Nation based on last name ending. How to determine Jewish roots

The history of the origin of a surname is always a lot of mystery. This is what leads people to want to know how this integral element of our personality came about.

Surnames with suffixes -ov and -ev

According to statistics, about 60% of the Russian population have surnames with the suffixes -ov and -ev. Such surnames are considered originally Russian, suggesting that they are of ancestral origin. Initially, Russian surnames came from patronymics. For example, Ivan, who was the son of Peter, was called Ivan Petrov. After surnames came into use in the 13th century, they began to be given based on oldest man in the family. So, not only the sons, but also the grandchildren and great-grandsons of Peter became Petrovs.

To diversify surnames, they began to be given based on nicknames. Thus, the descendants of Beloborodov also received the surname Beloborodov, passing it on to their descendants from generation to generation. They began to give surnames depending on the person’s occupation. That's why the Goncharovs, Kuznetsovs, Plotnikovs, Popovs and others appeared sonorous surnames. You can be sure that Kuznetsov’s great-grandfather had a forge, and Popov had priests in his family.

Surnames with the suffix -ev were given to those people whose names, nicknames or the name of the specialization of their ancestors ended in a soft consonant. This is how the Ignatievs, Bondarevs and others appeared.

Surnames with the suffixes -in and -yn

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

So, the surname Minin means “son of Mina.” By the way, Mina is popular in Rus' female name. For example, the surname Semin comes from the name Semyon. Interestingly, the name Semyon comes from Simeon, which in ancient times meant “heard by God.” That's pretty much how they formed popular surnames- Nikitin, Ilyin, Fomin and many others.

Also, some surnames indicate that a person’s ancestors belonged to a particular profession. For example, the surname Rogozhin indicates that a person’s ancestors traded matting or were engaged in its production. It cannot be stated with absolute certainty, because even now many disputes continue, but it is assumed that the surnames Pushkin, Gagarin, Zimin, Korovin, Ovechkin, Borodin also came from the names of things, phenomena, animals or professions.

Still, experts say that you first need to find out what word underlies the surname, and only then can you talk about professional occupations or nicknames of distant ancestors from which the surname came.

Based on materials:

You will need

A sheet of paper, a pen, the ability to do morphemic parsing of a word, an etymological dictionary of the Russian language, a dictionary foreign words.

Instructions

Take a piece of paper and a pen. Write your last name and highlight all the morphemes in it: root, suffix, ending. This preparatory stage will help you determine which surname your family belongs to.

Pay attention to the suffix. Since in Russian more often than others foreign names occur, these can be the following suffixes: “enko”, “eyko”, “ovsk/evsk”, “ko”, “point”. That is, if your last name is Tkachenko, Shumeiko, Petrovsky or Gulevsky, Klitschko, Marochko, you should look for distant relatives on the territory of Ukraine.

Look at the root of the word if the suffix does not answer the question of what nationality your last name is. Often its basis is one or another object, animal,... As an example, we can cite the surname Gonchar, the Ukrainian Gorobets (translated as Sparrow), the Jewish Rabin ("rabbi").

Count the number of roots in a word. Sometimes the surname consists of two words. For example, Ryabokon, Beloshtan, Krivonos. Similar surnames refer to Slavic peoples(Russians, Belarusians, Poles, etc.), but are also found in other languages.

Rate your surname in terms of belonging to to the Jewish people. Common Jewish surnames contain the roots “Levi” and “Cohen”, found in the surnames Levitan, Levin, Kogan, Katz. Their owners descended from ancestors who were in the rank of clergy. There are also surnames that came from male (Moses, Solomon) or female names (Rivkin, Beilis), or were formed from a merger male name and suffix (Abrahams, Jacobson, Mandelstam).

Remember, does Tatar blood flow in your veins? If your surname consists of a combination of words and suffixes “in”, “ov” or “ev”, then the answer is obvious - there were . This is especially clearly seen in the example of such names as Bashirov, Turgenev, Yuldashev.

Determine which language the surname belongs to, based on the following clues:
- if it has the prefix “de” or “le”, look for roots in France;
- if the surname sounds like English name territory (eg Welsh), quality of person (Sweet) or profession (Carver), relatives should be sought in the UK;
- the same rules apply to German surnames. They are derived from profession (Schmidt), nickname (Klein), name (Peters);
- Polish surnames can be recognized based on the sound - Kowalczyk, Sienkiewicz.
Look in a dictionary of foreign words if you have difficulty assigning a surname to a particular language.

Video on the topic

note

If your last name is Jewish origin, from it you can determine the territory of residence of your ancestors. Thus, Slavic Jews bear the surnames Davidovich, Berkovich, Rubinchik. They sound very similar to Russian patronymics and diminutive names of objects. The surnames of Polish Jews differ in their suffixes. For example, Padva.

Helpful advice

To compose family tree or find distant relatives, but not make a mistake in interpreting the surname by nationality, you should rely not only on the root and suffix, but also on the environment. After all, the most common name Ivan has a Hebrew past, and surnames derived from it are found among Russians, Mari, Mordvins, Chuvash - Ivanaev, Vankin, Ivashkin, Ivakin, etc. Therefore, do not be lazy to look into the etymological dictionary.

