Surnames, just like given names, in ancient times always carried a certain meaning - they provided additional important information about the origin of each individual person: what family he is from, what class he belongs to, what craft he or his relatives do...
Common Ukrainian surnames are no exception to this. As soon as we start talking about Ukrainian surnames, the first names to emerge from the subconscious are Shevchenko, Petrenko, Doroshenko, Timoshenko, Shinkarenko, Klimashenko.
Indeed, this is a typical family form for the Ukrainian people, the most common.
Lists of registered Cossacks of the 17th century studied by historians show 60% of the presence of people with the surname ending in -enko.
It arose more often from the names, nicknames, and professions of the fathers of young Cossacks:
- “Stepanenko” is the offspring of Stepan, “Klimenko” is Klima, “Romanenko” is Roman;
- “Tkachenko” - on his father’s side with the profession of a weaver, “Skotarenko” - the son of a cattle farmer, “Goncharenko” - the son of a potter;
- “Chubenko” is the heir of Chub (most likely the owner of such a nickname was endowed with noble hair);
- “Leshchenko” - from the fish bream (perhaps the bearer came from a fishing family or the people awarded him this nickname for his characteristic similarity with this fish);
- "Pluschenko" - from the ivy vine plant.
Astrologers and numerologists have long been studying the influence of first and last names on human destiny. What can we say about the nation? If the dictionary of Ukrainian surnames is full of semantic form, which is, as it were, derivative for younger generation, then we can safely say, and there is no arguing with it: the Ukrainian people are a young, strong nation.
Flexible, freedom-loving, with easy character, ready to change (if you pronounce - Butenko, Goncharenko, Pisarenko, Guzenko - it seems as if the ball is bouncing). But at the same time with their own personalities, heroes and military acumen (Podoprigora, Vyrvidub). And also very musical (Music, Kobzar, Violin, Skripko, Sopilka, Sopilnyak).
According to scientists, the family forms of that time were not clearly defined enough, and therefore the succeeding generations could well have had different (in form) surnames, or, on the contrary, the entire village could have had the same surname.
Since the prehistory of the Ukrainian people arose during the existence of the Eastern Slavs, as well as the prehistory of the Belarusians and Russians, the many family forms that exist among these three peoples coincide.
The most popular and common forms after -enko are:
Suffix -eyk-: Koreiko, Lomeiko, Buteyko, Geiko.
Suffix -chk-: Burlachko, Klitschko, Skachko, Batechko.
Suffixes -y, -ey, -ay: Paliy, Geletey, Galai, Parubiy, Kalatay.
Suffixes -tsk-, -sk-: originally common among the Polish gentry, more such surnames were among noble nobles and officials: Kirovsky, Vishnevetsky, Koritsky, Skoropadsky, Zagorsky. But they could also indicate the attitude of a commoner to one or another owner (until serfdom was abolished) - Barsky, Boyarsky, or territorial affiliation - Galitsky, Polovetsky, Rivne.
Endings -la, -lo: Zamula, Minyailo, Pritula, Shatailo.
Endings -uk, -yuk: Serdyuk, Pavlyuk, Bondarchuk, Sklyaruk.
Suffixes -nik, -ar (-ar), characteristic for determining professional affiliation: Bortnik, Miller, Gonchar, Kobzar, Sexton.
Endings -da, -ba, -ta: Lagoda, Palivoda, Dzyuba, Zhuleba, Golota.
Suffixes -ich, -ych: Kuzmich, Shufrich, Zvarych, Yanukovych.
Suffixes -ak, -yak, -yk, -ik: Gopak, Tretyak, Bryk, Kulik.
Separately, we can distinguish among Ukrainian surnames those that simply convey the common name of something, be it a thing or an animal, the name of a natural phenomenon: Scoop, Frying Pan, Gogol (bird), Babak (marmot), Moroz, Barabola, Gorobets (sparrow) , Khmara (cloud), Zozulya (cuckoo).
Male (Cossack) surnames
If we talk about surnames that are memorable and historically valuable for the Ukrainian people, then these are undoubtedly the “calls” that were used to call the Cossacks who arrived in Sich (Sich - Russian). Usually this double words, very harsh, sometimes offensive: Tyagnibok, Netudykhata, Kuibida, Stodolya, Likhoded, Sorokopud, Pidiprigora, Golota, Perederiy, Novokhatko, Krivoruchko, Skorobogatko, Zadripaylo, Neizhsalo, Tovchigrechka.
Such funny surnames and nicknames characterize the Cossacks as strong and fearless warriors, but with a sense of humor and the ability to laugh at themselves.
