Suffixes of surnames of different nations. How to find out nationality by last name? I didn't think it was so interesting

Many Russians have a firm and unfounded belief that surnames in -skiy are certainly Polish. From history textbooks, the names of several Polish magnates are known, derived from the names of their estates: Potocki and Zapotocki, Zablocki, Krasinski. But from the same textbooks the surnames of many Russians with the same suffixes are known: Konstantin Grigorievich Zabolotsky, okolnichy of Tsar John III, late 15th - early 16th centuries; clerk Semyon Zaborovsky, early 16th century; boyars Shuisky and Belsky, close associates of Ivan the Terrible. Famous Russian artists are Levitsky, Borovikovsky, Makovsky, Kramskoy.

An analysis of modern Russian surnames shows that forms in -sky (-tskiy) exist in parallel with variants in -ov (-ev, -in), but there are fewer of them. For example, in Moscow in the 70s of the twentieth century, for every 330 people with the surname Krasnov/Krasnova, there were only 30 with the surname Krasnovsky/Krasnovskaya. But enough rare surnames Kuchkov and Kuchkovsky, Makov and Makovsky are represented almost equally.

A significant proportion of surnames ending in -sky/-skaya, -tsky/-tskaya, derived from geographical and ethnic names. In letters from our readers who want to know about the origin of their surnames, the following surnames are mentioned: -sky / -tsky.

Brynsky. The author of this letter, Evgeniy Sergeevich Brynsky, himself sent the history of his surname. We present only a small fragment from the letter, since it is not possible to publish it in its entirety. Bryn- river Kaluga region, flows into the Oka Zhizdra tributary. In the old days, large dense Bryn forests stretched along it, in which the Old Believers took refuge. According to the epic about Ilya Muromets, it was in the Bryn forests that the Nightingale the Robber lived. Let us add that there are several settlements of Bryn in the Kaluga and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. Surname found in Poland Brynski/Brynska formed from the name of two settlements Brynsk in different parts country and also, apparently, goes back to the names of the rivers Bryn and Brynitsa. There is no uniform interpretation of the names of these rivers in science. If a suffix is ​​added to the name of a populated place -ets, then such a word means a native of this place. In Crimea in the 60s - 70s of the 20th century, the winegrower was well known Maria Bryntseva. Her surname is derived from the word brynets, that is, a native of the city or village of Bryn.

Garbavitsky. This Belarusian surname corresponds to Russian Gorbovitsky(V Belarusian language in place of the unstressed one O letter is written A). The surname is derived from the name of a settlement Gorbovitsy. In the materials available to us there is only Gorbov, Gorbovo And Gorbovtsy. All these names come from the designations of the terrain: hump- a hillock, a sloping hill.

Dubovskaya. The surname is derived from the name of one of the many settlements: Dubovka, Dubovo, Dubovoe, Dubovskaya, Dubovsky, Dubovskoe, Dubovtsy located in all parts of the country. It is possible to find out from which one exactly, only from the information preserved in the family, where the ancestors who received this surname lived, or where they came from to their future place of residence. The emphasis in the surname is on "O": Dubovsky/Dubovskaya.

Steblivsky. Ukrainian surname corresponding to Russian - Steblevsky; derived from the names of populated places Steblevka Transcarpathian region or Steblev- Cherkasy. In Ukrainian spelling, in place of the second e is written i.

Tersky. The surname comes from the name of the river Terek and indicates that one of the distant ancestors of this person lived there. Were Terek region And Terek Cossacks. So the bearers of the surname Tersky may also be descendants of the Cossacks.

Uriansky. The surname, apparently, is derived from the name of the locality Urya. In our materials, this name is recorded in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Perhaps there are similar names in other places, since the name of the populated place is associated with the name of the river and with the designation ethnic group ur, as well as with the name of the medieval Turkic people Urianka. Similar names could be found in different places, as medieval peoples led nomadic image life and assigned the name of their ethnic group to those places where they stayed for a long time.

Chiglinsky. The surname comes from the name of the settlement Chigla Voronezh region, which appears to be related to the designation of a union of medieval Turkic tribes Chigili.

