name dates back to ancient rome. latin word familia means "family" or "genus". In Rus', such self-names appeared in the XIV century. and gradually replaced personal nicknames. In any country, noble persons received the first surnames, and then the tradition passed to other classes, gradually reaching the lowest.

Reflecting the characteristics of a particular language and culture, there are many different surnames in the world. It is difficult to calculate how many of them there are in the world, but the most popular surnames can be distinguished. If you look at this rating, you get the impression: the shorter, the more popular. The top four lines are occupied by Asian generic names, because often popular surnames were formed from hieroglyphs.

Top five most

First place - Lee (Lee, Li, Ly). According to unofficial statistics, more than 100 million people in the world wear it. Most of them live in China, Vietnam and Korea, but there are many Europeans and Americans among them who inherited this generic name from some ancestor.

In second place in the ranking of "The most popular surnames" - Chang (Chang, Zhang). This Chinese surname appeared more than 4 thousand years ago, and during this time has become one of the most common in Asia and around the world. She has variants of Zhang and Chen.

Third place - Wang (or Wong, written in Latin Wang). Like many popular surnames, it originated in China. There is nothing surprising here, if we remember that about one and a half billion of the population of our planet are Chinese by nationality. And since Chinese surnames there are only 450, it becomes clear why some of them are so often repeated.

Fourth place - the Vietnamese surname Nguyen (Nguyen). It is so common that in Vietnam itself 40% of citizens wear it. This is hard to imagine in a European country.

The second top five

Fifth place - Garcia. This one is heard by many. It is extremely popular in Spain itself, as well as in South America, Cuba and the Philippines.

Sixth place - Gonzalez (or Gonzalez). Another very common surname in the Hispanic world.

Seventh place - Hernandez. Formed in the 15th century, this generic name is now worn by residents of Spain, Chile, Mexico, the USA and some other countries.

The last three popular surnames in the global top ten come from English, Russian and German.

Eighth place - Smith. This is the most common surname in England, Australia and the USA. Translated into Russian, it means "blacksmith".

Many popular ones are associated with the names of professions. For example: Potter ("potter"), Miller ("miller"), Baker ("baker"), Cook ("cook"), Ward ("guard"), Butler ("butler"), etc. The names of paints were no less often the source from which came such popular English surnames as Brown ("brown"), White ("white"), Green ("green"), Gray ("gray"), Black ("black"), etc. d.

Ninth place - Smirnov. There are several versions of the origin of this surname. According to one of them, it comes from the word "quiet", and according to the other - from the old Russian greeting: "With the new world!". Just like the British, popular surnames in Russia are often formed from the names of the first professions: Kuznetsov, Melnikov, Goncharov, Popov, Stolyarov.

Tenth place in the world ranking - Muller. This is also a “professional” generic name: in German it means “miller”. This surname is common in all countries speaking this language: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg.

Studying surnames is an exciting activity and also one of the ways to immerse yourself in the language and culture of a particular country.

Today it is impossible to imagine life modern man no surname. It connects people with family members and the whole family. This is how the ancestors who lived hundreds of years ago designated themselves. There are many surnames in Russia that came from the distant past, but there are also more common ones.

Origin of Russian surnames

In Rus', initially there were no surnames. What in the annals looked like a generic name had a completely different meaning. For example, Ivan Petrov meant Ivan the son of Peter. The most common forms that were encountered (Chobot, Shemyaka, Ghoul) were nicknames that were given for some personal qualities to a person or for his profession. They were individual and did not pass by inheritance to descendants.

The history of the origin of surnames among the upper class referred to places of residence or to belonging and princely (royal) family. So, the princes Vyazemsky were called because of the possessions that were in the city of Vyazma, Rzhevsky - because of the city of Rzhev and so on. The formation of nominal families in Russia began with a change in endings, prefixes, suffixes, or due to the connection of the root system with the name or nickname of the founder of the genus.

The process of formation of the boyar dynasties is perfectly illustrated by the history of the royal family of the Romanovs, whose ancestors lived in the XIV century. The founder was Andrey Koshka Kobylin, and his descendants were called Koshkins. One of the children of Kobylin's grandson began to be called Zakharyin-Koshkin, and the latter's son was named Roman. Then Nikita Romanovich was born, whose children and grandchildren were already called Romanovs. Until now, this is a common Russian surname.

When did they appear

The first naming of an entire family in Rus' took place in the 15th century. The sources, as already mentioned, were the profession of the ancestor, the name of the craft or the geographical name. First, the upper classes received generic names, and the poor and peasants acquired them last, since they were serfs. The emergence of surnames in Russia foreign origin for the first time fell on the nobles, immigrants from Greek, Polish or Lithuanian families.

IN XVII century Western pedigrees were added to them, such as the Lermontovs, the Fonvizins. Generic names from Tatar immigrants are Karamzins, Akhmatovs, Yusupovs and many others. The most common dynasty in Russia at that time was the Bakhteyarovs, which were worn by the Rurik princes from the Rostov branch. Also in fashion were the Beklemishevs, whose name was the boyar of Vasily I Fedor Elizarovich.