Versatility and diversity historical events, which influenced the origin of Ukrainian surnames, can be traced in the following surnames: Pshigovsky, Vygotsky, Voznesensky, Miloradovich, Zarevich, Khorunzhy, Sagaidachny, Khmelnitsky, Uspensky. Here are the princely ones, royal families with a long pedigree, and surnames with church themes, and surnames of famous rebellious Sich atamans. They contain a huge layer historical era, associated with wars, captivity, revolutions. There are ways of word formation not only of the Russian people, but also of the Poles, Tatars, Germans, and Austrians.
Famous male surnames: Khmelnitsky, Shevchenko, Skovoroda, Grushevsky, Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, Dovzhenko, Klitschko, Poroshenko.
Female surnames
In the Ukrainian language, there are not many modifications of surnames based on female characteristics. These are surnames that can be classified in a morphological context as adjectives –sky, -ensky: Mogilevskaya, Vishnevetskaya; also surnames with the Russian suffix –ov, -ev, -in: Dubova, Zvereva, Spirina.
Famous female surnames: Kosach-Kvitka (Lesya Ukrainka), Lisovskaya (Roksolana), Pysanka, Lyzhichko, Klochkova, Prikhodko.
There is a linguistic peculiarity in the writing of male and female surnames with the endings -o, -ko, -chko when declensting. Men's surnames are declined, but women's surnames are not: Ivan Fedko - Ivana Fedko, but Maria Fedko - Maria Fedko. The same thing happens with the endings –iy, -ich, -ych, -ik, -uk. (Sergei Petrik, but Nastya Petrik, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, but Alevtina Vakarchuk).
Beautiful Ukrainian surnames
I would also like to mention the beauty and melodiousness of proper names. A dictionary of Ukrainian surnames can be recited: Nalivaiko, Nightingale, Lastivka (swallow), Pysarenko, Kotlyarevsky, Kotsyubinsky, Lyzhychko, Pysanka (from easter egg- Krashanki), Lysenko, Kulchitsky, Dovzhenko, Stupka, Malvinets, Ognevich.
The list of Ukrainian surnames is rich in unusual, mystical surnames: Viyt, Stus, Mavka, Veleten, Bogatyrev, Prisukha, Lyubich, Yarilo. There are many beautiful double family combinations: Nechuy-Levitsky, Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, Dobriyvecher.
As we see, the dictionary of Ukrainian surnames has been created and transformed over centuries, absorbing the acquired wisdom of its people. It can say a lot about people, their culture, traditions and beliefs.
Where did such surnames as Yushchenko, Khmelnitsky, Gavrilyuk and Shevchenko come from? What do Tyagnibok and Zhuiboroda have in common?
This is a unique “-enko”
Surnames ending with the suffix “-enko” are considered the most typical for Ukrainians, and not because they make up the largest group, but because they practically do not occur among others Slavic peoples. The fact that such surnames have become widespread in Russia is explained by the fact that Ukrainians, after joining the Moscow State in 1654, constituted the second largest ethnic group after the Russians.
It should be noted that Ukrainian surnames came into use earlier than Russian ones. The very first mentions of a surname with the suffix “-enko” refer to XVI century. Their localization was typical for Podolia, a little less often for the Kiev region, Zhytomyr region and Galicia. Later they began to actively spread to Eastern Ukraine.
Researcher Stepan Bevzenko, who studied the register of the Kyiv regiment of the mid-17th century, notes that surnames ending in “-enko” accounted for approximately 60% of the entire list of family names of the regiment. The suffix “-enko” is a diminutive, emphasizing the connection with the father, which literally meant “little”, “young man”, “son”. For example, Petrenko is the son of Peter or Yushchenko is the son of Yuska.
Later, the ancient suffix lost its direct meaning and began to be used as a family component. In particular, it became an addition not only to patronyms, but also to nicknames and professions - Zubchenko, Melnichenko.
Polish influence
For a long time, most of today's Ukraine was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which left its mark on the process of formation of surnames. Surnames in the form of adjectives ending in “-sky” and “-tsky” were especially popular. They were mainly based on toponyms - names of territories, settlements, and water bodies.
Initially, surnames with similar endings were worn exclusively by the Polish aristocracy, as a designation of the rights of ownership of a particular territory - Potocki, Zamoyski. Later, such suffixes spread to Ukrainian surnames, being added to names and nicknames - Artemovsky, Khmelnytsky.
Historian Valentin Bendyug notes that since early XVIII centuries, “noble surnames” began to be assigned to those who had an education, primarily this concerned priests. Thus, according to the researcher’s calculations, over 70% of the clergy of the Volyn diocese had surnames with the suffixes “-tsky” and “-sky”.
the appearance in Western Ukraine of surnames with endings in “-uk”, “-chuk”, “-yuk”, “-ak” also occurred during the period of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The basis for such surnames became baptismal names, but later any others. This helped solve the problem of identification - separating a specific person from society and separating a Ukrainian from a nobleman. This is how Gavrilyuk, Ivanyuk, Zakharchuk, Kondratyuk appeared, although over time these suffixes became more widely used - Popelnyuk, Kostelnyuk.
