Do male surnames decline in Russian? Do foreign male surnames decline? How to find out your nationality by last name - is it difficult.

In the vast majority of cases, Russian surnames end in -ov and -ev. Surnames ending in -in and -yn are also widely used. How did it happen, and what is behind it? Faktrum decided to look into this issue.

The secret of the appearance of surnames on -ov and -ev

The endings -ov and -ev in the most common Russian surnames did not appear by chance. Historians believe that their appearance is mainly associated with the origin of the genus. So, for example, if a person was called Ivan, and his father was Peter, then he automatically received the surname Petrov, since he was the son of Peter. Later, in the XIII century, surnames began to be used officially, and they were given by the name of the oldest person in the family. Thus, not only the son of Peter became Petrov, but also all his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

However, this is not the only reason why most Russian surnames received the suffixes -ov and -ev. Some of them came from nicknames. To make it clearer, let's give an example: if a person was called Beardless, then his children and grandchildren became Beardless. The type of human activity could also play a key role in this matter. Plotnikov received just such a surname, since his father was a carpenter, and Kuznetsov was the heir to a blacksmith. As for the suffix -ev, it appeared in the surnames of those people whose ancestors were engaged in activities whose names ended in a consonant soft letter. Well, for example, the children and grandchildren of a man who received the nickname Snegir were already called the Snegiryovs, and the cooper's descendants were called the Bondarevs.

The mystery of the origin of surnames on -in and -yn

In second place in popularity in Russia are surnames with -in and a little less often with -yn. In fact, there is no secret here. Their origin is also connected with the names and nicknames of their ancestors, with their occupation. Such surnames were formed when words ending in -а and -я were taken as the basis, as well as feminine nouns with a soft consonant at the end. For example, the surname Minin obviously came from the female name Mina, which, in turn, was quite popular in Rus' in the old days.

Agree, these days, surnames like Fomin and Ilyin are quite common. Now it is obvious that Thomas and Elijah were among the ancestors of these people. But the surname Rogozhin says that the ancestors, apparently, were engaged in the manufacture or trade of matting. As in the case of surnames in -ov and -ev, these were also based on names, nicknames and professions.

In the Russian Federation every 10th marriage is mixed. This is due to demographic reasons and the fashionable trend to enter into an alliance with a foreign citizen. Often legitimized between Russian and visiting students. But such mixed marriages are often doomed to a short existence. As a result, the owners of a “specific” surname may not always know their true roots, especially if the parents categorically do not want to raise the topic of kinship.

You can find out the nationality by last name. But this is a painstaking and long process that is best left to professionals. However, the origins of origin can be established by general rules.

The history of the surname

In past centuries, only aristocrats possessed a pedigree. Ordinary people were not supposed to know their origin, and therefore, to have a surname. Only during the reign of Vasily the First, peasants began to receive nicknames that resembled their real name: Semyon Cherny, monk Rublev and others.

The study of the pedigree is of great importance. It not only allows you to find out how to determine nationality by last name, but also conveys the historical past.

Since ancient times, the official surname served to identify a person and his family. Many marriages were and are interethnic in nature. The surname allows you to establish the degree of kinship, because it takes into account not only linguistic features, but also a territorial sign with historical factors.

How to conduct an analysis?

To determine the nationality of a person by last name, one should recall the school course of the Russian language. The word consists of a root, a suffix and an ending. allow you to calculate the first two points.

In the surname, you need to highlight the root and suffix.
Determine nationality by suffixes.
If this is not enough, analyze the root of the word.
Assess the name according to the degree of belonging to European origins.

In many surnames, not only the morphological features of the word are taken into account, but also the person's belonging to a certain group: by specialty, personal qualities, the name of an animal or bird.

Establishment of nationality by suffixes and the root of the word

Belonging to Ukrainian origins confirms the presence of suffixes:

enko;
eyko;
point;
ovsky.

Finding out nationality by last name from people with Jewish roots is not so easy. Its origin is influenced by many factors.

The surname can be based on the name of the profession, animal or bird. For example, Bondar, Gonchar are Ukrainian designations for a working specialty. Gorobets is a sparrow in Ukrainian. Just later this word was transformed into a surname.

You can often see surnames consisting of two words, such as Ryabokon, Krivonos and others. They testify to the presence of Slavic roots: Belarusian, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian.

