Surname is the name of the family that a person inherits. Many people live for a long time and do not even think about what their surname means. Thanks to the surname, it is possible not only to determine who the great-grandfathers were, but also to determine the nationality of its owner. In the article we will try to figure out which 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 the determination of the origin by the endings of surnames can be distinguished.

Surname endings

With the help of certain endings, you can find out which nationality the surname belongs to:

• The British. It is very difficult to single out certain endings that indicate the English. Basically, surnames are formed from English words indicating the place of residence: Wales, Scott, or the profession of a person: Smith is a blacksmith, Cook is a cook.
• Armenians. Most of Armenian surnames ends in - yang: Aleksanyan, Burinyan, Galustyan.
• Belarusians. Belarusian surnames end in -ich, -chik, -ka, -ko: Tyshkevich, Fedorovich, Glushko, Vasilka, Gornachenok.
• Georgians. Identify a person Georgian nationality very simply, their surnames end in - shvili, - dze, - a, - ya, - no, - whether, - si: Gergedava, Geriteli, Dzhugashvili.
• Jews. If the surname has a Levi or Cohen root, then its owner belongs to Jewish nationality: Levitan, Koganovich. But you can also find surnames with the endings - ich, - man, -er: Kogenman, Kaganer.
• The Spaniards and Portuguese have surnames with the endings - ez, - from, - az, - from, oz: Gonzalez, Gomez, Torres. There are also surnames indicating a person's character: Alegre - joyful, Little - bad.
• Italians. If we talk about Italians, their surnames end in - ini, - ino, - illo, - etti, - etto, - ito: Puccini, Brocchi, Marchetti. The prefix di and yes may indicate that the genus belongs to a certain territory: da Vinci.
• Germans. German surnames Basically, they end in naman, - er and they indicate the type of human activity (Becker is a baker, Lehmann is a landowner, Koch is a cook) or they contain some characteristic (Klein is small).
• Poles. Surnames with endings in - sk; - ck; -th indicate that a person (or his ancestors) belongs to the Polish nationality: Godlevsky, Kseshinsky, Kalnitsky, and their roots go back to the creation of the Polish nobility (gentry).
• Russians. Surnames ending in -ov, -ev, -in, -skoy, - tskoy: Ignatov, Mikhailov, Eremin. Russian surnames in their structure are patronymics, which are formed from the names: Ivan - Ivanov, Grigory - Grigoriev; but among the examples one can find surnames formed from the name of the place of residence of the family: Beloe Ozero - Belozersky.
• Ukrainians. The endings that indicate that a person belongs to the Ukrainian nationality include: - ko, - uk / yuk, - un, -niy / ny, - tea, - ar, - a: Tereshchenko, Karpyuk, Tokar, Gonchar, Peaceful. The surnames mainly indicate the belonging of the clan to some kind of craft.

Onomastics

It is worth noting that the science that studies proper names and their origin is called onomastics. Its section - anthroponymics - studies the origin of human names and their forms, one of which is the surname. It touches on the history of their emergence and transformation as a result of long-term use in the original language.

More and more often one can hear the opinion that the original 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 population of Russia have surnames with the suffixes -ov and -ev. Such surnames are considered primordially Russian, they assume that they have a generic 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, focusing on the oldest man in the family. So, not only sons, but also grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Peter became Petrovs.

To diversify surnames, they began to be given on the basis of nicknames. So, the descendants of Beloborodov also received the surname Beloborodov, passing it on to their descendants from generation to generation.

They began to give surnames and depending on the occupation of the person. Therefore, the Goncharovs, Kuznetsovs, Plotnikovs, Popovs and others appeared. sonorous surnames... You can be sure that Kuznetsov's great-grandfather had a smithy, while Popov had priests in his family.

Surnames with the -ev suffix 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.

And where did the surnames with the suffixes -in and -yn come from?

About 30% of the population of Russia have surnames ending with the suffixes -in and -yn. These surnames could come from the names, nicknames and professions of their ancestors, as well as from words that end in -а and -я.

So the surname Minin means "son of Mina". By the way, Mina is a popular female name in Russia.

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." This is how it was formed popular surnames- Nikitin, Ilyin, Fomin and many others.

Also, some surnames indicate that a person's ancestors belong to a certain craft. For example, the surname Rogozhin indicates that human ancestors traded matting or were engaged in its production.