Eastern trail
Linguists have established that the Ukrainian language contains at least 4,000 Turkic words. This is due to the active resettlement of some Turkic and other eastern peoples in the Black Sea and Dnieper regions due to the increased Islamization of the Caucasus and Central Asian regions.
All this directly affected the formation of Ukrainian surnames. In particular, the Russian ethnologist L. G. Lopatinsky argued that widespread in Ukraine family ending“-ko” comes from the Adyghe “ko” (“kue”), meaning “descendant” or “son”.
For example, the frequently occurring surname Shevchenko, according to the researcher, goes back to the word “sheudzhen”, which the Adygs used to call Christian priests. The descendants of those who moved to the Ukrainian lands “sheudzhen” began to add the ending “-ko” - this is how they turned into Shevchenko.
It is curious that surnames ending in “-ko” are still found among some Caucasian peoples and Tatars, and many of them are very similar to Ukrainian ones: Gerko, Zanko, Kushko, Khatko.
Lopatinsky also attributes Ukrainian surnames ending in “-uk” and “-yuk” to Turkic roots. So, as evidence, he cites the names of the Tatar khans - Kuchuk, Tayuk, Payuk. Researcher of Ukrainian onomastics G. A. Borisenko supplements the list with Ukrainian surnames with a wide variety of endings, which in his opinion are of Adyghe origin - Babiy, Bogma, Zigura, Kekukh, Legeza, Prikhno, Shakhrai.
for example, the surname Dzhigurda - an example of Ukrainian-Circassian anthroponymic correspondence - consists of two words: Dzhikur - the name of the Zikh governor of Georgia and David - the Georgian king. In other words, Dzhigurda is Dzhikur under David.
Cossack nicknames
The environment of the Zaporozhye Cossacks contributed to the formation of a large number of a wide variety of nicknames, behind which serfs and representatives of other classes who escaped from dependence hid their origin for safety reasons.
“According to the rules of the Sich, new arrivals had to leave their surnames behind the outer walls and enter the Cossack world with the name that would best characterize them,” writes researcher V. Sorokopud.
Many of the bright and colorful nicknames, consisting of two parts - a verb in the imperative mood and a noun, subsequently turned into surnames without any suffixes: Zaderykhvist, Zhuiboroda, Lupybatko, Nezdiiminoga.
Some of the names can still be found today - Tyagnibok, Sorokopud, Vernigora, Krivonos. Whole line modern surnames came from one-part Cossack nicknames - Bulava, Gorobets, Bereza.
Ethnic diversity
The diversity of Ukrainian surnames is the result of the influence of those states and peoples under whose influence Ukraine has been for centuries. I wonder what for a long time Ukrainian surnames were the product of free word creation and could change several times. Only in late XVIII century, in connection with the decree of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, all surnames acquired legal status, including in the territories of Ukraine that were part of Austria-Hungary.
Professor Pavel Chuchka points out that a “Ukrainian surname” should be distinguished from a surname belonging to a Ukrainian. For example, the surname Schwartz, which is still found in Ukraine, has German roots, but its derivative Schwartzuk (son of Schwartz) is already typically Ukrainian.
Thanks to foreign influence, Ukrainian surnames often acquire a very specific sound. For example, the surname Yovban, according to Czuchka, has always been prestigious, as it comes from the name of St. Job, which in Hungarian is pronounced Yovb. But the researcher sees the surname Penzenik in the Polish word “Penzic”, which translates as to scare
We are accustomed to the fact that surnames that end in -in and -ov are considered Russian by default. But in fact, their carriers may be representatives of the most different nations: from the Bulgarians and Macedonians in the west to the Buryats and Yakuts in the east. Among Ukrainians there are also many people whose last names have such endings. Affects general history and numerous connections between fraternal peoples. So, which Ukrainian surnames are easy to confuse with Russian ones?
Original Ukrainian surnames
Due to a number of factors, Ukrainians acquired surnames earlier than most Russians. The geographical location of the country and the influence of its western neighbors had an impact: mainly the Poles. This process in Ukraine took place in the XIV-XVI centuries. First, surnames appeared among the nobles, then they spread to the merchants and clergy. And although the peasants changed their family nicknames to official surnames a little later, still in the 17th century there was not a single Ukrainian left without this required attribute citizenship.
However, over time, the surnames of Ukrainians could change. Thus, when joining the Zaporozhye Sich, becoming a Cossack, a man often took a new first and last name to emphasize that he had finally broken with his former life.