Sources:

what is the nationality of the name
If your last name ends in ov/-ev, -in then I will

The word surname in translation means family (Latin familia - family). Last name is given name clan community - united primary social units connected by blood ties. How do the names of surnames arise, what is the principle of the formation of Russian surnames, in particular, surnames starting with “-ov”.

The emergence of surnames

The emergence and spread of surnames in Rus' was gradual. The first nicknames were acquired by the citizens of Veliky Novgorod and the lands under its jurisdiction. Chronicle evidence draws our attention to this fact, telling about the Battle of the Neva in 1240.

Later, in the XIV – XV centuries, family names princes began to appear. Called by the name of the inheritance they owned, having lost it, the princes began to reserve its name for themselves and their descendants as a family name. This is how the Vyazemskys (Vyazma), Shuiskys (Shuya) and others appeared noble families. At the same time, they began to take hold, originating from the nicknames: Lykovs, Gagarins, Gorbatovs.

Boyarsky and then noble families, due to their lack of inheritance status, were formed in to a greater extent from nicknames. The formation of a surname on behalf of the ancestor has also become widespread. Bright to that the reigning family in Russia - the Romanovs.

Romanovs

The ancestors of this ancient boyar family were ancestors who wore different time nicknames: Mare, Koshka Kobylin, Koshkins. The son of Zakhary Ivanovich Koshkin, Yuri Zakharovich, was already called by his father and by his nickname - Zakharyin-Koshkin. In turn, his son, Roman Yuryevich, bore the surname Zakharyev-Yuryev. The Zakharyins were also the children of Roman Yuryevich, but with their grandchildren (Fyodor Nikitich - Patriarch Filaret), the family continued under the name of the Romanovs. With the surname Romanov, Mikhail Fedorovich was chosen to the royal throne.

Last name as personal identification

The establishment of passports by Peter I in 1719 for the convenience of collecting poll taxes and carrying out recruitment gave rise to the spread of surnames for men of all classes, including peasants. At first, along with the name, a patronymic and/or nickname was written in, which then became the owner’s surname.

Formation of Russian surnames into –ov/-ev, -in

The most common Russian surnames are derived from personal names. As a rule, this is the name of the father, but more often the grandfather. That is, the surname was fixed in the third generation. In this case, the personal name of the ancestor passed into the category possessive adjectives, formed from the name using the suffixes –ov/-ev, -in and answering the question “whose?”
“Whose Ivan? - Petrov."

In the same way in late XIX– at the beginning of the 20th century, Russian officials formed and recorded the surnames of the inhabitants of the Russian Transcaucasus and Central Asia.

Have you ever wondered about the origin of your last name? In fact, this is very interesting, because the surname makes it possible to find out a person’s nationality and roots. To figure out what nationality a particular surname belongs to, you need to pay attention to suffixes and endings.

So, the most common suffix Ukrainian surnames - “-enko” (Bondarenko, Petrenko, Timoshenko, Ostapenko). Another group of suffixes is “-eiko”, “-ko”, “-ochka” (Belebeyko, Bobreiko, Grishko). The third suffix is “-ovsky” (Berezovsky, Mogilevsky). Often among Ukrainian surnames you can find those that come from the names of professions (Koval, Gonchar), as well as from combinations of two words (Sinegub, Belogor).

Among Russians surnames The following suffixes are common: “-an”, “-yn”, -“in”, “-skikh”, “-ov”, “-ev”, “-skoy”, “-tskoy”, “-ikh”, “ -s.” It is easy to guess that the following can be considered examples of such surnames: Smirnov, Nikolaev, Donskoy, Sedykh.

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

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

In front of many French surnames there is an insertion “Le”, “Mon” or “De” (Le Germain, Le Pen).

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

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

Italian surnames are formed using the following suffixes: “-ini”, “-ino”, “-ello”, “-illo”, “-etti”, “-etto”, “-ito” (Moretti, Benedetto).

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

Norwegian surnames are formed using the suffix “en” (Larsen, Hansen). Surnames without a suffix at all are also popular (Per, Morgen). Surnames are often formed from the given name natural phenomena or animals (Blizzard - blizzard, Svane - swan).

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

U Estonians by last name you cannot understand whether a person is masculine or feminine (Simson, Nahk).

U Jewish surnames There are two common roots - Levi and Cohen. Most surnames are formed from male names (Solomon, Samuel). There are also surnames that are formed using suffixes (Abramson, Jacobson).

Belarusian surnames end in “-ich”, “-chik”, “-ka”, “-ko”, “-onak”, “-yonak”, “-uk”, “-ik”, “-ski” (Radkevich, Kuharchik ).

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

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

Men's Latvian surnames end with “-s”, “-is”, and female ones end with “-e”, “-a” (Shurins - Shurin).

And men's Lithuanian surnames end in “-onis”, “-unas”, “-utis”, “-aytis”, “-ena” (Norvidaitis). Women's endings in “-en”, “-yuven”, “-uven” (Grinyuvene). In surnames unmarried girls contains a part of the father's surname and the suffixes “-ut”, “-polut”, “-ayt”, as well as the ending “-e” (Orbakas - Orbakaite).