Shabansky. The surname is derived from the names of the settlements Shabanovo, Shabanovskoye, Shabanskoye located in different parts of the country. These names come from the Turkic name Shaban Arabic origin. IN Arabic sha"ban- name of the eighth month lunar calendar. The name Shaban is also attested in Russian peasant families in the XV-XVII centuries. In parallel with this, an orthographic variant was noted in the Russian language Shiban- obviously, by analogy with Russian knock, knock. In the records of 1570-1578, Prince Ivan Andreevich is mentioned Shiban Dolgoruky; in 1584 - stirrup grooms for Tsar Theodore Ioannovich Osip Shiban and Danilo Shikhman Ermolaevich Kasatkin. The servant of Prince Kurbsky was called Vasily Shibanov- executed by Ivan the Terrible in 1564.

In addition, the name of the ethnic group is known Siberian Tatars Xibans and the generic name of the Crimean Tatars Shibanskie Murza. In the Perm region there is locality Shibanovo, and in Ivanovskaya - Shibanikha.

This is how different types of proper names are closely related to each other: personal names, geographical and ethnic names, as well as surnames.

You will need

• A sheet of paper, a pen, the ability to do morphemic parsing of a word, an etymological dictionary of the Russian language, a dictionary foreign words.

Instructions

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 will help you determine which family name your family belongs to.

Pay attention to the suffix. Since in Russian more often than others foreign names occur, 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, distant relatives should be searched on the territory of Ukraine.

Look at the root of the word if the suffix does not answer the question of what nationality your last name is. Often its basis is one or another object, animal,... As an example, we can cite the surname Gonchar, the Ukrainian Gorobets (translated as Sparrow), the Jewish Rabin ("rabbi").

Count the number of roots in a word. Sometimes the surname consists of two words. For example, Ryabokon, Beloshtan, Krivonos. Similar surnames refer to Slavic peoples(Russians, Belarusians, Poles, etc.), but are also found in other languages.

Evaluate your surname from the point of view of belonging to the Jewish people. Common Jewish surnames contain the roots “Levi” and “Cohen”, found in the surnames Levitan, Levin, Kogan, Katz. Their owners descended from ancestors who were clergy. There are also surnames that came from male (Moses, Solomon) or female names (Rivkin, Beilis), or were formed from a merger male name and suffix (Abrahams, Jacobson, Mandelstam).

Remember, does Tatar blood flow in your veins? If your surname consists of a combination of words and suffixes “in”, “ov” or “ev”, then the answer is obvious - there were . This is especially clearly seen in the example of such names as Bashirov, Turgenev, Yuldashev.

Determine which language the surname belongs to, based on the following clues:
- if it has the prefix “de” or “le”, look for roots in France;
- if the surname sounds like 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 derived from profession (Schmidt), nickname (Klein), name (Peters);
- Polish surnames can be recognized based on the sound - Kowalczyk, Sienkiewicz.
Look in a dictionary of foreign words if you have difficulty assigning a surname to a particular language.

Video on the topic

note

If your surname is of Jewish origin, it can be used to determine the territory where your ancestors lived. Thus, Slavic Jews bear the surnames Davidovich, Berkovich, Rubinchik. They sound very similar to Russian patronymics and diminutive names of objects. The surnames of Polish Jews differ in their suffixes. For example, Padva.

Helpful advice

To compose family tree or find distant relatives, but not make a mistake in interpreting the surname by nationality, you 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 surnames derived from it are found among Russians, Mari, Mordvins, Chuvash - Ivanaev, Vankin, Ivashkin, Ivakin, etc. Therefore, do not be 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 (Latin familia - family). Last name is given name clan community - united primary social units connected by blood ties. How do the names of surnames arise, what is the principle of the formation of Russian surnames, in particular, surnames starting 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 the lands under its jurisdiction. Chronicle evidence draws our attention to this fact, telling about the Battle of the Neva in 1240.

Later, in the 14th – 15th centuries, princes began to acquire family names. Called by the name of the inheritance they owned, having lost it, the princes began to reserve its name for themselves and their descendants as a family name. This is how the Vyazemsky (Vyazma), Shuisky (Shuya) and other noble families appeared. At the same time, they began to take hold, originating from the nicknames: Lykovs, Gagarins, Gorbatovs.