Sometimes the son of a man known in Podolia as Petro Pavlyuk, after moving to the Dnieper region, could be recorded there as Pavlo Pavlyuchenko. The process of forming Ukrainian surnames ended in the 19th century, when they were all officially assigned to each person.
And although the endings in -yuk (-uk) and -enko are the most common in this country, some surnames native to Ukraine end with the suffixes -ov (-ev) and -in. For example, Shinkarev, Pankov, Shugaev, Drahomanov, Khrushchev, Kostomarov, Brezhnev, Turchinov. It is quite easy to distinguish them from Russians. It is enough, as they say, to look at the root of the word. If a blacksmith in Ukraine was called a “koval,” then the surname Kovalev could originally only have come from here. Although this is not a reason to consider all its speakers Ukrainians. Over the centuries, various events have taken place: from the banal adoption of children to attempts to hide, getting lost in a neighboring country and “correcting” the surname.
If we talk about the ending -in, then Ukrainian origin indicates a more expansive form - ishin. Such surnames were formed from women's names or nicknames of residents of Transcarpathia and Galicia. For example, the son of Baba Fedorikha could receive the surname Fedorishin, and the son of Yatsikha could become Yatsishin. Likewise, if unmarried Vasilina gave birth to a baby, and the father did not recognize him as his son, then the boy was registered with the surname Vasylishin, formed on behalf of the mother.
Often women's nicknames came from the names of their husbands: Danilo - Danilikha - Danylyshyn; Pavlo – Pavlikha – Pavlyshyn; Roman - Romanikha - Romanishin, etc.
Ancient surnames
Since the histories of the two fraternal peoples are closely intertwined, some Ukrainian surnames ending in -ov and -in were formed in the era of Kievan Rus, when the ethnic division of the Eastern Slavs had not yet begun. It's about about representatives of the highest nobility who had surnames already in the 10th century.
For example, the peace treaty between the Byzantine Empire and Kievan Rus, concluded in 944, contains a list of very specific persons who signed it along with the legendary Prince Igor (son of Rurik). Among the noble and influential persons who acted as guarantors of peace on the Kyiv side, this historical document indicates: Karshev, Svirkov, Koloklekov, Voikov, Utin, Vuzlev and Gudov.
Which of the two nations did their descendants subsequently consider themselves to be? There is no longer an exact answer to this question. However, we can say with confidence that the surnames formed during the era of Kievan Rus may well be considered Ukrainian.
Forced Russified surnames
It should be recognized that some Ukrainian surnames were forcibly Russified. So, Romaniv could become Romanov, and Ivankiv could become Ivankov. This process also occurred in neighboring Belarus. During times Russian Empire some literate person - a county sexton who prepared documents - easily changed Ukrainian surnames just like that, without any malicious intent. Just so that the surname sounds “correct” in the opinion of a scribe transferred to some Kherson office from some Ryazan.
The famous Ukrainian philologist academician Alexander Ponomariv often notes in his journalistic speeches that in pre-revolutionary Russia mass Russification of Ukrainian surnames was carried out. And historian Alexander Paliy writes that their rewriting was often carried out in the army, including the Soviet one.
If a person lost his passport, for example, then when replacing it, only one or two letters were corrected. Often people, in response to complaints from official authorities, were told that this spelling of their surnames was more accurate, but previously it was written with an error. Thus, thousands of natives of Galicia, whose surnames are characterized by the ending -iv, lost their national identity.
And in neighboring Belarus, some Ivasheviches became Ivashevs, Lukasheviches - Lukashevs, etc.
"Remade" surnames
Sometimes the process of Russification occurred voluntarily. Usually, after moving to our country, many Ukrainians added the letter “v” to their last names so as not to stand out from the bulk of the population. Porechenkov, Mishchenkov, Petrenkov, Dmitrenkov, Kovalenkov and other similar surnames retain a Ukrainian flavor; they are distinguished by the characteristic suffix “-enko”.
This was done both during the Russian Empire and during the era of the USSR; it was convenient for people to be considered Russian for many reasons: starting from advancement in career ladder and ending with the gossip of neighbors in the communal kitchen.
It is noteworthy that during the time of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, when part of Ukraine was part of this Polish-Lithuanian state, some people remade their surnames by adding the ending -sky. Thus, the Ukrainians wanted to emphasize their belonging to the gentry - the privileged class of that time.
Many families, after several generations of living in Russia, inevitably acquired Russian endings for their surnames. For example, the grandfather of the great writer Anton Chekhov bore the last name Chekh. However, this happened to almost everyone who moved to our country, because those with the surname Turnip here became Repins, and the Deineks became Denikins.
