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 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).
Estonians have a 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). 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). (via)
It's amazing how many differences there are between last names. different nationalities and peoples!
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 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 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). 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!
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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 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!
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More and more often you can hear the opinion that native Russian surnames have the following suffixes: -ov, -ev, -in, -yn.
Where did the surnames with the suffixes -ov and -ev come from?
According to statistics, about 60% of the Russian population have surnames with the suffixes -ov and -ev. Such surnames are considered originally Russian, suggesting that they are of ancestral 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 based on oldest man in the family. So, not only the sons, but also the grandchildren and great-grandsons of Peter became Petrovs.
To diversify surnames, they began to be given based on nicknames. Thus, the descendants of Beloborodov also received the surname Beloborodov, passing it on to their descendants from generation to generation.
They began to give surnames depending on the person’s occupation. That's why 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.
Where did the surnames with the suffixes -in and -yn come from?
About 30% of the Russian population 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 -a and -ya.
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.” That's pretty much how they formed popular surnames- Nikitin, Ilyin, Fomin and many others.
Also, some surnames indicate that a person’s ancestors belonged to a particular profession. For example, the surname Rogozhin indicates that a person’s ancestors traded matting or were engaged in its production.
It cannot be stated with absolute certainty, because even now many disputes continue, but it is assumed that the surnames Pushkin, Gagarin, Zimin, Korovin, Ovechkin, Borodin also came from the names of things, phenomena, animals or professions.
Still, experts say that you first need to find out what word underlies the surname, and only then can you talk about professional occupations or nicknames of distant ancestors from whom the surname came.
How well do you know your ancestry? Write in the comments what word your last name comes from.
Last name is the family name that a person receives by inheritance. Many people for a long time live and don’t even think about what their last name means. Thanks to the surname, you can not only determine who your great-grandfathers were, but also determine the nationality of its owner. In this article we will try to figure out what 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 you can identify the determination of origin by the endings of surnames.
Last name endings
Using certain endings, you can find out what nationality a surname belongs to:
- The British. It is very difficult to identify specific endings that indicate the English. Mostly surnames are derived from English words, indicating the place of residence: Wales, Scott, or the person’s profession: Smith - blacksmith, Cook - cook.
- Armenians. Most Armenian surnames end in - yang: Aleksanyan, Burinyan, Galustyan.
- Belarusians. Belarusian surnames end in -ich, -chik, -ka, -ko: Tyshkevich, Fedorovich, Glushko, Vasilka, Gornachenok.
- Georgians. It is very easy to identify a person of Georgian nationality; their surnames end in - shvili, - dze, - a, - ua, - ni, - li, - si: Gergedava, Geriteli, Dzhugashvili.
- Jews. If the surname contains the root Levi or Cohen, then its owner belongs to Jewish nationality: Levitan, Koganovich. But you can also find surnames with endings - ich, - man, -er: Kogenman, Kaganer.
- The Spaniards and Portuguese have surnames with the endings - ez, - iz, - az, - iz, oz: Gonzalez, Gomez, Torres. There are also surnames that indicate a person’s character: Alegre - joyful, Malo - bad.
- Italians. If we talk about Italians, their surnames end in - ini, - ino, - illo, - etti, - etto, - ito: Puccini, Brocchi, Marchetti. The prefix di and da can indicate that the genus belongs to a certain territory: da Vinci.
- Germans. German surnames generally end in - man, - er and they indicate the person’s occupation (Becker - baker, Lehmann - landowner, Koch - cook) or contain some characteristic (Klein - small).
- Poles. Surnames ending in - sk; - tsk; -y indicate that a person (or his ancestors) belongs to the Polish nationality: Godlewski, Ksieszynski, Kalnitski, 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 derived from the name of the family’s locality: White Lake - Belozersky.
- Ukrainians. The endings that indicate that a person belongs to Ukrainian nationality include: - ko, - uk/yuk, - un, -niy/ny, - tea, - ar, - a: Tereshchenko, Karpyuk, Tokar, Gonchar, Peaceful. Surnames mainly indicate the family's affiliation with a particular 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 on the history of their origin and transformation as a result of long-term use in the source language.
