The ending of the surname is dze nationality. Beautiful Georgian surnames

Georgian surnames are easily distinguishable from other Caucasian surnames - they have a special structure and original endings. Traditionally, the Georgian surname is divided into two parts - root and ending. If you are at least a little familiar with the history of Georgia and its culture, you can easily determine from which part of this country the surname and the family originate. Georgian surnames have about 13 endings that are easy to remember.

Georgian surnames - general overview of Georgian generic names, description and meaning

The most common particle-completions of Georgian generic names are -dze and -shvili. A particle - shvili is characteristic of the eastern part of the mountainous country, such regions as Kartlinsky and Kakheti. The ending -dze is found throughout the country, but most often in the Adjara region. Both completion particles have a similar semantic load- "born" or "son". According to scientific data, the oldest ending will be -dze, and the ending -shvili is more modern. The same data indicate that today more than three million representatives of Georgian nationality bear surnames with similar particles-completions.

A separate share of national generic nicknames comes from the names of Christian saints, which were given during the rite of baptism. Examples of such surnames are national surnames Davitashvili, Isakoshvili, Nikoladze, Andronikashvili, Pavliashvili.

There are surnames that are based on Persian and Arabic words. The clearest example such a Georgian surname will be the surname Japaridze. But with this surname everything is not so clear: some researchers say that the basis of the generic nickname Japaridze is the male Muslim name Jafar. Others argue that in this case the generic name comes from the Persian designation of the profession "japar" - postman.

But let us return to the study of the particle-completions of Georgian family names. No less than the above endings, surnames ending in -ati, -ti, -iti, -eli are widespread in Georgia. As an example of such surnames, we give the names of famous families - Gurieli, Mkhargdzeli, as well as common and well-known family names- Chinati, Khvarbeti.

A separate group of Georgian surnames is represented by generic names ending in -ani. Such genus names are considered aristocratic, since they originate from the royal and princely families of Megrelia. Examples are Dadiani, Chikovani, Akhvedeliani. The endings -uli - ava, -aya, -uri are less common. You can hear these endings in such surnames as Danelia, Okudzhava and Beria.

Ossetian surnames turned into Georgian

Due to historical and sad circumstances, in the 90s of the last century, Ossetians living on the territory of the Georgian state were forced to change their national surnames to surnames with a Georgian structure. Confusion in this process was introduced not so much by the Ossetians and the authorities themselves, but by the officials, who, sometimes not knowing how to correctly read and write the Ossetian surname, followed a simple path - they wrote down the generic Ossetian name in the Georgian manner. This is how the Mardjanovs, Tsitsianovs, Tseretelevs appeared in Georgia.

Among the many generic names in the world, Georgian are some of the most recognizable. In any case, they are rarely confused with others. In the USSR, when everyone got the surname, nothing changed in Georgia. Georgian surnames are several centuries older than the Russians, and it never occurred to anyone to change or alter them by analogy with the Russians, as was the case in the autonomous regions. But if you dig deeper, then not everything is so simple.

People who have no idea about the ethnogenesis of the Georgian people imagine it to be something monolithic. In fact, it became unified politically after the adoption of Christianity, but the division into three groups within the Kartvelian language family still exists, especially in countryside, and this is reflected in the composition of anthroponyms.

Linguistic information

Writing in Georgia appeared in the 5th century, in any case, no earlier sources of Georgian writing have been found. Before that, Greek, Aramaic, Persian documents were known on the territory, but they did not reflect the local languages. Therefore, all information about the ancestors of modern Kartvels can be obtained either from foreign sources (of which, by the way, there are many), or on the basis of glottochronology data.

So, according to linguists, the Svans separated from the general Kartvelian community in the II millennium BC. e., and the Iberian and Mingrelian branches separated a thousand years later. The first surnames, which were recorded in the 8th century, reflect this difference. Initially, the names of professions were used as their names, but by XIII century toponymy and patronymic began to prevail.

Foreign influence on root composition

It so happened that the ancestors of the Kartvels lived somewhat apart from the migration routes, although the Hurrians, Caucasian Albanians, and Greeks took part in their ethnogenesis. At a later time, the territory of Georgia was under Persian and Turkish influence, which greatly influenced the culture of the people. Abkhazians, Ossetians, Nakh and Dagestan peoples... Natives of these territories at one time acquired Georgian surnames for convenience, but the root of foreign origin remained.

So, the surname Sturua is Megrelian in structure, but its root is Abkhaz; Dzhugashvili's ancestors left Ossetia; the surname Khananashvili is based on a Persian root, and Bagrationi is an Armenian one. Lekiashvili have an ancestor in Dagestan, and Kistauri - in Chechnya or Ingushetia. But there are few such anthroponyms in percentage terms, most often the root is of Kartvelian origin.

Classification of generic names

The first thing that catches your eye when talking about the generic names of Georgians is their suffixes. So, -shvili and -dze in the names of Georgian celebrities are considered something like a marker of nationality (although these suffixes are also inherent in local Jews). Someone may recall other characteristic family endings in Georgia, but few people understand what they mean.

However, by the suffix and root, one can find out about the origin of a person. Firstly, in each region, preference was given to certain types of surnames, and secondly, the Georgians have a high proportion of toponymic generic names.

All surnames in Georgia can be divided into several groups:

• actually Georgian;
• Mingrelian;
• Laz and Adjarian;
• Svan.

At the same time, some suffixes are common Georgian, therefore, it will be necessary to judge the origin by the root. If you do not take into account the Megrelian, Svan and Laz surnames, then the Georgian themselves can be divided in more detail into:

• Western Georgian;
• East Georgian;
• phovsky;
• rachinsky;
• Pshavsky.

Family suffixes

Georgian generic names include about 28 different suffixes. Their meaning and examples of beautiful Georgian surnames with them can be presented in the following table:

Non-suffix construction of surnames

Georgian generic names are based on a certain rule - they are composed of a root and a suffix... But not all of them correspond to it, although sometimes it may seem that there is a correspondence. For example, the surname Gverdtsiteli is formed not by the suffix method, but by adding the stems: "gverd" - side and "citeli" - "red".

An interesting group is represented by anthroponyms of Greek origin, which do not have a typical Georgian endings... Greeks have lived in western Georgia since ancient times, in any case, the port cities of Colchis were Greek. This connection did not stop even later, since the Georgian Orthodox Church was closely associated with Byzantium. After Georgia became part of Russia, seaside towns settled Greek migrants from Turkish territories.