Boyarsky and then noble families, due to their lack of inheritance status, were formed largely from nicknames. The formation of a surname on behalf of the ancestor has also become widespread. A striking example of the family that reigned in Russia is the Romanovs.

Romanovs

The ancestors of this ancient boyar family were ancestors who wore different time nicknames: Mare, Koshka Kobylin, Koshkins. The son of Zakhary Ivanovich Koshkin, Yuri Zakharovich, was already called by his father and by his nickname - Zakharyin-Koshkin. In turn, his son, Roman Yuryevich, bore the surname Zakharyev-Yuryev. The Zakharyins were also the children of Roman Yuryevich, but with their grandchildren (Fyodor Nikitich - Patriarch Filaret), the family continued under the name of the Romanovs. With the surname Romanov, Mikhail Fedorovich was chosen to the royal throne.

Last name as personal identification

The establishment of passports by Peter I in 1719 for ease of collection poll tax and the implementation of the recruitment process gave rise to the spread of surnames for men of all classes, including peasants. At first, along with the name, a patronymic and/or nickname was written in, which then became the owner’s surname.

Formation of Russian surnames into –ov/-ev, -in

The most common Russian surnames are derived 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. In this case, the personal name of the ancestor passed into the category possessive adjectives, formed from the name using 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 surnames of the inhabitants of the Russian Transcaucasus and Central Asia.

There are many misconceptions about the nationality of certain surnames. Thus, some surnames are traditionally considered Jewish, while others are considered Russian. Although this may not be the case.

Myths about Jewish surnames

Thus, any of our compatriots identifies as Jewish surnames Abramovich, Bergman, Ginzburg, Goldman, Zilberman, Katsman, 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 came from. And they can be worn by both Jews and Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians... And surnames such as Preobrazhensky or Rozhdestvensky were given to seminary graduates, most of whom were Russian.

Another mistake is to consider all surnames with the suffixes “-ov” or “-in” to be Russian. In Russia, indeed, most surnames have such suffixes. But they all have different origins: some were given by the names of their parents, others by their professional affiliation, and others by nicknames. During administrative recording of documents, surnames could be “Russified.” So, who would think that the Russian composer Rachmaninoff Jewish roots? But the surname Rachmaninov owes its origin to the Hebrew “Rahman”, which means “merciful” - this is one of the names of God.

What surnames do Jews in Russia have?

Mass emigration of Jews to Russia began during 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 predominantly worn by Jews: Zakharov, Kazakov, Novikov, Polyakov, Yakovlev. This is how it happened historically.

Jewish surnames that we mistake for Russian

Russian Jews were often given surnames based on their professional affiliation or the profession of their parents. So, the Russian surname Shkolnikov seems to come from “schoolboy” (that’s what they called a servant in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church). Many Jews have this surname. The surname Shelomov comes from “shelom”. Its representatives were helmet makers. 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 accustomed to considering the Russian surname Moiseev, but it comes from Jewish name Moses! The same thing with the surname Avdeev. But Abramov is really a Russian surname: in Rus' there was also the name Abram!

The surnames Shapkin, Tryapkin, Portyankin come from Jewish nicknames. Few people think that the Jewish surnames Galkin, Dolin, Kotin, Lavrov, Plotkin, Sechin, Shokhin, Shuvalov are Jewish...

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 rumored that he real name Katz. But in fact, he never changed his last name: Sverdlov is a fairly common last name among Jews.

Have you ever wondered about the origin of your last name? In fact, this is very interesting, because the surname makes it possible to find out a person’s nationality and roots. To figure out what nationality a particular surname belongs to, you need to pay attention to suffixes and endings.

So, the most common suffix Ukrainian surnames- “-enko” (Bondarenko, Petrenko, Timoshenko, Ostapenko). Another group of suffixes is “-eiko”, “-ko”, “-ochka” (Belebeyko, Bobreiko, Grishko). The third suffix is ​​“-ovsky” (Berezovsky, Mogilevsky). Often among Ukrainian surnames you can find those that come from the names of professions (Koval, Gonchar), as well as from combinations of two words (Sinegub, Belogor).