With each year of his life, a person increasingly expands his choice of communication, meeting new people. In order for a new acquaintance to contact you, you need to make a pleasant impression on him. To avoid uncomfortable situations, it is important to know what nationality the person in front of you is in order to behave in accordance with the moral and ethical standards of his country. Most surnames can be unmistakably identified nationality your friends, neighbors, business partners, etc.
Russians- use surnames with the suffixes -an, -yn, -in, -skikh, -ov, -ev, -skoy, -tskaya, -ikh, -yh (Snegirev, Ivanov, Voronin, Sinitsyn, Donskoy, Moskovskikh, Sedykh);
Belarusians- typical Belarusian surnames end in -ich, -chik, -ka, -ko, -onak, -yonak, -uk, -ik, -ski. (Radkevich, Dubrova, Parshonok, Kuharchik, Kastsyushka); many names in Soviet years were Russified and Polished (Dubrovsky, Kosciuszko);
Poles- most surnames have the suffix -sk, -tsk, and the ending -й (-я), indicating masculine and feminine gender (Sushitsky, Kovalskaya, Khodetsky, Volnitskaya); there are also double surnames- if a woman, when getting married, wants to keep her last name (Mazur-Komorowska); In addition to these surnames, surnames with an unchanged form are also common among Poles (Nowak, Sienkiewicz, Wujcik, Wozniak). Ukrainians with last name endings ending in -y are not Ukrainians, but Ukrainian Poles.;
Ukrainians- the first classification of surnames of a given nationality is formed using the suffixes -enko, -ko, -uk, -yuk (Kreshchenko, Grishko, Vasilyuk, Kovalchuk); the second series denotes the type of craft or occupation (Potter, Koval); the third group of surnames consists of individual Ukrainian words(Gorobets, Ukrainian, Parubok), as well as a merger of words (Vernigora, Nepiyvoda, Bilous).
Latvians- the peculiarity to the masculine gender is indicated by a surname ending in -s, -is, and to the feminine gender - with -a, -e (Verbitskis - Verbitska, Shurins - Shurin)
Lithuanians- male surnames end in -onis, -unas, -utis, -aitis, -enas (Pyatrenas, Norvydaitis), female surnames are formed from the husband’s surname using the suffixes -en, -yuven, -uven and the ending -e (Grinius - Grinyuvene ), the surnames of unmarried girls contain the basis of the father's surname with the addition of the suffixes -ut, -polut, -ayt and endings -e (Orbakas - Orbakaite);
Estonians- male and female genders are not distinguished using surnames, everything foreign names(mostly German) were at one time Estonianized (Rosenberg - Roosimäe), this process continues to this day. for example, in order to be able to play for the Estonia national team, football players Sergei Khokhlov and Konstantin Kolbasenko had to change their surnames to Simson and Nahk;
French people- many surnames are preceded by the prefix Le or De (Le Pen, Mol Pompadour); basically, dissimilar nicknames and personal names were used to form surnames (Robert, Jolie, Cauchon - pig);
Romanians: -sku, -u(l), -an.
Serbs: -ich.
English- the following surnames are common: formed from the names of the place of residence (Scott, Wales); denoting profession (Hoggart - shepherd, Smith - blacksmith); pointing to appearance character and appearance (Armstrong - strong, Sweet - sweet, Bragg - boastful);
Germans- surnames formed from personal names (Werner, Peters); surnames that characterize a person (Krause - wavy, Klein - small); surnames indicating the type of activity (Müller - miller, Lehmann - geomor);
Swedes- most surnames end in -sson, -berg, -sted, -strom (Andersson, Olsson, Forsberg, Bostrom);
Norse- formed from personal names using the suffix -en (Larsen, Hansen), surnames without suffixes and endings can occur (Per, Morten); Norwegian surnames can repeat the names of animals, trees and natural phenomena(Blizzard - blizzard, Svane - swan, Furu - pine);
Italians- surnames are characterized by the suffixes -ini, -ino, -ello, -illo, -etti, -etto, -ito (Benedetto, Moretti, Esposito), can end in -o, -a, -i (Conti, Giordano, Costa) ; the prefixes di- and - indicate, respectively, a person’s belonging to his clan and geographical structure (Di Moretti is the son of Moretti, Da Vinci is from Vinci);
Spaniards and Portuguese have surnames ending in -ez, -az, -iz, -oz (Gomez, Lopez), surnames indicating a person’s character are also common (Alegre - joyful, Bravo - gallant, Malo - horseless);
Turks- most often surnames have the ending -oglu, -ji, -zade (Mustafaoglu, Ekindzhi, Kuindzhi, Mamedzade), when forming surnames they often used Turkish names or everyday words (Ali, Abaza - fool, Kolpakchi - hat);
Bulgarians - almost everyone Bulgarian surnames formed from personal names and suffixes -ov, -ev (Konstantinov, Georgiev);
Gagauz: -oglo.