From that period, such surnames as Kandelaki, Kazanzaki, Romanidi, Khomeriki, Savvidi remained in Georgia, but both Greeks and Georgians can be their carriers, since no one has canceled the assimilation process.

Distribution and some facts

Statistics show that the overwhelming majority of Georgians have surnames ending in -dze. In 2011, the number of their carriers was 1,649,222 people. In second place is the ending -shvili - 1303723. Over 700 thousand people bear Megrelian generic names, the rest of the endings are much less common. The most common surnames in Georgia today are:

Only the names of the citizens of the country were taken into account. If we consider the entire population, then in second place will be Mamedov - an Azerbaijani or Dagestan surname. Male labor migration from the eastern borders existed before, and some migrants settle in Georgia permanently. The diversity of family roots in the Eastern Caucasus is less, therefore specific gravity Aliyevs, Mamedovs and Huseynovs turns out to be high.

Famous representatives of the people

People are not very interested in the origin of surnames in general, but a specific person may be of interest. Celebrities are often asked where their roots come from and what a passport entry means. You can try to help those who are interested and present some well-known generic names of immigrants from Georgia:

1. Georgian director Georgy Danelia wears Megrelian surname... It is based on the male name Danel (in Russian - Daniel).
2. Basilashvili contains the baptismal name Basilius (Basil).
3. War hero of 1812 Bagration had in the original the surname Bagrationi. Her ending is typically princely, since she belonged to the royal dynasty. But its roots go back to Armenia, and in the times of BC.
4. Vakhtang Kikabidze on the father's side comes from the Imeretian princes, but information about the root of the surname cannot be found, and the number of its carriers is small.

It is not always possible to establish the roots of some generic names the first time. The first reason for this is the antiquity of the surname: the language has changed over the centuries, but the root has remained. The second reason is the presence of foreign roots adapted to the phonetics of the Kartvelian languages. This is especially evident in Abkhazia and among the Mingrels. Abkhazian anthroponyms may have a Megrelian model due to the long-term proximity of the two peoples, and, on the contrary, the Megrelian may not differ from the Abkhazian.

Many noble families, including princely ones, are of foreign origin - Armenian, Ossetian, Abkhazian, Nakh. In view of this, the literal translation of the root of the surname is difficult, especially if there is no information about ethnic composition the population of a region in the Middle Ages. There are many similar surnames - for example, Chavchavadze, Chkheidze, Ordzhonikidze.

Georgian anthroponymics in Russian

There are still disputes over whether it is possible to persuade Georgian anthroponyms. In the very Georgian language no declination, so there is no question. But some insist that the Mingrelian ending -a, which is recorded in Russian documents as -ia, should not be inclined.

Of course, a native speaker of Russian himself is able to figure out whether to persuade him to someone else's name or not. It all depends solely on how much its ending fits into the paradigm of the Russian declension. As a rule, generic names na -ija are declined according to the model of adjective declension, but if you write “a” instead of “I”, the number of those who want to engage in inflection decreases. Some cases are tricky, especially if the -th is at the end.

So, the singer Diana Gurtskaya has a Megrelian surname, which does not change in the masculine gender: her father wore the same, and not Gurtskaya. Nevertheless, it can be declined, but according to the model of nouns in -я. It doesn't sound very familiar to the Russian ear, but there is a possibility. And the surnames in -dze and -shvili are pronounced and written in the same way in all cases.

Attention, only TODAY!

What do the endings -dze, -shvili, and others mean in Georgian surnames?

1. Shvili - son
2. Among all the others, Georgian surnames are easily recognized. They have a characteristic structure and are easy to identify at the end. The surnames of Georgians are composed of two parts: endings and roots. If you are a little guided in this, then in more than half of the cases it is possible to say from which region of Georgia a given genus originates. In total, there are 13 types of endings for Georgian surnames.

   GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF GEORGIAN SURNAMES AND POSSIBLE OPTIONS:
   The most common endings are -shvili and -dze. -dze can be found almost throughout the entire territory of Georgia, especially in Adjara, Guria and Imereti, less often in the eastern part. But -shvili, on the contrary, is found mainly in the eastern part of Georgia: in Kakheti and Kartli. It can be translated into Russian as a son or born, respectively. At present, it is generally accepted that -dze is the ending in the oldest genealogies, and -shvili is more modern. According to unofficial statistics, there are about three million people with such surnames.

   Some of the Georgian surnames originate from the names that the newborn receives at baptism. For example: Matiashvili, Davitashvili, Nikoladze, Georgadze, Tamaridze and many others. Another part of the surnames comes from Muslim or Persian words. A controversial point arises when studying the roots of the Japaridze surname. Perhaps it comes from the Muslim name Jafar, and possibly from the Persian name for the profession of postman (dzapar). In addition to these two main types of Georgian surnames, a special group is represented by surnames ending in -eli, -iti, -ti, -ati. For example, we can cite the notorious of this world: Tsereteli, Rustaveli, and just common Georgian surnames: Dzimiti, Khvarbeti, Chinati.

   The next group of Georgian surnames is represented by surnames ending in -ani: Chikovani, Akhvelediani, Dadiani. These genealogies originate from the rulers of Megrelia. Less common, but still existing surnames of this group, have the endings -uri, -uli, -ava, -ua, -ya and -ya. There are even more representatives of this group of stellar surnames: Danelia, Beria, Okudzhava.

   OSSETIAN AND ABKHAZIAN GROUPS AND RUSSIAN-SPEAKING ENVIRONMENT:
   In the 90s of the last century, part of the Ossetians who were on the territory of Georgia were forced to change their surnames in the Georgian manner. In remote villages and settlements, not very literate officials did not know how to correctly write Ossetian surnames, so they wrote them in the Georgian way. And there were those who wanted among the Ossetians who wanted to get lost among the local population, and changed their surnames to more euphonious for the Georgians. This is how new Georgian surnames appeared, with some accent: Mardzhanov, Tseretelev, Tsitsianov, Tsitsianov. The changes were colossal. For example, the Driaevs were registered as Meladze. In Georgian, mela means a fox, in Russian it would be the surname Lisitsin.

   The population of Abkhazia, and only about 15% of them are blood Abkhazians, bear surnames with the ending in -ba: Eshba, Lakoba, Agzhba. These surnames belong to the North Caucasian Mingrelian group.

