Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:

Step 5:

Hint

If your surname is of Jewish origin, you can use it to determine the territorial affiliation of your ancestors. Slavic Jews may have surnames Berkovich, Rubinchik, Davidovich. In their sound, they are very similar to Russian patronymics or diminutive names of objects. The surnames of Polish Jews differ in suffixes.

Step 6:

Step 7:

If the surname contains the prefix “de” or “le”, the roots can be looked for in France;

If you can hear in the surname English name territory (for example, Welsh), profession (Carver) or quality of person (Sweet), you could easily have relatives in the UK;

In a relationship German surnames the same rules apply. They are formed from a nickname (Klein), profession (Schmidt), name (Peters);

The origin of a Polish surname can be determined based on its sound - Sienkiewicz, Kowalczyk. If you have any difficulties regarding the relationship of a surname to a particular language, you need to look at the dictionary foreign words.

Hint

In order to find distant relatives or make family tree, but at the same time, to correctly interpret surnames by nationality, you need to rely not only on the suffix and root, but also on the environment of existence. One of the most common names, Ivan, has an ancient Jewish origin, and surnames that are derived from it can be found among Russians, Mordvins, Chuvash, Mari - Ivanaev, Ivashkin, Ivakin, Vankin, etc. That is why you should not be lazy and look into etymological dictionary.

Generic names whose bearers are Jews are called Jewish. They can be divided into several types. The most numerous variant of their formation is considered geographical names. The next type is characteristics or external data of a person. Especially interesting option the emergence of Jewish surnames is an artificial creation.

Jewish names and surnames

The currently popular Israeli names are very diverse. No nation can boast of so many beautiful generic names. AllJewish names and surnamesare unique, and each has its own meaning and origin. The history of most of them fits into only three centuries, because the ancient people were scattered throughout the world and did not need identification and a system for a long time. In Russia, Western and Eastern Europe the process began only after the corresponding laws were adopted at the state level.

Until the 18th century, Jews who lived in Russia and Europe did not have generic names.Origin of Jewish surnamesstarted in Russian Empire, when a law was passed obliging people to have proper gender names. They were created hastily, which explains their diversity in modern world. Officials sometimes came up with a name for a person in their own way, depending on appearance, weather conditions and mood. Sometimes Jews came up with family names on their own. The second option was used by the rich Jewish families, because appropriation cost a lot of money.

Meaning

The names of the male founders of the clan gave rise to many surnames around the world. Often Jews did a simple thing: they took their or their father’s first or patronymic name and made it a nickname. The most common name of the genus is Moses (Moshesa, Moses). In difficult cases, an ending or suffix was added to the proper name: Abrahams, Israels, Samuels. Anothermeaning of Jewish surnames: When they end in “son”/”zon”, the bearer is the son of a particular person. Davidson means he is a descendant of David. Abramson is the son of Abram, Yakobson is the son of Jacob, and Matison is the son of Mathis.

Beautiful Jewish surnames

Jews often pray for their loved ones, calling them by their mother's name. This religious factor played big role is that the ancient people perpetuated both male and female names who performed an important political or economic mission in its history. The mostbeautiful Jewish surnames- these are those that arose on behalf of the mother. And there are many of them:

• Riva – Rivman;
• Gita - Gitis;
• Bayla - Beilis;
• Sarah - Sorison, etc.

As already mentioned, beautiful surnames Jews were created by wealthy representatives ancient people. The dictionary contains many examples. List of the most popular ones in alphabetical order:

• Goldenberg – golden mountain;
• Goldenbloom - golden flower;
• Hartmann is a solid (strong) person;
• Tokman is a persistent person;
• Muterperel - sea pearl;
• Mendel is a comforter;
• Rosenzweig - rose branch;
• Zuckerberg is a sugar mountain.

Popular

The first place in the ranking is occupied by the Rabinovichs and Abramovichs. Not lesspopular Jewish surnameswho have German roots - Katzman, Urgant, Bleistein, Brull. Family names associated with religion are also often found among Jews: Shulman (synagogue minister), Soifer (text writer), Levi (priest assistant), Cohen (priest). In the list of popular genus names, the third ones are those that are formed on a professional basis:

• Kravets (tailor);
• Melamed (teacher);
• Shuster (shoemaker);
• Kramer (shopkeeper);
• Shelomov (helmet maker).

funny

As modern Jews joke: “Funny Jewish surnamesunder certain circumstances can be formed from any word in the dictionary.” Subject names of the genus include such as Hat, Rag, Footcloth, Starch, Peat. Mothballs, Medallion, Barrier, Penthouse, Sole, Nagler are considered cool. The list is complemented by funny generic names related to flora and fauna: Gelding, Lysobyk, Tarantula, Haidak (microbe).

Russian Jewish surnames

On the territory of Russia, mass emigration of Jews occurred after the annexation of Poland during the reign of Catherine II. Trying to infiltrate society, representatives of the ancient people sometimes took Russian generic names for themselves. Usually,Jewish surnames in Russiaended in “ovich”, “ov”, “on”, “ik”, “sky”: Medinsky, Sverdlov, Novik, Kaganovich.

Common

Jewish immigrants chose their generic names based on the city, region or country from which they came. This distinguished them from other members of the community for identification purposes. Stillcommon Jewish surnamescorrespond to the place of residence of their ancestors, for example, Poznery, Warsaw, Byaloblotsky, Urdominsky. Another row consists of frequently heard generic names, which are derived from male personal names: Yakubovich, Levkovich.

Famous

Currently, many Jews occupy prestigious positions in Russian politics and show business.Famous Jewish surnamesamong politicians: Avdeev, Lavrov, Dvorkovich, Shuvalov, Sechin, Shokhin, Sobchak. The list can be continued for a very long time, because it started a long time ago, with V.I. coming to power. Lenin, who did not hide his Jewish origin. Today, according to unofficial data, the number of Jews in the Russian government is 70%. On Russian stage Many of our favorite musicians are also representatives of the ancient people:

• Varum;
• Agutin;
• Linnik;
• Galkin;
• Gazmanov;
• Milyavskaya;
• Valley (Kudelman);
• Moiseev and many others.

Video

You will need

• A sheet of paper, a pen, the ability to do morphemic analysis of a word, an etymological dictionary of the Russian language, a dictionary of 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, you should look for distant relatives 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 belong 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 the merger of a male name and a 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 contains the prefix “de” or “le”, look for roots in France;
- if the surname contains the English name of the territory (for example, Welsh), the quality of a person (Sweet) or profession (Carver), relatives should be looked for 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 of your ancestors. 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 create a family tree or find distant relatives, but not make a mistake in interpreting a 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 in to a greater extent from nicknames. The formation of a surname on behalf of the ancestor has also become widespread. Bright to that the reigning family in Russia - 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 and was chosen for royal throne Mikhail Fedorovich.

Last name as personal identification

The establishment of passports by Peter I in 1719 for the convenience of collecting poll taxes and carrying out recruitment 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. At the same time, the personal name of the ancestor became a possessive adjective, 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.