Tatars: -in, -ishin.
Greeks- Greek surnames cannot be confused with any other surnames, only they have the endings -idis, -kos, -poulos (Angelopoulos, Nikolaidis);
Czechs- the main difference from other surnames is the mandatory ending -ova in women's surnames, even if where it would seem to be inappropriate (Valdrova, Ivanovova, Andersonova).
Georgians- surnames ending in -shvili, -dze, -uri, -ava, -a, -ua, -ia, -ni, -li, -si are common (Baratashvili, Mikadze, Adamia, Karchava, Gvishiani, Tsereteli);
Armenians- a significant part of the surnames of residents of Armenia has the suffix -yan (Hakopyan, Galustyan); Also, -yants, -uni.
Moldovans: -sku, -u(l), -an.
Azerbaijanis- formed surnames based on Azerbaijani names and attaching Russian suffixes -ov, -ev (Mamedov, Aliev, Gasanov, Abdullaev) to them. Also, -zade, -li, ly, -oglu, -kyzy.
Jews- the main group consists of surnames with roots Levi and Cohen (Levin, Levitan Kagan, Koganovich, Katz); the second group came from male and female Hebrew names with the addition of various suffixes (Yakobson, Yakubovich, Davidson, Godelson, Tsivyan, Beilis, Abramovich, Rubinchik, Vigdorchik, Mandelstam); the third classification of surnames reflects the character of a person, his appearance or profession (Kaplan - chaplain, Rabinovich - rabbi, Melamed - pestun, Schwartzbard - black-bearded, Stiller - quiet, Shtarkman - strong).
Ossetians:-ti.
Mordva: -yn, -in.
Chinese and Koreans- for the most part these are surnames consisting of one, less often two syllables (Tan, Liu, Duan, Qiao, Tsoi, Kogai);
Japanese- modern Japanese surnames are formed by merging two full-valued words (Wada - sweet voice and rice field, Igarashi - 50 storms, Katayama - hill, Kitamura - north and village); The most common Japanese surnames are: Takahashi, Kobayashi, Kato, Suzuki, Yamamoto.
As you can see, to determine a person’s nationality, it is enough to accurately analyze his last name, highlighting the suffix and ending.
WHAT DO SURNAMES WITH “-IN” MEAN? SURNAMES ENDING WITH -IN HAVE RUSSIAN ROOTS OR JEWISH ROOTS?
In the collection of the famous Slavic linguist B. O Unbegun “Russian Surnames” you can read that surnames with “in” are predominantly a Russian type of surname.
Why the ending “-in”? Basically, all surnames ending in “in” come from words ending in -а/-я and from feminine nouns ending in a soft consonant.
There are many examples of erroneous addition of -in to stems with a final hard consonant: Orekhin, Karpin, Markin, where -ov should have been used. And in another case, -ov turned out to be in the place of -in: Shishimorov from the base of shishimora. Mixing of formants is possible. After all, among Russians -in and -ov have been semantically indistinguishable for more than a thousand years. The meaning of the difference has been lost in the common Slavic language; the choice of -ov or -in depends only remnantly on the phonetic feature of the stem (Nikonov “Geography of Surnames”).
Do you know how the surname of the famous leader of the people's militia of 1611-1612, Minin, came about? Minin bore the personal nickname Sukhoruk, he did not have a surname. And Minin meant “son of Mina.” Orthodox name"Mina" was widespread in Rus'.
Another old Russian surname is Semin, also a surname with “-in”. According to the main version, the surname Semin goes back to the baptismal male name Semyon. The name Semyon is the Russian form of the ancient Hebrew name Simeon, meaning “listening”, “heard by God”. From the name Semyon in Rus', many derivative forms were formed, one of which - Syoma - formed the basis of this surname.
The famous Slavic linguist B.O. Unbegaun in the collection “Russian Surnames” believes that the surname Semin was formed from the baptismal Russian name according to the following scheme: “Semyon - Syoma - Semin.”
Let's give another example of a surname that we examined in detail in the family diploma. Rogozhin is an old Russian surname. According to the main version, the surname preserves the memory of the profession distant ancestors. One of the first representatives of the Rogozhins could be engaged in the manufacture of matting or trade in fabric.
Coarse woven fabric made from wash tapes was called matting. In Rus', a matting hut (rogozhnitsy, matting) was a workshop where matting was woven, and a matting weaver or matting dealer was called a matting izba.
In his close circle, Rogozhnik’s household were known as “Rogozhin’s wife,” “Rogozhin’s son,” and “Rogozhin’s grandchildren.” Over time, terms denoting the degree of relationship disappeared, and the hereditary surname Rogozhin was assigned to the descendants of Rogozhin.