   Getting into the Russian-speaking environment, Georgian surnames, as a rule, are not subject to distortion, even despite the complex combination of sounds and significant length. But the influence of the Russian language in some cases still exists: Sumbatov came from Sumbatashvili, Bagration from Bagrationi, Orbeli from Orbeliani, Baratov from Baratashvili, Tsitsianov from Tsitsishvili, Tseretelev from the notorious Tsereteli.

3. lingvoforum.net/index.php?topic=811.0

V.A.Nikonov among colleagues from
Azerbaijan (Frunze, September
1986)

About the author: Nikonov, Vladimir Andreevich(1904-1988). A well-known scientist, one of the largest specialists in onomastics. He is the author of numerous works on the most diverse areas and problems of this science: toponymy, anthroponymy, cosmonomy, zoonymy, etc. For more than 20 years he led the group of onomastics at the Institute of Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He was the initiator and organizer of several conferences on the onomastics of the Volga region (the first took place in 1967).

Work shows versatility scientific interests VA Nikonov and is devoted to Georgian surnames, the geography of their distribution. Known to a narrow circle of onomasts, this work is practically unknown to a wide circle of people interested in Georgian surnames.

The red number in square brackets marks the beginning of the page in the printed version of the article. For the output, see the text of the article.

[p. 150] Although Georgian surnames are several centuries older than Russians, the first of them arose in the 13th century. or even earlier. The bulk of the surnames appeared, probably when Georgia was fragmented into separate and warring feudal possessions. Political, economic, cultural processes in them proceeded in different ways, and the language developed in different ways. These differences gave rise to the variegation of forms of surnames. But nevertheless, linguistic kinship and similar historical features united all Kartvelian ethnographic groups into certain family groups: they are formed by the addition of a second component, which is gradually turning into a suffix (i.e., losing its independent lexical meaning). Only 7–8 such formants form the surnames of 3.5 million Georgians, repeating enormous numbers [p. 151] wah, each in a certain territory. Their statistical and geographical ratios show historical formation Georgian nation. All calculations are made by the author and are published for the first time *.

* Valuable assistance was provided by G. S. Chitaia, Sh. V. Dzidziguri, A. V. Glonti, I. N. Bakradze, S. A. Arutyunov, V. T. Totsuria, A. K. Chkaduya, G. V. Tsulaya, P.A.Tskhadia, as well as Sh.T. Aridonidze, M. Chabashvili, N.G. Volkova, R. Topchishvili, R.M.Shamedashvili, M.S. registry office archive.

Sources: 1) the complete population census of 1886, documents of which are kept in the Central Historical Archives of Georgia 1 (located in Tbilisi); 2) acts of the registry office; 3) lists of voters; 4) telephone and other directories; 5) lists of surnames in studies 2, articles 3, dissertations 4. It is clear that they are not all reducible into a single statistical table. The calculations covered half a million Georgians in all regions (the eastern part of Georgia - completely, except for cities; in the western regions, there are fewer materials - the census fund died in the Kutaisi branch of the archive) in a volume sufficient for statistically reliable indicators.

Two forms of surnames absolutely prevail both in the number of speakers and in territorial coverage: with components -jo in the western part of the republic and -shvili- in the east. The original meaning of both formants is similar: -jo- "son, descendant"; -shvili- "child", "born". They are typologically identical to the names of other peoples: in Germanic languages sep (son, sleep, zones) - "a son"; in Turkic -ogly- "a son", -kyz- "daughter, girl"; all formants appended to the stem meaning father indicate "whose son."

Surnames from canonical names - Giorgadze, Leonidze, Nikolayishvili, etc. - cover only a minority, more often the surnames come from non-church names: Mgeladze, Mchedlishvili, etc. However, one cannot directly link these surnames with common nouns haze- "Wolf"; mchedli- "blacksmith". The first bearer of the surname Mgeladze, like his Russian "namesake" Volkov, was not the son of a wolf, but a Wolf, the bearer of the personal name Mgela.

Another necessary caveat. Surnames with an ethnonym at the base (Svanidze, Javakhidze, Javakhishvili) especially attract the historian and ethnographer, but it is dangerous to forget the principle of relative negative proper nouns: these surnames could not have arisen among the Sa [p. 152] mih Svans or Javakhs (where everyone was a Svan or Javakh), but only outside of it. Their basis could not even denote Svan or Javakh, but only a person who was somewhat similar to them (in clothes or in any other way) who had visited them or traded with them.

Surnames formed with -jo(connected with the stem of the vowel a or and depending on the vowel stems) are assumed to have arisen in the 13th century. They are absolutely dominant in Imereti. In the regions of Ordzhonikidze, Terzhol, the names of -jo cover more than 70% of all inhabitants. As they move away from this core, their frequency decreases. On the southwestern border of Imereti, in the Vani region, more than 2/3 of the population belongs to them (1961), to the west, in Guria (Makharadze and Lanchkhuti regions), more than half. On the opposite northeastern flank, in Lechkhumi, they are worn by almost half of the population, as well as in Racha (now the Oni region). Only in the northwest, in Upper Samegrelo, formant -jo infrequent: in the Gegechkori region - only 7%; it is also in the minority on the northwest coast. In Svaneti surnames with a formant -jo are less than 1/10. Where lies the line, to the west of which prevails -jo, to the east - -shvili? The border between western and eastern Georgia is considered to be the Suram (Likh) ridge, transverse to the ridges of the Greater and Lesser Caucasus, it crosses Georgia in the narrowest place. But dialectologists had to make an amendment, discovering that in the south, eastern dialects sound much west of Borjomi. And the names I collected showed that the predominance of Western -jo to the north of the Kura it is advanced "towards", to the east of Surami. For the south, the data for 1886 are scarce; there were few Georgians in Borjomi and Bakuriani at that time. There are only 573 Georgians in Chobiskhevi, 435 of them with "western" surnames on -jo... Still to the southwest, in the Akhalkalaki region, according to documents from 1970-1971. (in Baraleti, Vachiani, Gogesheni, Diliska, Chunchkhe), surnames on -jo cover even ¾ of the Georgian population. In a strip elongated along the middle course of the Kura (formerly part of Kartli), the formant -jo prevails only in the west - in the Khashur region and further cuts in a deep pointed wedge to the east through the Kareli region (they also prevailed in the villages of Abisi, Arabulani, Areheti, etc.) in the Gori region (the villages of Shertli and Arashenda ), where the surname with this formant breaks off (93 carriers of surnames lived in the village of Araskhevi -jo and 91 - on -shvili).