It cannot be asserted with absolute certainty, because even now many disputes continue, however, it is assumed that the names Pushkin, Gagarin, Zimin, Korovin, Ovechkin, Borodin also originated from the names of things, phenomena, animals or professions.

Nevertheless, experts say that initially it is necessary to find out what word is the basis of the surname, and only then can we talk about professional occupations or nicknames of distant ancestors from which the surname came.

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So, the most common suffix Ukrainian surnames - “-enko” (Bondarenko, Petrenko, Tymoshenko, Ostapenko). Another group of suffixes is “-eyko”, “-ko”, “-ochko” (Belebeyko, Bobreiko, Grishko). The third suffix is ​​“-ovskiy” (Berezovskiy, Mogilevskiy). Often among Ukrainian surnames one 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”, “-skih”, “-ov”, “-ev”, “-skoy”, “-tskoy”, “-ih”, “ th ". It is easy to guess that examples of such surnames are the following: Smirnov, Nikolaev, Donskoy, Sedykh.

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

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

Before many French surnames there is an insert "Le", "Mon" or "De" (Le Germain, Le Pen).

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

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

Italian surnames are formed with the help of such suffixes: “-ini”, “-ino”, “-ello”, ”-illo”, “-etti”, “-etto”, “-ito” (Moretti, Benedetto).

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

Norwegian surnames formed with the suffix "en" (Larsen, Hansen). Surnames without a suffix are also popular (Per, Morgen). Surnames are often formed from the title natural phenomena or animals (Blizzard is a blizzard, Svane is a swan).

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

Estonians have by their last name you will not be able to understand whether a person is masculine or feminine (Simson, Nahk).

Have Jewish surnames there are two common roots - Levy and Cohen. Most surnames are derived 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, Kukharchik ).

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

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

Mens Latvian surnames end with “-s”, “-is”, and women end with “-e”, “-a” (Shurins - Shurina).

And the men Lithuanian surnames end with “-onis”, “-unas”, “-utis”, “-aitis”, “-ena” (Norvidaitis). Womens end in “-en”, “-yuven”, “-uven” (Grinyuvene). In surnames unmarried girls contains a particle of the father's surname and the suffixes “-out”, “-poluyut”, “-ayt”, as well as the ending “-e” (Orbakas - Orbakaite).

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

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

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

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

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

Feature of female Czech surnames is the obligatory ending "-ova" (Valdrova, Andersonova). (via)

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

Russians - use surnames with the suffixes -an, -yn, -in, -ski, -ov, -ev, -skoy, -tskoy, -ih, -yh (Snegirev, Ivanov, Voronin, Sinitsyn, Donskoy, Moscow, Sedykh);

Belarusians - typical Belarusian surnames end in -ich, -chik, -ka, -ko, -onak, -onak, -uk, -ik, -ski. (Radkevich, Dubrova, Parshonok, Kuharchik, Kastsyushka); many surnames in Soviet years were Russified and polished (Dubrovsky, Kosciuszko);

Poles - most surnames have the suffix -sk, -tsk, and the ending -ii (s), indicating the masculine and feminine gender (Sushitsky, Kovalskaya, Khodetsky, Volnitskaya); also exist double surnames- if a woman, when getting married, wants to leave her last name (Mazur-Komorowska); in addition to these surnames, surnames with an unchanged form are also common among Poles (Novak, Senkevich, Vuytsik, Wozniak). Ukrainians with surname endings in -iy 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 kind of a craft or occupation (Potter, Koval); the third group of surnames is made up of separate Ukrainian words(Gorobets, Ukrainets, Parubok), as well as the fusion of words (Vernigora, Nepiyvoda, Bilous).

Latvians - the peculiarity to the masculine gender denotes the surname with the ending in -s, -is, and to the female - in -a, -e (Verbitskis - Verbitska, Shurins - Shurina)

Lithuanians — male surnames end in -onis, -unas, -utis, -aitis, -enas (Petrenas, Norvidaitis), female surnames are formed from the husband's surname using suffixes -en, -yuven, -uven and the endings -e (Grinyus - Grinyuvene), surnames unmarried girls contain the basis of the father's surname with the addition of the suffixes -out, -poluyut, -ait and the endings -e (Orbakas - Orbakaite);

Estonians - the male and female gender is not distinguished by surnames, all foreign surnames(mostly Germanic) were at one time Estonianized (Rosenberg - Roosimäe), this process is valid even before today... for example, in order to be able to play for the Estonian national team, footballers Sergei Khokhlov and Konstantin Kolbasenko had to change their names to Simson and Nahk;

