Every person has a surname, but has anyone ever wondered where it came from, who invented it, and for what purposes is it needed? There were times when people had only names, for example, in the territory of former Russia, this trend was observed until the XIV century. The study of the surname can tell a lot of interesting things about the history of the family, and in some cases even allows you to determine the ancestor. Just one word will tell about the well-being of the family's ancestors, their belonging to the upper or lower class, the presence of foreign roots.
Origin of the word "surname"
Many people wonder what the surname came from, what it meant and for what purposes it was used. It turns out that this word has a foreign origin and initially had a completely different meaning than now. In the Roman Empire, the term referred not to family members, but to slaves. A specific surname meant a group of slaves belonging to oneRoman. It was not until the 19th century that the word acquired its current meaning. In our time, a surname means a family name that is inherited and added to a person's name.
When did the first surnames appear in Russia?
To find out where the surnames came from, you need to go back to the XIV-XV centuries and delve into the history of Russia. In those days, society was divided into estates. It was this conditional division that was reflected in future surnames; representatives of different strata acquired them at different times. Princes, feudal lords, boyars were the first to acquire family names, a little later this fashion came to merchants and nobles. Ordinary people did not have surnames, they were addressed only by their first names. Only the we althy and influential classes had such a privilege.
How a surname came about can be determined by its meaning. For example, the family names of many feudal lords echo the name of their land: Vyazemsky, Tver, etc. The lands were inherited from father to son, respectively, the clan retained the name of its founder. Many family names had roots of foreign origin, this was due to the fact that people came from other states and settled on our lands. But this is typical only for the rich classes.
Surnames of former serfs
It turns out that even in the 19th century, having your own surname was an unaffordable luxury that the poor and serfs could not boast of. Until the abolition of serfdom, which took place in 1861, a simple Russianpeople used names, nicknames, patronymics. When they gained freedom and began to belong to themselves, and not to the nobles, it became necessary to come up with a surname for them. During the census in 1897, the census takers themselves came up with the names of the former serfs, as far as they could imagine. For this reason, a huge number of namesakes appeared, because the same names were attributed to hundreds of people.
For example, where did the name Ivanov come from? Everything is very simple, the fact is that its founder was called Ivan. Very often in such cases, the suffix “ov” or “ev” was added to the name, thus Alexandrov, Sidorov, Fedorov, Grigoriev, Mikhailov, Alekseev, Pavlov, Artemiev, Sergeev, etc., were added, the list can be continued indefinitely. Where Does The Last Name Kuznetsov Come From? Here the answer is even simpler - from the type of occupation, there were a lot of such: Konyukhov, Plotnikov, Slesarenko, Sapozhnikov, Tkachenko, etc. Some peasants took the animal names they liked: Sobolev, Medvedev, Gusev, Lebedev, Volkov, Zhuravlev, Sinitsyn. Thus, by the end of the 19th century, most of the population had their own surnames.
The most common surnames
Many are interested not only in the question of where the surnames came from, but also which of them are the most common. There is an opinion that Ivanov, Petrov and Sidorov are the most common. It may have been so in the past, but today it is outdated information. Ivanov, although one of the top three, is not on the first, but on the honorable secondplace. The third place is occupied by Kuznetsov, but the leadership is held by Smirnov. The aforementioned Petrov is in 11th place, while Sidorov is in 66th place.
What can prefixes, suffixes and endings tell about?
As already mentioned, the suffixes "ov" and "ev" were attributed to names, if they are discarded, then the person will receive the name of his founding ancestor. Much depends on the stress, if it falls on the last syllable, then the surname belongs to a peasant, and on the second - to an eminent nobleman. The clergy changed the name of the clan, for example, Ivanov became Ioannov.
For a long time there was no unequivocal answer to the question of where the surnames with the suffix “sky” came from. Today, researchers agreed that such names belonged to the nobles of Polish blood, as well as the ministers of churches dedicated to the Epiphany: Znamensky, Epiphany, Holy Cross Ex altation. They are associated with such holidays as the Ex altation of the Cross, Baptism, dedicated to the icon of the Mother of God "The Sign".
The suffixes "in" and "yn" mainly belong to Russian Jews: Ivashkin, Fokin, Fomin. Ivashka could be disparagingly spoken of as a Jew, while Foka and Foma are purely Jewish names. The diminutive suffixes "uk", "chuk", "enk", "onk", "yuk" belong to Slavic surnames. They are mainly found in Ukraine: Kovalchuk, Kravchuk, Litovchenko, Osipenko, Sobachenko, Gerashchenko, etc.
Random names
Not all surnames can tell about an ancient, glorious family. The fact is thatmost of them were simply invented by people, so such names do not even contain information about the name, occupation or place of residence of the founder. Sometimes there are very curious cases that tell where the surnames came from. Active formalization was observed in the Soviet Union, so anyone with a dissonant name could easily change it. Many people from the villages (mostly young boys and girls) received their surnames along with their passports. So, a policeman asked one guy: “Whose are you?” - "Papanin", so it was written in the document. And there are many such stories. Whatever it was, but now every person has a surname that can tell a lot of interesting things about the whole family.