[p. 153] Placing the data of 1886 on the map according to the modern administrative division, we obtain a strikingly clear profile of this strip from west to east (in parentheses are the calculations according to the documents of the registry offices of 1970-1971), in%:

Registry office acts, in contrast to the census, cover only part of the population, but a distinctly uniform trend, given a sufficiently large volume of counting, suggests that the quantitative expression of "rivalry" -jo and -shvili caught mostly right: the border of eastern and western Georgia, according to the forms of surnames, runs east of the Suram ridge.

Thus, about the zone of statistical vibration -dze / -shvili one can speak in the language of numbers, but a diachronic comparison has to be made.

East of the Suram ridge -jo occurs much less frequently: in Kakheti - only 3–7%. More often they are between Tianeti and Telavi. In northeastern Georgia, surnames on -jo made up only individual nests; several of these nests gravitated towards the Georgian Military Highway, between Kazbegi and Mtskheta.

But two large "islands" of surnames with a formant -jo it is necessary to consider separately. In the extreme north-east of Georgia, in the gorges of the Main Caucasian ridge near the borders with Chechen-Ingushetia and Dagestan, on a territory completely cut off from the entire zone of predominance of the formant -jo(formerly the district of Omalo, later included in Akhmeta), there are Tushins. Almost 2/3 of them (1886) had surnames with the formant -dze, only 23% - -shvili and 10% - -uli, uri... The centuries-old isolation of Tushetia, all ties with which were annually interrupted for 6 months 5, affected everything, and isolation is understandable. Formant penetration -shvili from neighboring Kakheti [p. 154] is also natural: the tushins, whose basis of life was sheep breeding, could not exist without the summer driving of sheep to the Alazani valleys and its tributaries, supplying the king of Kakheti annually with 500 soldiers and 600 sheep. But where, how and when could the West Georgian formant become predominant? -jo? Carcasses came from the west. Surname model on -jo not Kartlian, but Imeretian, however, researchers do not know such a distant center of Tushins. Some pre-revolutionary researchers even suggested that the tushinas originated outside Georgia, but science has no grounds for this 6. Dating is also difficult: the emergence of surnames cannot be attributed to the depths of centuries, and therefore it was difficult for the distant migration of an entire people to elude historians. The Tushins could have brought with them not surnames yet to their modern territory, but their future basis. -jo.

A characteristic detail remained not only not explained, but also unnoticed: in contrast to the different frequency of connecting vowels ( -and, and) in the surnames of Tushin only and... For example, in the village. Gogrulti are all eight surnames (81 people - Bukuridze, Dzhokharidze, etc.), in the village. Given - 82 people with -idze(Tataridze, Cherpeidze, etc.) and not a single surname with -adze... In 1886, 2660 tushins bore surnames from -idze and only 162 - with -adze... Such a ratio, excluding chance, requires the attention of researchers - it is essential for the history of the Tushinas and their language. Is it connected with the Megrelian-Imeretian law of appearance and after the basics with the final -a(Tushin surnames Bgardaidze, Tsaidze, Gochilaidze, etc.). Or are there other reasons? Perhaps this feature will help researchers in their search for a long-standing hotbed of tushin. But still, most of the Tushino surnames are without a connecting -a-: Bakhoridze, Khutidze, etc. And one more detail that no one pointed out: the combination -a-(often written -ay-: Omaidze, Idaidze, Tsaidze, etc. - the census forms are written in Russian) - the Tushin surnames have retained the ancient Georgian form. This was noticed by L. M. Chkhenkeli, to whom the author is grateful.

Another "island" of surnames on -jo- Tbilisi. Although the city is located in the territory dominated by surnames on -shvili, but each capital incorporates the features of all parts of the country. A curious paradox: in Tbilisi, the names of -jo less than -shvili, and the number of their carriers is opposite: -jo about 45% at 30% -shvili... The most frequent surnames of the capital are Japaridze (there are more than 4 thousand of them [p. 155]), Dolidze, Kalandadze, Lordkipanidze.

In most of eastern Georgia, surnames formed by the formant prevail -shvili... It is also ancient, known from the XIV century. (Burdishshvili in the "Monument to the Eristavs", but it is not known whether this is a surname or a sliding dedication). In the surnames of Kakheti, according to the 1886 census, it is monopoly: in the former Telavsky u. formant -shvili covered more than 9/10 of all residents. In northeastern Georgia (formerly Dusheti and Tianetsky districts), in addition to the slopes of the Main Caucasian ridge, to the surnames co -shvili 2/3 of the population belonged to, as well as to the west in Kartalinia (Mtskheta and Gori districts) In the western part of Georgia, surnames with -shvili are also not isolated, in Racha and Lechkhum they are only slightly less frequent than with -jo... Even in the very center of dominance -jo surnames with -shvili today they cover almost ¼ of the population, and in the southwest (Guria) - about 1/5. But in the northwest they are rare: in Samegrelo - about 5%, and in Svaneti they do not even reach 1%.

Formant -shvili several surnames were formed from female names: Tamarashvili, Shushanashvili, Zhuzhanashvili, Darejanishvili, Sulikashvili. You cannot associate all these surnames with illegitimate children; perhaps they arose when the widow endured the upbringing of children and the hardships of the household on her shoulders 7. Apparently, the regional increase in the frequency of surnames from female stems is due to the historical and everyday features of the region (among the French, according to A. Dose, it is characteristic in Normandy).

In western Georgia, surnames on -a, -ua: Tskhakaia, Chitana (a confluence of vowels, avoided by the Russian language, in Russian the pronunciation is iotated, orthographically Tskhakaia, Reading). Formant comes from the Mingrelian language, which is closely related to Georgian. Researchers see in this form more early form -iani with the subsequent truncation of the final part. Initially, such naming conventions, apparently, served as definitions close in meaning to the Russian adjectives 8. In the foundations of surnames there are many words, actually Mingrelian (Chkonia from Mingrelian. chkony- "oak", or Topyria from Mingrelian. topuri- "honey").