Jews - the main group is made up of surnames with roots Levi (the highest caste of Jews a lion it and cohen s and kagan s) and Cohen (Levin, Levitan Kagan, Koganovich, Katz); the second group is derived 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, the features of his appearance, Dvorkovich (beehlkin) is a bee in the Hebrew court or belonging to a profession (Kaplan is a chaplain, Rabinovich is a rabbi, Melamed is a pestun, Schwarzbard is a black-bearded, Stilller is quiet, Shtarkman is strong). Also, all surnames ending in - man (from monkey - monkey), such as chapman, goldman, tsukerman….

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, -y (l), -an.

Serbs: -ich.

The British - the following surnames are common: derived from the names of the place of residence (Scott, Wales); denoting a profession (Hoggart is a shepherd, Smith is a blacksmith); pointing to appearance character and appearance (Armstrong - strong, Sweet - sweet, Bragg - bakhwal);

Germans - surnames formed from personal names (Werner, Peters); surnames characterizing 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 be found (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 suffixes -ini, -ino, -ello, -illo, -etti, -etto, -ito (Benedetto, Moretti, Esposito), may end in -o, -a, -i (Conti, Giordano, Costa) ; the prefixes di- and- denote, respectively, a person's belonging to his own family and geographical structure (Di Moretti is the son of Moretti, Da Vinci is from Vinci);

Spanish and Portuguese - have surnames ending in -ez, -az, -iz, -oz (Gomez, Lopez), surnames indicating a person's character are also common ( Alegre - joyful, Bravo - brave, Malo - horseless);

Turks - most often surnames have the ending -oglu, -ji, -zade (Mustafaoglu, Ekinci, Kuindzhi, Mamedzade), when forming surnames they often used Turkish names or everyday words (Ali, Abaza is a fool, Kolpakchi is a hat);

Bulgarians - almost all Bulgarian surnames are formed from personal names and suffixes -ov, -ev (Konstantinov, Georgiev);

Gagauz: -glo.

Tatars: -in, -ishin.

Greeks - the surnames of the Greeks cannot be confused with any other surnames, only the endings -idis, -kos, -poulos (Angelopoulos, Nikolaidis) are inherent in them;

Czechs - the main difference from other surnames is the obligatory ending -ova in female surnames, even if where it seems to be inappropriate (Valdrova, Ivanova, Andersonova).

Georgians - surnames ending in -shvili, -dze, -uri, -ava, -a, -ua, -ia, -ni, -li, -si (Baratashvili, Mikadze, Adamia, Karchava, Gvishiani, Tsereteli) are widespread;

Armenians - a significant part of the surnames of the inhabitants of Armenia have the suffix -yan (Hakobyan, Galustyan); Also, -yants, -uni.

Moldovans: -sku, -y (l), -an.

Azerbaijanis - formed surnames, taking Azerbaijani names as a basis and attaching Russian suffixes -ov, -ev (Mamedov, Aliyev, Hasanov, Abdullaev) to them. Also, -zade, -li, ly, -oglu, -kyzy.

Ossetians: -ty.

Mordva: -yn, -in.

Chinese and Koreans - for the most part these are surnames consisting of one, less often of two syllables (Tang, Liu, Duan, Qiao, Tsoi, Kogai);

Japanese - modern Japanese surnames formed by the fusion of two full-valued words (Wada - sweetheart 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, in order to determine the nationality of a person, it is enough to accurately analyze his surname, highlighting the suffix and the ending.

WHAT DO THE SURNAMES WITH "-IN" MEAN? SURNAMES ENDING WITH -IN HAVE RUSSIAN OR JEWISH ROOTS?

In the collection of the famous Slavic linguist B. O Unbegaun, "Russian surnames", one can read that surnames with "in" are predominantly Russian type of surnames.

Why exactly the ending "-in"? Basically, all surnames ending in "in" come from words with the ending -а / -я and from nouns female with a soft consonant ending.

Examples of erroneous joining -in to stems with a final solid consonant are not isolated: Orekhin, Karpin, Markin, where -ov should be. And in another case -ov was in place -in: Shishimorov from the base of shishimora. Mixing of formants is possible. Indeed, among Russians, the -in and -ov are semantically indistinguishable for more than a thousand years. The meaning of the difference has been lost even in the common Slavic language, the choice of -ov or -in depends only survivally on the phonetic attribute 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 a personal nickname Sukhoruk, he did not have a surname. And Minin meant "son of Mina". Orthodox name"Mina" was widespread in Russia.