How to determine Jewish roots

Not always the suffix and the root of the word help to establish nationality by last name. This applies to Jewish origins as well. To establish kinship, 2 large groups are distinguished here:

Roots "cohen" and "levi".
Male names.

The roots "cohen" and "levi" indicate that the owner of the surname belonged to the Jews, whose ancestors had the rank of a clergyman. Among them you can find the following: Kogan, Kagansky, Kaplan, Levita, Levitin, Levitan.

The second group contains male names. These include the names of Solomon, Moses and others.

The Jewish people have one feature: during prayer, a person is called by the name of his mother. And nationality here is also given on the maternal side. This interesting historical fact led to the formation of surnames that are based on the feminine gender. Among them are Sorinson, Rivkin, Tsivyan, Beilis.

And the working specialty can give an answer to the question of how to determine nationality by last name. This also applies to Jewish roots. For example, the surname Fine in Hebrew means "beautiful" and characterizes the appearance of a person. And Rabin means "rabbi", that is, professional activity.

European roots

In Russia, one can often find English, French, German origins. To find out a specific nationality by last name, certain word-formation rules help.

French origin confirms the presence of prefixes De or Le in the surname.

The Germans were formed in three ways:

from personal names - Walter, Peters, Werner, Hartmann;
from nicknames (for example, Klein);
associated with a specific profession (the most common is Schmidt).

Surnames of English origin also have several ways of formation:

depending on the place of residence - Scott, English, Irish, Welsh, Wallace;
from a person's professional activity - Spooners, Carver, Butler;
taking into account human qualities - Bad, Sweet, Good, Moody, Bragg.

A separate group is formed by Polish surnames: Kowalczyk, Senkevich, Nowak. As a rule, they have suffixes -chik, -vich, -vak.

Lithuanian surnames have suffixes -kas, -kene, -kaite, -chus, -chene, -chite.

Features of the eastern origins

The formation of a surname is influenced by several factors:

territorial affiliation of ancestors;
occupation;
personal human features;
morphological components of the word.

In Eastern countries, in order to find out whose surname is by nationality, you need to analyze its suffixes and endings.

Chinese and Korean surnames are monosyllabic and short. The most typical of them are Xing, Xiao, Jiu, Layu, Kim, Dam, Chen.

Muslim surnames have suffixes, endings -ov, -ev (Aliev, Aushev, Khasbulatov, Dudayev and others). Among the Armenian people, they end in -yan (Shiyan, Bordian, Porkuyan).

They have "incomparable" suffixes and endings: -shvili, -dze, -uri, -uli, -ani(ya), -eti(ya), -eni, -eli(ya).

All of these features allow you to find the true roots. But only a specialist will be able to tell you exactly how to find out nationality by last name. Sometimes this requires a detailed analysis that takes into account many factors. A person is inextricably linked with his name, and it can really tell a lot about him and his family tree.

With each year of his life, a person expands the choice of communication more and more, getting to know new people. In order for a new acquaintance to make contact with you, you need to make a pleasant impression on him. To avoid uncomfortable situations, it is important to know what nationality the person in front of you is in order to behave in accordance with the moral and ethical standards of his country. By most surnames, you can accurately determine the nationality of your friends, neighbors, business partners, etc.

Russians- use surnames with suffixes -an, -yn, -in, -skikh, -ov, -ev, -skoi, -tskoi, -ih, -ih (Snegirev, Ivanov, Voronin, Sinitsyn, Donskoy, Moskovskikh, Sedykh);

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

Poles- most of the surnames have the suffix -sk, -tsk, and the ending -ij (-th), indicating masculine and feminine gender (Sushitsky, Kovalskaya, Khodetsky, Volnitskaya); there are also double surnames - if a woman, when getting married, wants to leave her surname (Mazur-Komorovskaya); in addition to these surnames, surnames with an unchanged form are also common among the Poles (Nowak, Sienkiewicz, Wuytsik, Wozniak). Ukrainians with surname endings in -y are not Ukrainians, but Ukrainian Poles.;

Ukrainians- the first classification of surnames of a given nationality is formed with the help of suffixes -enko, -ko, -uk, -yuk (Kreschenko, Grishko, Vasilyuk, Kovalchuk); the second series denotes the kind of any craft or occupation (Potter, Koval); the third group of surnames consists of separate Ukrainian words (Gorobets, Ukrainians, Parubok), as well as a merger of words (Vernigora, Nepiyvoda, Bilous).