In the territory between the Black Sea, Abkhazia, Svanetia and the lower reaches of the Rioni rivers and its right tributary Tskhenis-Tskali, the surnames on -a, -ua cover the majority of the population: in the Gegechkori region, according to documents from 1970-1971, they cover 61%, in the Kho region [p. 156] bi - 52%; among them surnames on -ia(Zhvania, Tskhadaya) are found several times more often than on -ua(Dondua, Sturua). They are in Svaneti (Chkadua) and in neighboring Abkhazia. And south of Rioni, their frequency drops sharply: in Guria they do not exceed 1/10, to the east, in Imereti, even less - 3%, then they are only sporadic (except for Tbilisi, where they occupy third place after -jo and -shvili- about 9%, i.e. more than 100 thousand people). Surnames are much less (both quantitatively and geographically) -ava, also of Megrelian origin: Papava, Lezhava, Chikobava, etc. The etymology of many surnames with -ava are unclear. The words from which they arose are lost and are restored only through historical reconstruction (in particular, with the help of A.S. Chikobava's dictionary) 9. On Black sea coast, north of the mouth of the Rioni, surnames with -ava take second place, second only to surnames on -a, -ua; for example, in the Khobi region, they cover about 1/5 of the entire Georgian population (they are especially numerous in the village of Patara-Poti on the Rioni, but their area is small). Even nearby, in Guria, they own only about 3%, to the east, throughout Imeretin, they do not even reach 1% everywhere, and then they are represented only by single families, with the exception of Tbilisi, where they make up 3-4%.

Formant -ava seemed to N. Ya.Marr a changed Abkhazian -ba... But such a connection (apparently inspired by territorial proximity) is illusory. She was convincingly rejected by S. Janashia, he suggested the origin -ava from Megrelian -van with a truncation of the final -n... This was supported by G.V. Rogava 10. However, later a different explanation was put forward: the Megrelian -ava comes from the Georgian-Svan e-a, transition l into a semi-vowel sound v- the result of labialization (degradation) l eleven . It is too early to recognize the dispute as resolved due to the paucity of arguments.

In live speech, Mingrelian intervocal v often falls out and -ava pronounced long a 12, but this is not reflected in the letter.

In Svaneti more than 4/5 of the population have surnames formed by the Georgian and Svan formants -ani, -iani... He developed various shades values ​​from "belonging to whom" to "possessing what", as well as collectiveness - Leliani- "reeds". This formant formed many Georgian words ( mariliani- "salty" from marili- "salt"; tsoliani from tsoli- "wife", etc.). In the inversion ("reverse") dictionary of Georgians [p. 157] of the Chinese language, 4197 words are given in -ani, of which 3272 - on -iani... The initial meanings of the surnames formed by him: Zurabiani - "belonging to Zurab" (that is, a descendant of Zurab); Orbeliani - “belonging to the Orbeli clan”; Oniani - "arrived from Oni" (They are the center of the region adjacent to Svaneti).

Map 1. Zones of distribution of Georgian surnames with endings in:

1 - -dze; 2 - -shvili; 3 - -a, -ua; 4 - -ani (-iani); 5. - -ava; 6. - -li, -uri; 7. - - (n) ty
Solid lines indicate a predominant shape, dashed lines indicate a less frequent shape

The most frequent surname Svanov - Liparteliani. It is widespread in Lower Svaneti (the villages of Lentekhi, Heledi, Khopuri, Chaluri, etc.). Its basis is lipariters(loss of the middle and natural due to the reduction in the Svan speech), in which - if- "origin suffix" (compare the surname Kutateli from the common noun tippers- "Kutaisi", that is, who arrived from the city of Kutaisi). But the meanings of the suffix are not limited to an indication of the place, but is much broader, it is attached to both personal names and common nouns. Dividing it, we find the basis liparite... Georgians have known a man's personal name for a long time Liparite and patronize from him - Liparity... The oldest example is the Liparity at the court of Queen Tamar (1036). In 1615 Lipartian is known - the ruler of Megrelia. First time about naming with -no the Georgian scholar Brosset wrote in 1849: “The form Davidite, the surname, is very archaic and occurs no more than two or three times in Georgian memorials [p. 158] kakh: Liparitet, son of Liparit ”14. This observation slipped unnoticed. A hundred years later, S. Janashia casually mentioned: "The Liparitet form is one of the forms of Georgian surnames" 15. But only later did V. Dondua devote a meaningful note to it, collecting numerous examples from documents, mainly of the 13th century. (Kononet, Ionoset, Pavleet, etc.), rightly pointing out that they “are not noticed or interpreted incorrectly” 16. He sees in the formant -no multiplicity indicator (with which the formant -éti, common in Georgian names of countries - Osseti, "country of the wasps", ie, Ossetians). But it is doubtful to recognize these examples as surnames: perhaps they are still generic names, so to speak, "first names", at best "prototypes". But most likely the emergence of a name on the basis of the Svan language, in which the prefix whether- extremely frequent, forming nouns and adjectives.

Surnames formed with -ani, -iani, are very frequent in Lechkhumi - in the mountain valleys of the southern slopes of the Main Caucasian ridge near the borders of Svaneti. There, surnames with -ani cover 38% of the total population (second only to surnames with -jo). Of course, this is not the way of the Svans from the valleys to the mountains, on the contrary, they came from Colchis. But the Svans did not bring surnames with them, from the southwest, but acquired them already in their modern homeland, the southeastern flank of which was the territory of Lechkhumi.

Formant -ani- common for Georgians. It is not uncommon in surnames outside Svaneti (Abastiani, Mibchuani, etc.), but only in Tbilisi and Racha (neighboring Lechkhumi and Svaneti) it reaches 4%; throughout western Georgia there are 1-3% of such surnames, and in eastern Georgia - less than 0.1%.

Different surnames are heard in the mountains and foothills in the north of eastern Georgia. The Khevsurs, Pshavs, Mtiuls inhabiting it are dominated by surnames formed by the formant -uli (-uri), ancient Georgian, but still alive ( rusuli- "Russian"). The foundations of the surnames Aludauri, Tsiskariuli, Chincharauli and others are old Khevsurian non-church male names, the meanings of some have been lost, some are clear: Khevsur. chinchara- "nettle". Perhaps the surname was inspired by the formula that was recently pronounced by the priest at the Mtiul wedding: “So that the offspring multiplied like nettles” 17. Among the bases of all surnames with -li, -suri there is not a single church name, although Christianity among the mountaineers of the Central Caucasus is several centuries older than surnames. This is essential [p. 159] the researchers did not notice the contradiction. Of course, church name everyone received, but in Everyday life the familiar, the familiar, prevailed, just as customs or clothing persisted.