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

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

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

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

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

Feature of women's Czech surnames is the obligatory ending “-ova” (Valdrova, Andersonova).

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

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So, the most common suffix Ukrainian surnames- “-enko” (Bondarenko, Petrenko, Timoshenko, Ostapenko). Another group of suffixes is “-eiko”, “-ko”, “-ochka” (Belebeyko, Bobreiko, Grishko). The third suffix is “-ovsky” (Berezovsky, Mogilevsky). Often among Ukrainian surnames you can find those that come from the names of professions (Koval, Gonchar), as well as from combinations of two words (Sinegub, Belogor).

Among Russian surnames The following suffixes are common: “-an”, “-yn”, -“in”, “-skikh”, “-ov”, “-ev”, “-skoy”, “-tskoy”, “-ikh”, “ -s.” It is easy to guess that the following can be considered examples of such surnames: Smirnov, Nikolaev, Donskoy, Sedykh.

In front of many French surnames there is an insertion “Le”, “Mon” or “De” (Le Germain, Le Pen).

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

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

Italian surnames are formed using the following suffixes: “-ini”, “-ino”, “-ello”, “-illo”, “-etti”, “-etto”, “-ito” (Moretti, Benedetto).

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

Norwegian surnames are formed using the suffix “en” (Larsen, Hansen). Surnames without a suffix at all are also popular (Per, Morgen). Surnames are often formed from the names of natural phenomena or animals (Blizzard - blizzard, Svane - swan).

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

Estonians have a last name you cannot understand whether a person is masculine or feminine (Simson, Nahk).

For Jewish surnames There are two common roots: Levi and Cohen. Most surnames are formed from male names (Solomon, Samuel). There are also surnames that are formed using suffixes (Abramson, Jacobson).

Belarusian surnames end in “-ich”, “-chik”, “-ka”, “-ko”, “-onak”, “-yonak”, “-uk”, “-ik”, “-ski” (Radkevich, Kuharchik ).

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

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

Men's Latvian surnames end with “-s”, “-is”, and female ones end with “-e”, “-a” (Shurins - Shurin).

And men's Lithuanian surnames end in “-onis”, “-unas”, “-utis”, “-aytis”, “-ena” (Norvidaitis). Women's endings in “-en”, “-yuven”, “-uven” (Grinyuvene). The surnames of unmarried girls contain a part of the father’s surname and the suffixes “-ut”, “-polut”, “-ayt”, as well as the ending “-e” (Orbakas - Orbakaite).

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

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

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

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

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

Feature of women's Czech surnames is the obligatory ending “-ova” (Valdrova, Andersonova). (via)

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

In Russia there are many surnames that end in “-sky” or “-tsky”. Curious, what are they talking about? It turns out that there are several versions of the origin of such surnames.

Polish surnames

According to one version, all surnames of this kind are of Polish origin. That is, for example, those who bear the names Pototsky, Slutsky, Zabolotsky, Polyansky, Svitkovsky, Kovalevsky, Smelyansky have Polish roots in their family.

"Noble" surnames

One version says that in Rus', surnames with the suffixes “-sky/-tsky” were received by boyars and representatives of the nobility based on the names of their family destinies - Vyazemsky, Dubrovsky, Baryatinsky, etc. Surnames became hereditary, passed from father to son as a symbol of territorial power. The Book of the Thousand for 1550 lists 93 princely names, of which 40 end in “-sky”. By the way, it is believed that this tradition came from Poland. The mentioned suffixes were a sign of belonging to the gentry - representatives of the Polish aristocracy. Gradually, this began to be practiced in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, also exclusively among representatives of the upper class.

An attempt to “improve” ordinary surnames

Ethnographers suggest that there was also a tendency to improve common surnames by adding a suffix. This was especially common among Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians who lived in the same territory as the Poles. Thus, Borodin could turn into Borodinsky, Gatchin into Gatchinsky, Zaitsev into Zaichevsky.

"Geographical" origin

There is a version that today most of similar surnames, in the past it was formed from geographical names settlements, rivers and lakes. So, a resident of Ryazan in another region was called “Ryazansky”, over time this could turn into a surname. The surname Verzhbitsky is quite common: settlements with this name existed in Poland, and in Russia, and in Ukraine, and in Belarus.

Jewish surnames

Another hypothesis says that at least some surnames starting with “-sky” may have Jewish roots. Such surnames were given to Jews living in the Baltic and Slavic countries, also based on the name of the area. For example, Antokolsky, Vilkomirsky, Gilichensky, Mirgorodsky.

"Spiritual" surnames

Graduates of theological seminaries in Russia were awarded new, beautiful, euphonious surnames, which would be suitable for their priestly rank. This is how the Nativity, Ascension, Resurrection, Preobrazhensky, Trinity, and All Saints appeared. The surname Lebedinsky presumably also belongs to the “spiritual” family: after all, the swan is a recognized symbol of spiritual purity, including in Orthodoxy.

Most likely, surnames ending in “-sky” or “-tsky” are still completely different in origin, and only by looking at the root can one sometimes guess where they could have come from in principle.