Such Russian surnames ending in “-in” include: Pushkin (Pushka), Gagarin (Loon), Borodin (Beard), Ilyin (Ilya), Ptitsyn (Bird); Fomin (from the personal name Thomas); Belkin (from the nickname “squirrel”), Borozdin (Furrow), Korovin (Cow), Travin (Grass), Zamin and Zimin (winter) and many others
Please note that the words from which surnames starting with “in” are derived mostly end in “-a” or “-ya”. We won’t be able to say “Borodov” or “Ilyinov”; it would be more logical and more sonorous to say “Ilyin” or “Borodin”.
Why do some people think that surnames ending with “-in” have Jewish roots? Is it really? No, this is not true, you cannot judge the origin of a surname by one ending. The sound of Jewish surnames coincides with Russian endings simply by pure chance.
You should always research the surname itself. For some reason, we have no doubts about the ending “ov”. We believe that surnames ending in “-ov” are definitely Russian. But there are also exceptions. For example, we recently prepared a beautiful family diploma for one wonderful family named Maksyutov.
The surname Maksyutov has the ending “ov”, which is common among Russian surnames. But, if you examine the surname deeper, it turns out that the surname Maksyutov is derived from the Tatar male name“Maqsud”, which translated from Arabic means “desire, premeditated intention, aspiration, goal”, “long-awaited, desired”. The name Maksud had several dialect variants: Maksut, Mahsud, Mahsut, Maksyut. This name is still widespread among the Tatars and Bashkirs.
“The surname Maksyutov is an old one princely surname Tatar origin. ABOUT ancient origin the names Maksyutov say historical sources. The surname was first documented in the 16th century: Maksutovs (Maksutovs, obsolete Maksutovs, Tat. Maksutovlar) - a Volga-Bulgar princely-Murzin family, descended from the Kasimov prince Maksut (1554), in the genealogical legend Prince Maksut was called an ulan and a descendant of the prince Kashima." Now there is almost no doubt about the origin of the surname.
How to find out if a last name starts with -in Jewish origin or is this an original Russian surname? Always analyze the word that underlies your last name.
Here are examples of Jewish surnames with the ending “-in” or “-ov”: Edmin (derived from the name of the German city of Emden), Kotin (derived from the Hebrew קטן- in the Ashkenazi pronunciation “kotn”, meaning “small”), Eventov (derived from Hebrew “even tov” - “ gem"), Khazin (derived from the Hebrew "hazan", in the Ashkenazi pronunciation "hazn", meaning "a person leading worship in the synagogue"), Superfin (translated as "very handsome") and many others.
The ending “-in” is simply an ending by which one cannot judge the nationality of a surname. You always need to research your surname, analyze the word that underlies it and try to look for the first mentions of your surname in various books and archival documents. Only when all the information has been collected will you be able to confidently determine the origin of your surname and find answers to your questions.
SURNAMES ENDING IN SKY/-SKAYA, -TSKIY/-TSKAYA
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 part of surnames ending in -skiy/-skaya, -tskiy/-tskaya are formed from geographical and ethnic names. In letters from our readers who want to know about the origin of their surnames, the following surnames in -sky / -tsky are mentioned.
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 is a river in the 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. The surname Brynski/Brynska, found in Poland, is derived from the names of two settlements Brynsk in different parts of the country and also, apparently, goes back to the names of the rivers Bryn and Brynica. There is no uniform interpretation of the names of these rivers in science. If the suffix -ets is added to the name of a populated place, then such a word denotes a person from this place. In Crimea in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century, winegrower Maria Bryntseva was well known. 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 the Russian Gorbovitsky (in the Belarusian language, the letter a is written in place of the unstressed o). The surname is derived from the name of some settlement of Gorbovitsy. In the materials we have, there are 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, Dubovskoye, 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. The Ukrainian surname corresponding to the Russian one is Steblevsky; formed from the names of the populated places Steblevka in the Transcarpathian region or Steblev - Cherkasy. In Ukrainian spelling, i is written in place of the second e.
Tersky. The surname comes from the name of the Terek River and indicates that one of the distant ancestors of this person lived there. There were the Terek region and the Terek Cossacks. So bearers of the Tersky surname may also be descendants of Cossacks.
Uriansky. The surname, apparently, is derived from the name of the settlement of 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 Uryanka. Similar names could be found in different places, since medieval peoples led a nomadic lifestyle 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 is apparently related to the designation of the union of the medieval Turkic tribes Chigil.