The time of origin of the mountain surnames is unknown, but there is a relative date "not later": the hero folk tales Aptsiauri raised the people to fight the feudal lords in early XVII v. Choice r / l in these surnames is phonetically dissimilative in relation to the stem: if the stem is l then appears in the suffix R(Tsiklauri), and if the basis is R, then in the suffix - vice versa l(Arabuli).

Among the Khevsurs, this form of surnames is almost monopoly. In the northernmost mountain villages of Gudani, Guli, Shatili, it covered 95%: out of 2600 people, only 130 bore other surnames. In the zone of the Khevsur center of Barisakho, seven villages (800 people) were only carriers of surnames in -huri (-uli), and 202 bearers of the Likokeli surname lived in three smaller villages. On the Black Aragva (Gudamakari gorge) surnames with -suri accounted for 85% (all data 1886).

Map 2. Migration of parts of the Pshav and Khevsurs
surnames (according to data from 1886)

1 - Arabuli; 2 - Apuiauri; 3 - Tsiklauri; 4 - Chincharauli

To the south, among the Pshavs, who are connected with the Kakhetians more closely than the isolated high ridges of the Khevsurs, the model of surnames with -li, -suri less frequent than in Khevsureti; it covered a third of the Pshavs, as did the Mtiuls on the river. White Aragvi. Along the Georgian Military Highway from Dusheti to Kazbegi, surnames on -shvili and even -jo, but also in the Dusheti lower reaches of the Aragva surnames on -li still accounted for 20%. They spread to the south-west - to the Kura: in the village. Shubati (now in the southern part of the Kaspi region), the 1886 census registered Bekauri, Tsiklauri, Aptsiauri, just like in the Black Aragva, that is, the surnames [p. 160] directly indicate where and where the migration of the mountaineers went.

The return of the highlanders to the valleys from the high mountain gorges, where their former invasions had been driven back, began long ago. Documents report repeated migrations in the second half of the last century. They were carried out gradually, over short distances, but there were also distant transitions. R.A.Topchishvili collected a lot of material about them in his dissertation, pointing out the literature of question 18. But even without a single document, it is enough to map the distribution of surnames to get a picture of migration in the lower reaches of the Aragva, Iori, Alazia, and in some places further up and down the Kura. A story about this whole stream would take dozens of pages, but we have to limit ourselves to an example of two surnames, omitting the names of villages and the number of speakers. The surname Tsiklauri is recorded in 35 villages - from Kazbek along Aragva and Iori to the south almost to Mtskheta, to the southeast almost to Telavi; the surname Chincharauli - in 17 villages - from Shatili (near the borders with Checheno-Ingushetia) to the south to Dusheti and beyond Tianeti. In Tianetsky y. and the northwestern part of Telavsky u. carriers of surnames with a formant -li, -suri in 1886 they accounted for 20 to 30% of the population, in Telavi and further they barely reached 2%. Some also settled in Tbilisi.

In contrast to lowland Georgia, where the villages are multi-family, the northeast is characterized by an extremely high concentration: sometimes not only entire villages, but also groups of them are inhabited by namesakes. According to the 1886 census, in the villages of Gveleti, Datvisi, Okherhevi, Chirdili, all 73 courtyards with 314 inhabitants bore the surname Arabuli; Guro, all 220 residents were Gogochuri, in the village. Blo all 192 inhabitants - Gigauri. These are no exceptions. It is not surprising that the name of the village is often identical with the surname of the inhabitants. In the mountains, the mixing of the population is difficult, the influx from the outside is weaker there. A similar phenomenon in Upper Samegrelo was noted by P.A.Tskhadaia 19. But another factor probably acted even more strongly: the pressure of the communal order, due to which people settled and moved not by individual families, but by their whole groups - patronyms. Surnames form huge tracts: Arabuli were found in 20 villages - 1158 people, Chincherauli - in 17 villages - 885 people (1886), etc.

The families were extremely large. In the materials of the 1886 census, families of 20-30 people are not uncommon. Highlanders [p. 161] of the Gudamkar gorge, even in the 20s of our century, families of 30-40 people were preserved 20. Decay process large families proceeded already in the XIX century. - in the census forms of 1886, there are constant notes: “they have been living separately for seven years without a judgment from society” (in the village of Midelauri, where 49 residents bore the name Midelauri), that is, the family was separated without permission; the community refused to legalize the partition for many years.

The ratio of the components of surnames is historically variable. So, for the Pshavs over the past centuries, new surnames, arising from the splitting of large families, are formed by the formant -shvili, but not -ur or -ul(reported by G. Javakhishvili and R. Topchishvili). By a happy coincidence, from an ethnographic expedition to the Black Aragvi, the ethnographer of the Academy of Sciences of the GSSR T. Sh. Tsagareishvili brought material about modern surnames on the Black Aragva and we were able to put our data next to each village. Over the course of 100 years, considerable changes have taken place in the life of the highlanders, the elimination of the exploiting classes, the shift of the population from the high-mountain gorges to the valleys, the disappearance of small high-mountain settlements. But the ratio of the forms of surnames is nevertheless close: in Kitokhi and surrounding settlements today the same surnames (Bekauri, Tsiklauri), as well as a hundred years ago, however, the surnames on -shvili, which were alluvial even 100 years ago.

In general, the isolation of surnames is noticeably decreasing everywhere. For comparison, consider the ratio of carriers of the surname to -li, -suri in the named regions and in adjacent territories (in terms of the modern administrative division) in relation to the entire population, in%:

	1886 (census)	1970-1971 (marriage registry)
Kazbegi district	42	26
North of Dusheti region	95	85

That is, in these areas, visitors from different parts of Georgia flock to the indigenous population. The local population also does not remain motionless - all over Georgia you can find surnames with the formant -li, -suri... The total number of their speakers is several dozen you [p. 162], of which approximately 15 thousand are in Tbilisi (1% of the city's inhabitants).