Among Russians surnames The following suffixes are common: “-an”, “-yn”, -“in”, “-skikh”, “-ov”, “-ev”, “-skoy”, “-tskoy”, “-ikh”, “ -s.” It is easy to guess that the following can be considered examples of such surnames: Smirnov, Nikolaev, Donskoy, Sedykh.

Polish surnames most often they have the suffixes “-sk” and “-tsk”, as well as the endings “-iy”, “-aya” (Sushitsky, Kovalskaya, Vishnevsky). You can often find Poles with surnames with an unchangeable form (Sienkiewicz, Wozniak, Mickiewicz).

English surnames often come from the name of the area where a person lives (Scott, Wales), from the names of professions (Smith - blacksmith), from characteristics (Armstrong - strong, Sweet - sweet).

In front of many French surnames there is an insertion “Le”, “Mon” or “De” (Le Germain, Le Pen).

German surnames most often formed from names (Peters, Jacobi, Wernet), from characteristics (Klein - small), from the type of activity (Schmidt - blacksmith, Müller - miller).

Tatar surnames come from Tatar words and the following suffixes: “-ov”, “-ev”, “-in” (Yuldashin, Safin).

Italian surnames are formed using the following suffixes: “-ini”, “-ino”, “-ello”, “-illo”, “-etti”, “-etto”, “-ito” (Moretti, Benedetto).

Majority Spanish and Portuguese surnames come from characteristics (Alegre - joyful, Bravo - brave). Among the endings, the most common are: “-ez”, “-es”, “-az” (Gomez, Lopez).

Norwegian surnames are formed using the suffix “en” (Larsen, Hansen). Surnames without a suffix at all are also popular (Per, Morgen). Surnames are often formed from the given name natural phenomena or animals (Blizzard - blizzard, Svane - swan).

Swedish surnames most often end in “-sson”, “-berg”, “-stead”, “-strom” (Forsberg, Bosstrom).

U Estonians by last name you cannot understand whether a person is masculine or feminine (Simson, Nahk).

U Jewish surnames There are two common roots - Levi and Cohen. Most surnames are formed from male names (Solomon, Samuel). There are also surnames that are formed using suffixes (Abramson, Jacobson).

Belarusian surnames end in “-ich”, “-chik”, “-ka”, “-ko”, “-onak”, “-yonak”, “-uk”, “-ik”, “-ski” (Radkevich, Kuharchik ).

Turkish surnames have the ending “-oglu”, “-ji”, “-zade” (Mustafaoglu, Ekinci).

Almost all Bulgarian surnames formed from names using the suffixes “-ov”, “-ev” (Konstantinov, Georgiev).

Men's Latvian surnames end with “-s”, “-is”, and female ones end with “-e”, “-a” (Shurins - Shurin).

And men's Lithuanian surnames end in “-onis”, “-unas”, “-utis”, “-aytis”, “-ena” (Norvidaitis). Women's endings in “-en”, “-yuven”, “-uven” (Grinyuvene). In surnames unmarried girls contains a part of the father's surname and the suffixes “-ut”, “-polut”, “-ayt”, as well as the ending “-e” (Orbakas - Orbakaite).

Majority Armenian surnames end with the suffix “-yan”, “-yants”, “-uni” (Hakopyan, Galustyan).

Georgian surnames end in “-shvili”, “-dze”, “-uri”, “-ava”, “-a”, “-ua”, “-ia”, “-ni” (Mikadze, Gvishiane).

Greek surnames The endings “-idis”, “-kos”, -“poulos” are inherent (Angelopoulos, Nikolaidis).

Chinese and korean surnames consist of one, sometimes two syllables (Tang Liu, Qiao, Mao).

Japanese surnames are formed using one or two words (Kitamura - north and village).

Feature of women's Czech surnames is the obligatory ending “-ova” (Valdrova, Andersonova).

It's amazing how many differences there are between last names. different nationalities and peoples!