Another old Russian surname- 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 "hearer", "heard by God." Many derivative forms were formed on behalf of Semyon in Russia, one of which - Sema - 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 following scheme: "Semyon - Sema - Semin".

Let's give another example of a surname that we examined in detail in a family diploma. Rogozhin is an old Russian surname. According to the main version, the surname keeps the memory of the profession of distant ancestors. One of the first representatives of the Rogozhins could be engaged in the manufacture of matting, or sell fabric.

Rogozhey was a coarse woven fabric made of sponge ribbons. In Russia, a horned hut (matting, matting) was called a workshop where matting was woven, and a matting weaver or a matting merchant was called a matting hut.

In their close circle, Rogozhnik's household members were known as Rogozhin's wife, Rogozhin's son, and Rogozhin's grandchildren. Over time, the terms denoting the degree of kinship disappeared, and the hereditary surname - Rogozhin - was fixed for the descendants of Rogozhin.

Such Russian surnames ending in "-in" include: Pushkin (Pushka), Gagarin (Gagara), Borodin (Beard), Ilyin (Ilya), Ptitsyn (Bird); Fomin (on behalf of 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 the surnames are formed on "in" generally end in "-a" or "-ya". We will not be able to say "Borodov" or "Ilyinov"; it would be more logical and more sonorous to pronounce "Ilyin" or "Borodin".

Why do some people think that surnames ending in "- in" have Jewish roots? Is it really? No, this is not true, by one ending it is impossible to judge the origin of the surname. The sound of Jewish surnames coincides with Russian endings simply by sheer coincidence.

You should always research the last name itself. The ending of "s", for some reason, does not cause any doubts in us. We believe that surnames ending in "-ov" are certainly Russian. But there are also exceptions. For example, we recently prepared a beautiful family diploma for a wonderful family named Maksyutov.

The surname Maksyutov has the ending "ov", which is common among Russian surnames. But, if you examine the surname more deeply, it turns out that the surname Maksyutov is formed from the Tatar male name"Maqsud", which is translated from Arabic means "desire, pre-thought intention, striving, goal", "long-awaited, desired." The name Maksud had several dialect variants: Maksut, Makhsud, Makhsut, Maksyut. This name is still widespread among the Tatars and Bashkirs to this day.

We investigate the surname further and find out:

"The surname Maksyutov is old princely surname Tatar origin... O ancient origins surnames Maksyutov say historical sources... For the first time the surname was documented in X VI century: Maksyutovs (Maksutovs, obsolete Maksyutovs, Tat. Maksutovlar) - Volga-Bulgar princely-Murzin clan, descended from the Kasimov prince Maksut (1554), in the genealogy legend Prince Maksut was called an ulan and a descendant of Tsarevich Kasim ". Now doubts about the origin the surname is almost gone.

How do you know if the surname ending in -in is of Jewish origin or is it a native 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 Hebrewקטן - in the Ashkenazi pronunciation "kotn", meaning "small"), Events (derived from the Hebrew "Even tov" - "precious stone"), Khazin ( comes from the Hebrew "khazan", in the Ashkenazi pronunciation "khazn", meaning "a person leading the worship in the synagogue"), Superfin (translated as "very handsome") and many others.

The ending "-in" is just an ending that cannot be used to judge the nationality of the surname. You always need to research the surname, analyze the word that underlies it and try to look in various books and archival documents for the first mentions of your surname. Only when all the information is collected, you can confidently establish the origin of your surname and find answers to your questions.

SURNAMES ENDING IN √ SKY / -SKY, -TSKY / -TSKAYA

Many Russians have a firm and unsubstantiated conviction that surnames in -sky are certainly Polish. The surnames of several Polish magnates are known from history textbooks, formed from the names of their possessions: Pototsky and Zapototsky, Zablotsky, Krasinsky. But the surnames of many Russians with the same suffixes are known from the same textbooks: Konstantin Grigorievich Zabolotsky, a dean of Tsar John III, end XV - beginning X VI century; clerk Semyon Zaborovsky, beginning of X VI century; boyars Shuisky and Belsky, confidants of Ivan the Terrible. Famous Russian artists Levitsky, Borovikovsky, Makovsky, Kramskoy.

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