The carriers of surnames formed by the formant are not very numerous - if(Mehateli, Tsereteli), which has already been discussed, and there are only a few dozen of these surnames. They are scattered in nests in many places in Georgia. These surnames are based on toponyms (Mtatsmindeli from Mtatsminda - "holy mountain" over Tbilisi), ethnonyms (Pshaveli), anthroponym (Barateli) or common nouns. The largest nest of surnames on - if meet at far north eastern Georgia, in the center of Khevsureti. There, in the midst of a solid mass of surnames with a formant -li The 1886 census recorded 202 people named Likokeli (in the villages of Chana, Kartsault, and others, where there was not a single person with a different last name). Other formant slots - if found in the regions of Oni, Mtskheta, Tianeti, Telavi; in Tbilisi, bearers of surnames on - if make up more than 2% - Tsereteli, Amashukeli, Veshapeli, Gamrekeli, etc. - if not the suffix that forms them. For example, the surname Amaglobeli is verbalized - the participle "uplifting", and Gvardtsiteli from citli- "Red". Many surnames with this formant have been completed with another formant (Gogeliani, Kvaratskhelia, etc.).

There are very few surnames on - (n) ty, but they are very often repeated: Zhgenti, Glonti. Their focus is strictly outlined territorially - Guria in the south-west of Georgia (regions of Lanchkhuti, Makharadze, Chokhaturi). But even here they make up about 1%, except for individual villages, like Aketi in the Lanchkhuti region, where Glonti is especially abundant. This formant is of Zan (Laz) language origin, in it -n- connecting component. Alleged connection - (n) ty with common Georgian -mt 21 does not clarify its origin and original meaning.

The Laz language dominated Colchis antique era... Back in the 19th century. the holes were numerous there; most of them ended up in Turkey, some at the beginning of our century lived to the north - in Imereti and Abkhazia. I. R. Megrelidze gave 23 Laz surnames published in the Laz newspaper Mchita Murtskhuli, published in 1929 in Sukhumi 22, all with the ending -shi... Basically, Laz merged with closely related Mingrelians. The formant came from their language -shi, which in Guria formed the surname Tugushi, Khalvashi, Tsulushi, [p. 163] Kutushi, Nakashi, etc. (if the stem ends in sonoric consonants p, l, n, m, then instead of -shi sounded -chi). For Mingrelians, these surnames end in -sia(surname Janashia). In the Laz language, this formant formed adjectives with the meaning of belonging. Half a century ago, these endings were no longer perceived as a suffix, completely merging with the stem. There are many more surnames than with - (n) ty but in terms of the number of speakers, the ratio is inverse. Today they are not uncommon in Lanchkhut and Maharadze regions.

Borrowed surnames with -ba(Abkhaz. ba- "child"), the only one - with an old Adyghe -kva(rare surname Ingorokva, she is a pseudonym famous writer I. Ingorokva), Armenian s -yan(from -yants).

Forms of naming women were characteristic in western Georgia. In his work "Women's family names in the South Caucasian languages ​​and folklore" I.V. Megrelidze gave valuable, but, alas, very fragmentary information about them 23. In the 30s of our century, the old people of Guria still remembered that married women used to be called their maiden names; when contacting relatives or mentioning them in absentia, endings were replaced -dze, -shvili, -ia, -ua and others on -phe... In the distant past, there were prominent Laz clans Zhurdanipkhe, Kontipkhe, Pochupkhe and others. 24. i.e. -phe once served as a sign not of gender, but of nobility, followed by forgiveness in -he(Lolukhe from the surname Lolua, Katsirikhe from Katsarav), and its meaning was erased and even turned into the opposite. The researcher noted that in the 30s of our century -phe already had a slightly dismissive tone. Married women usually called by the last name of the husband, using in front maiden name, that is, the name of the father in the genitive case - with the exponent -is: Dolidzis asuli Beridze - "daughter of Dolidze, married to Beridze" ( asauli or kali- "daughter"). There are vivid social and linguistic processes that have so far eluded scientific study. Their significance is clear from the broad parallels: the brightest heroine of Old Russian poetry is named only by her patronymic — Yaroslavna; centuries later, the naming of wives by their husbands - Pavlikha, Ivanikh, was recorded in Novgorod (this is also known among the southern Slavs). Historically, the position of a woman has changed, and her name has also changed.

[p. 164] According to the frequency ratio of the forms of surnames in Georgia, 12 territories can be distinguished:

1. Houri... Southwestern Georgia between the Adjarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the Black Sea and the lower course of the Rioni. Administrative regions: Lanchkhuti, Makharadze, Chokhatauri. Formant prevails -jo(more than half of the population; 20% - -shvili), surnames on -ia(more than 12%), -ava(3%), the only hearth in the world - (n) ty(Zhgeiti, Gloyati), although they constitute only 1%; there is -shi.

2. Samegrelo... Northwestern Georgia, between the Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the Black Sea and the lower course of the Rioni. Districts: Khobi, Mikha, Tskhakaya, Poti, Zugdidi, Gegechkori, Chkhorotsku, Tsalenjikha. Surnames on -a, -ua covering from 50 to 60%; on -ava – 24%, -jo- from 10 to 16%; less often - on -shvili(4-6%), noticeable -ani (2%).

3. Svaneti... Districts: Mestia and Lentekhi. Surnames on -ani, -iani- over 80%; is on -jo (9%), -a, -ua(up to 5%).

4. Lechkhumi and Lower Racha... South of Svaneti, mainly Tsageri and Ambrolauri districts. Surnames with a formant prevail -jo(46%), a lot with -ani(38%), yes -shvili (8%), -a, -ua (3%), -ava, -li(2% each).

5. Racha... District Oni. Flank "vibration zone" surnames on -jo(48%) and on -shvili(42%), often with - if(6%) and -ani (4%).

6. Imereti. The rest of the regions of western Georgia from Samtredia to Ordzhonikidze inclusive. Surnames with the formant absolutely prevail -jo(over 70%); with -shvili cover about 1/4 of the population; with -ava(to the west) and -ani(to the north) - 1% each.

7. Kartliya. A strip to the south of the South Ossetian Autonomous Okrug in a share of the middle reaches of the Kura. Districts: Khashuri, Kareli, Gori, Kaspi, Mtskheta. "Vibration zone" formants -jo(in the west they cover 3/4 of all residents, in the east - 1/10) and -shvili(from 1/4 in the west to 2/3 in the east).