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 Arab origin. In Arabic, Sha'ban is the name of the eighth month. lunar calendar. The name Shaban is also attested in Russian peasant families in the 15th-17th centuries. In parallel with this, the spelling variant Shiban was noted in the Russian language - obviously, by analogy with the Russian shibat, zashibat. Records from 1570-1578 mention Prince Ivan Andreevich Shiban Dolgoruky; in 1584 - the grooms of Tsar Feodor 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 of the Siberian Tatars Shibans and their family name are known Crimean Tatars Shiban Murzas. In the Perm region there is a settlement called Shibanovo, and in the Ivanovo region there is Shibanikha.
So closely related to each other different types proper names: personal names, geographical and ethnic names, as well as surnames.
By their origin and meaning, most Ukrainian surnames are closely related to Russian ones. There is nothing surprising in this, since both those and other surnames take their roots in the history of the Slavic peoples. At the same time, Ukrainian surnames are noticeably different from typical Russian surnames.
Surnames formed using suffixes.
The most typical suffix for the surnames of residents of Naddnepryansk Ukraine is the suffix -enk-. According to historical documents, the first mentions of such surnames date back to the 16th century. According to historians, the suffix and ending -enko are of Turkic origin. Over the next centuries, surnames ending in –enko became widespread (more than half of the total number of surnames) among Cossacks from the Left Bank of the Dnieper, in the Kiev region and some other regions. It was not uncommon to switch from a surname without a suffix to a surname with a suffix. For example, Komar - Komarenko.
Other similar ways of changing surnames in the Ukrainian way are adding the suffixes –eyk- (Bateiko), -ochk- (Marochko), -ko (Andreyko).
Some suffixes, with the help of which Ukrainian surnames are formed, belong to the category of toponymic suffixes and are common not only among Ukrainians, but also among Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Bulgarians and others Slavic peoples. Thus, the suffix –sk- or –tsk- was often found among representatives Ukrainian nobility, whose surnames were formed by the name of the family estate. For example, Gorodets - Gorodetsky. Other varieties of toponymic suffixes are -ovsk- (-ivsky), -evsk-. Examples of surnames: Baranovsky, Grinevsky.
Characteristic of Ukrainian surnames are the patronymic suffixes –ich- (-ych-) and –uk- (-yuk-). The latter mean "someone's servant, disciple or son." For example, the meaning of the surname Tarasyuk may sound like “son of Taras.” In addition, among people from different areas In Ukraine, there may be various suffixes characteristic of these regions. For example, in regions that were once part of Little Russia, Russian and related endings –ov, -ev and –iv are common. With the help of these suffixes, Ukrainian surnames were Russified and took on the form, for example, like this: Porechenko - Porechenkov.
You can also list surnames with suffixes that are found mainly among Ukrainians: Paliy (suffix -iy, in Transcarpathia -ey is more common), Shcherbak (suffix -ak), Pasichnyk (suffix -nik) and others.
Surnames formed from other words
The origin of many Ukrainian surnames can be easily traced if you pay attention to what words they are derived from. Often young people were given surnames based on the occupation of their parents, their father's name or his nickname. So, for example, the surname Kovalenko comes from the word “koval”, the translation of which sounds like “blacksmith”. Also, surnames derived from the names of professions include Grabar (digger), Kravets (tailor), Rybalko (fisherman), etc.
Surnames derived from given names are very popular among Ukrainians. Typically, such surnames appeared when young Cossacks registered by their father’s name - Zakharchenko, Yushchenko, Vasyuchenko. It is not uncommon to have surnames formed from nouns, from the names of animals, and also made up of several words. For example, Dolya (fate), Koshara (flock of sheep), Gogol (bird), Shchur (rat), Krasnoshapka (red cap), Ryabokon (pockmarked horse), etc.
Cossack Sich surnames
These Ukrainian surnames should be included in a separate paragraph for their unusualness. As a rule, they consist of two parts - a verb and a noun, and have a pronounced emotional overtones. Surnames such as Zaderikhvist or Lupybatko are designed to set one in a certain mood, giving rise to many images in the mind.
These flowery surnames owe their appearance to the tradition according to which those who arrived in the Sich had to leave their old name outside its borders and choose a new one that corresponded to their character.
Female Ukrainian surnames
Feminine forms in the Ukrainian language do not exist for all surnames. As a rule, they are used for those surnames that are morphologically identified as adjectives ending in –skiy (Khovansky - Khovanskaya), as well as for surnames similar in sound to Russians (Shugaev - Shugaeva).
Other surnames common among Ukrainians do not have a separate feminine form. As an exception, we can cite Western Ukrainian surnames ending in –iv or –ishin. Sometimes you can meet women's options these surnames (for example, Pavliv - Pavliva). In addition, in colloquial conversation you can hear how a surname ending in –yuk forms a feminine form ending in –yuchka (Serdyuk - Serduchka). However, this is not the literary norm.