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Have you ever wondered about the origin of your last name? In fact, this is very interesting, because the surname makes it possible to find out a person’s nationality and roots. To figure out what nationality a particular surname belongs to, you need to pay attention to suffixes and endings.
So, the most common suffix Ukrainian surnames- “-enko” (Bondarenko, Petrenko, Timoshenko, Ostapenko). Another group of suffixes is “-eiko”, “-ko”, “-ochka” (Belebeyko, Bobreiko, Grishko). The third suffix is ​​“-ovsky” (Berezovsky, Mogilevsky). Often among Ukrainian surnames you can find those that come from the names of professions (Koval, Gonchar), as well as from combinations of two words (Sinegub, Belogor).
Among Russian surnames The following suffixes are common: “-an”, “-yn”, -“in”, “-skikh”, “-ov”, “-ev”, “-skoy”, “-tskoy”, “-ikh”, “ -s.” It is easy to guess that the following can be considered examples of such surnames: Smirnov, Nikolaev, Donskoy, Sedykh.
Polish surnames most often they have the suffixes “-sk” and “-tsk”, as well as the endings “-iy”, “-aya” (Sushitsky, Kovalskaya, Vishnevsky). You can often find Poles with surnames with an unchangeable form (Sienkiewicz, Wozniak, Mickiewicz).
English surnames often come from the name of the area where a person lives (Scott, Wales), from the names of professions (Smith - blacksmith), from characteristics (Armstrong - strong, Sweet - sweet).
In front of many French surnames there is an insertion “Le”, “Mon” or “De” (Le Germain, Le Pen).
German surnames most often formed from names (Peters, Jacobi, Wernet), from characteristics (Klein - small), from the type of activity (Schmidt - blacksmith, Müller - miller).
Tatar surnames come from Tatar words and the following suffixes: “-ov”, “-ev”, “-in” (Yuldashin, Safin).
Italian surnames are formed using the following suffixes: “-ini”, “-ino”, “-ello”, “-illo”, “-etti”, “-etto”, “-ito” (Moretti, Benedetto).
Majority Spanish and Portuguese surnames come from characteristics (Alegre - joyful, Bravo - brave). Among the endings, the most common are: “-ez”, “-es”, “-az” (Gomez, Lopez).
Norwegian surnames are formed using the suffix “en” (Larsen, Hansen). Surnames without a suffix at all are also popular (Per, Morgen). Surnames are often formed from the names of natural phenomena or animals (Blizzard - blizzard, Svane - swan).
Swedish surnames most often end in “-sson”, “-berg”, “-stead”, “-strom” (Forsberg, Bosstrom).
U Estonians You can’t tell by a surname whether a person is masculine or feminine (Simson, Nahk).
U Jewish surnames There are two common roots - Levi and Cohen. Most surnames are formed from male names (Solomon, Samuel). There are also surnames that are formed using suffixes (Abramson, Jacobson).
Belarusian surnames end in “-ich”, “-chik”, “-ka”, “-ko”, “-onak”, “-yonak”, “-uk”, “-ik”, “-ski” (Radkevich, Kuharchik ).
Turkish surnames have the ending “-oglu”, “-ji”, “-zade” (Mustafaoglu, Ekinci).
Almost all Bulgarian surnames formed from names using the suffixes “-ov”, “-ev” (Konstantinov, Georgiev).
Men's Latvian surnames end with “-s”, “-is”, and female ones end with “-e”, “-a” (Shurins - Shurin).
And men's Lithuanian surnames end in “-onis”, “-unas”, “-utis”, “-aytis”, “-ena” (Norvidaitis). Women's endings in “-en”, “-yuven”, “-uven” (Grinyuvene). The surnames of unmarried girls contain a part of the father’s surname and the suffixes “-ut”, “-polut”, “-ayt”, as well as the ending “-e” (Orbakas - Orbakaite).
Majority Armenian surnames end with the suffix “-yan”, “-yants”, “-uni” (Hakopyan, Galustyan).
Georgian surnames end in “-shvili”, “-dze”, “-uri”, “-ava”, “-a”, “-ua”, “-ia”, “-ni” (Mikadze, Gvishiane).
Greek surnames The endings “-idis”, “-kos”, -“poulos” are inherent (Angelopoulos, Nikolaidis).
Chinese and Korean surnames consist of one, sometimes two syllables (Tang Liu, Qiao, Mao).
Japanese surnames are formed using one or two words (Kitamura - north and village).
Feature of women's Czech surnames is the obligatory ending “-ova” (Valdrova, Andersonova).
It's amazing how many differences there are between the names of different nationalities and peoples!