8. Northeast... Districts: Dusheti and Tianeti. In the northern part, inhabited for a long time by the Pshavs and Khevsurs, surnames with the formant prevail -li, -suri; in the southern part, they covered 20-30% of the population; against, -shvili with a small number of them in the north, up to 2/3 in the south.

[p. 165] 9. Heavy... Kazbegi region bordering on the North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and South Ossetian Autonomous Okrug. More than 40% of surnames with -shvili, more than 25% - with -li, -suri; in 1886 a lot with -jo.

10. Tusheti... Near the borders with the Chechen-Ingush and Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, the former Omalo region, now the northern part of the Akhmeta region. Absolutely prevailed -idze(almost 2/3), the rest are so -shvili, -uli, -uri.

11. Kakheti... All southeastern Georgia. Districts Telavi, Sighnaghi, Kvareli, Gurjaani, etc. -shvili: for the most part, they exceed 90%, in places where surnames are interspersed with -jo (3–4%), -li, -suri (1–2%).

12. Tbilisi... As in every capital, features of all parts of Georgia are presented. Surnames prevail on -jo(more than 40%) and -shvili(about 30%), and -a, -ua(less than 10%), -ani (4%), -li, -suri even less often a small amount of on -nti

72 24 1 1 1 – – 1 Racha49 41 4 – – – – 6 Mtskheta16 72 – – – 7 7 5 Dusheti and Tianeti14 43 – – – 37 – 6 Kazbegi15 57 – – – 26 – 2 Tusheti76 11 – – – 13 – – Kakheti8 90 – – – 1 – 1 Tbilisi45 30 4 9 4 2 . 6 * Dash means no surname, full stop means less than 0.5%.

The entire southern strip of Georgia is left out of consideration. In the XVII century. it was completely devastated by the shah's and sultan's hordes. Georgians began to return there from [p. 166] le accession to Russia, but even in late XIX v. there were few of them. Later they moved there from different parts Georgia, and their names represent a motley picture, for the analysis of which too much material is needed, which the author does not yet have. Another disadvantage of the material is the lack of data on the height of the terrain. In such a mountainous country as Transcaucasia, vertical zoning in any respect plays the same role as the horizontal one. In my works, this is shown on the example of toponymy 25. Of course, most of what has been said in relation to the spread of surnames refers to the passing past. The former disunity and hostility is over forever. In modern Soviet Georgia, the Svans, Pshavs, Mingrelians work, study, and rest hand in hand in the workshops of Rustavi and the auditoriums of the Tbilisi University, in the mines of Tkibuli and the beaches of Kolkhida. There are no former borders between them. Today, families are common in which a pile is married to a Kakhetian woman or a Megrelka is married to a Khevsur. Their child is growing up as a member of a single Georgian socialist nation. How and from what ethnic communities and ethnographic groups it took shape, they tell the names that reflect the history of the people and their language.

19 Tskhadaia P. A. Toponymy of mountain Megrelia.'Tbilisi, 1975; Tskhadaia N.A.On the function of the prefix on in the anthroponyms of Gornaya Megrelia // Mashne. Tbilisi, 1974. No. 1. On the cargo. lang.

20 Panek L. Mtiuly. P. 11.

21 Megrelidze I. R. Laz and Megrelian layers in the Gurian. L., 1938.S. 141.

22 Ibid. P. 140.

23 In memory of acad. N. Ya. Marr. M .; L., 1938. S. 152-181.

24 Ibid. P. 176.

25 Nikonov V.A. Introduction to toponymy. M., 1964. S. 103–104.

Georgian surnames tend to differ depending on which part of the country.

Some of the surnames are derived from baptismal names, that is, given at birth: Nikoladze, Tamaridze, Georgadze, Davitashvili, Matiashvili, Ninoshvili, etc. There are surnames formed from Muslim names of various origins: Japaridze ("jafar", unless this surname is formed from the Persian dzapar - "postman"), Narimanidze, etc. Most of the surnames (especially in "-dze") are derived from other less clear bases: Vachnadze, Kavtaradze, Chkheidze, Yenukidze, Ordzhonikidze, Chavchavadze, Svanidze (from "svan") , Lominadze (lomi- "lion"), Gaprindashvili, Khananashvili, Kalandarishvili (from Persian kalantar - "the first person in the city"), Dzhugashvili ("dzug" - "flock", "flock" / Osset.) In addition to these two main types (patronymic in origin), there are other, less common, but also very fully represented types of surnames, indicating the place or family from which their bearer comes from. One of these types are surnames in "-eli" (rarely "-ali"): Rustaveli, Tsereteli, etc. A number of localities end in "-ti". "-Ati", "-iti": Dzimiti, Oseti, Khvarbeti, Chinati, etc.

In western and central Georgia, many surnames end in the suffix “-dze” (Georgian ძე), literally meaning “son” (obsolete). This ending is the most common, found almost everywhere, less often in the east. Basically, such surnames are common in Imereti, in the regions of Ordzhonikidze, Terjol, surnames in -dze cover more than 70% of all residents, as well as in Guria, Adjara, they are also found in Kartli and Racha-Lechkhumi. Examples: Gongadze (Imereti), Dumbadze (Guria), Silagadze (Lechkhumi), Archuadze (Racha). Due to the wide distribution of this ending, it is difficult to determine the origin, in this case, one must pay attention to the root of the surname.

Surnames in eastern Georgia (as well as among Georgian Jews) often end in “-shvili” (Georgian შვილი), which means “child, child” (in fact, both of these endings (-ძე and -შვილი) are synonymous). In Kakheti, most surnames have exactly the ending -შვილი. There are also many such surnames in Kartli. Less common in western Georgia.

Surnames from the eastern mountain provinces in Georgia often end with the suffix “-uri” (Georgian ური), or “-uli” (Georgian ული), if the letter “r” is present in the root (Example: Gigauri, Tsiklauri, Guruli, Chkareuli ). This ending is found mainly among the eastern highlanders, such as the Khevsurs, Pshavs, carcasses, Mtiuly, Khevinians, and so on.

Surnames

According to a 2012 report from the Civil Registry Agency of Georgia, the most common Georgian surnames registered in the country are:

Midelashvili Khvtiso Avtondilovich

Names

Among the Georgian names there are many beautiful famous names and those that testify to the ties of Georgians with neighboring peoples at various stages of history.

Female names

9 most common names in Georgia (as of 2012, according to the database).