During this period, the peasants had only patronymics or nicknames. Documents of that time had such entries: "Danilo Soplya, peasant" or "Efimko son Crooked cheeks, landowner." Only in the north of the country did peasant men have real pedigree names, since the Novgorod lands serfdom did not spread.

The most common families of free peasants are Lomonosov, Yakovlev. Peter the Great by his decree in 1719 officially introduced documents - travel letters, which contained the name, nickname, place of residence and other information. From this year, the dynasties of merchants, employees, clergy, and subsequently, from 1888, among the peasants, began to be fixed.

What is the most common Russian surname

Beautiful, and therefore popular even now, surnames were given to representatives of the clergy. The basis was the name of the church or parish. Prior to this, priests were called simply: Father Alexander or Father Fedor. After that, they were given generic names such as Uspensky, Blagoveshchensky, Pokrovsky, Rozhdestvensky. Non-church common dynasties in Russia are associated with the names of cities - Bryantsev, Moskvichev, Tambovtsev, Smolyaninov. Successful seminary graduates were given beautiful names Diamonds, Dobrolyubov, Pharaohs, who are still successful.

For men

of great importance for modern people has a good last name. Popular among men are the names of the genus, which have semantic load. For example, the names of descendants recognized by all, derived from the professional nickname Bondarchuk (cooper), Kuznetsov (blacksmith), Bogomazov (icon painter), Vinokur (manufacturer of alcoholic beverages).

Interesting Russian male surnames have a loud and sonorous pronunciation - Pobedonostsev, Dobrovolsky, Tsezarev. Beautiful and now popular Russian generic names come from nominal origin - Mikhailov, Vasiliev, Sergeev, Ivanov. No less successful, which are based on the names of birds and animals, Lebedev, Volkov, Kotov, Belkin, Orlov, Sokolov. Trees and shrubs also left their mark. Popular families are formed from the names of plants - Kornev, Berezkin, Malinin, Oaks.

Women's

As history tells, female generic names were formed in the same way as male ones - through prefixes and suffixes. The most famous Russian surnames for girls come from proper names, the names of animals, birds. They sound great - Morozova, Vorontsova, Arakcheeva, Muravyov-Apostol and others. The list of pedigrees for girls descended from representatives of flora and fauna sounds no less beautiful - Strizhenov, Medvedev, Vorontsov, Vorobyov.

No less popular, formed from deep semantic meaning with an emphasis on the first syllable: Slavic, Wise, Generous, Motherland. Perfectly heard and pronounced - Popova, Novikova, Svetlova, Lavrova, Teplova. Among foreign generic names, there are also a large number of beautiful ones:

• German: Lehmann, Werner, Braun, Weber;
• English: Mills, Ray, Taylor, Stone, Grant;
• Polish: Yaguzhinskaya, Koval, Vitkovskaya, Troyanovskaya;
• Belarusian: Larchenko, Polyanskaya, Ostrovskaya, Belskaya;
• Bulgarian: Toneva, Blagoeva, Angelova, Dimitrova.

The most famous Russian surnames

Researchers of the statistics of Russian hereditary names argue that they often originate from populated regions, holy holidays or parents' names. Sometimes surnames were given in a noble-landlord environment by truncating full family names, and assigned them, as a rule, to an illegitimate child. Among them: Temkin (Potemkin), Betskoy (Trubetskoy), Pnin (Repnin). IN modern Russia the most famous families of hereditary artists: Bondarchuk, Tabakov, Mashkov, Mikhalkov.

List of the most common surnames in Russia

Based on the results of many years of research, scientists compiled a list of 500 generic names common in Russia. The ten most popular included:

1. Smirnov. There is no unequivocal opinion about the origin. Offered different versions from the acquaintance of backward peasants with the “new world”, to being tied to the name Smirna, which in Rus' characterized a complaisant and peaceful person. More likely is the version based on naming people who are humble before God by this name.
2. Ivanov. It is not difficult to guess that the origin is associated with the Russian name Ivan, popular at all times.
3. Kuznetsov. He is the most respected among the village men. In every village, the blacksmith was held in high esteem and had big family, the male part of which was provided with work until the end of days. In the dialects of the western and southern regions of Russia, the word koval is present instead of a blacksmith, therefore one of the transformations of Kuznetsov is Kovalev.
4. Vasiliev. Although Vasily modern world children are not often called, the surname is firmly entrenched in the top ten most common.
5. Novikov. Popularity is due to the fact that every newcomer or newcomer was previously called Novik. This nickname passed to his descendants.
6. Yakovlev. Derived from a popular male name. Jacob is the secular counterpart of the church name Jacob.
7. Popov. Initially, this nickname was given to the son of a priest or worker (farm laborer) of a clergyman.
8. Fedorov. The basis was male name, very common in Rus'. The same roots have the surname Khodorov on behalf of Hodor.
9. Kozlov. Before the introduction of Christianity, the Slavs were pagans, so naming a person by the name of a plant or animal was a tradition. The goat has always been considered a symbol of fertility and vitality, therefore, among the Slavs it is a favorite fairy tale character. The animal became a symbol of the devil after the advent of Christianity.
10. Morozov. Also a non-church common name in Rus'. Former name Frost was given to an infant born in winter. This is the image of a hero who has unlimited power in the cold season.

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