Latvians- a feature to the masculine gender is indicated by a surname ending in -s, -is, and to the feminine - in -a, -e (Verbitskis - Verbitska, Shurins - Shurin)

Lithuanians- male surnames end in -onis, -unas, -utis, -aitis, -enas (Pyatrenas, Norvydaitis), female surnames are formed from the husband's surname using the suffixes -en, -yuven, -uven and endings -е (Grynyus - Grinyuvene );

Estonians- male and female genders are not distinguished by surnames, all foreign surnames (mostly Germanic) were Estonianized at one time (Rosenberg - Roozimäe), this process is still in effect today. for example, in order to be able to play for the Estonian national team, football players Sergei Khokhlov and Konstantin Kolbasenko had to change their names to Simson and Nahk;

French people- many surnames are prefixed with Le or De (Le Pen, Mol Pompadour); mostly dissimilar nicknames and personal names were used to form surnames (Robert, Jolie, Cauchon - a pig);

Romanians: -sku, -u(l), -an.

Serbs:-ich.

English- the following surnames are common: formed from the names of the place of residence (Scott, Wales); designating a profession (Hoggart - a shepherd, Smith - a blacksmith); indicating the outward appearance of character and appearance (Armstrong - strong, Sweet - sweet, Bragg - bragging);

Germans- surnames formed from personal names (Werner, Peters); surnames that characterize a person (Krause - wavy, Klein - small); surnames indicating the type of activity (Müller - miller, Lehmann - geomor);

swedes- most surnames end in -sson, -berg, -steady, -strom (Andersson, Olsson, Forsberg, Bostrom);

Norse- are formed from personal names with the help of the suffix -en (Larsen, Hansen), surnames can occur without suffixes and endings (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), can end in -o, -a, -i (Conti, Giordano, Costa) ; the prefixes di- and- denote, respectively, the person's belonging to his genus and geographical structure (Di Moretti is the son of Moretti, Da Vinci is from Vinci);

Spaniards and Portuguese - have surnames ending in -ez, -az, -iz, -oz (Gomez, Lopez), surnames that indicate the character of a person are also common (Alegre - joyful, Bravo - brave, Malo - horseless);

Turks- most often, surnames end in -oglu, -ji, -zade (Mustafaoglu, Ekindzhi, Kuindzhi, Mammadzade), Turkish names or everyday words were often used in the formation of surnames (Ali, Abaza - a fool, Kolpakchi - a hat);

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

Gagauz: -oglo.

Tatars: -in, -ishin.

Greeks- the surnames of the Greeks cannot be confused with any other surnames, only they have the endings -idis, -kos, -pulos (Angelopoulos, Nikolaidis);

Czechs- the main difference from other surnames is the obligatory ending -ova in female surnames, even if where it would seem inappropriate (Valdrova, Ivanovova, Andersonova).

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

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

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

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

Jews- the main group consists of surnames with roots Levi and Cohen (Levin, Levitan Kagan, Koganovich, Katz); the second group originated from male and female Jewish 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 or belonging to a profession (Kaplan is a chaplain, Rabinovich is a rabbi, Melamed is a pestun, Schwarzbard is black-bearded, Stiller is quiet, Shtarkman is strong).

Ossetians: -ti.

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, Choi, Kogai);

Japanese- modern Japanese surnames are formed by the merger of two meaningful words (Wada - sweetness 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 last name, highlighting the suffix and ending.

WHAT DO THE SURNAME ON "-IN" MEAN? SURNAMES ENDING IN -IN HAVE RUSSIAN ROOT OR JEWISH?

In the collection of the famous Slavist linguist B. O Unbegaun “Russian Surnames”, one can read that surnames with “in” are mainly the Russian type of surnames.

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

There are not a few examples of the erroneous addition of -in to the bases with a final solid consonant: Orekhin, Karpin, Markin, where -ov should have been. And in another case -ov turned out to be in place -in: Shishimorov from the basis of shishimora. It is possible to mix formants. After all, among Russians -in and -ov have been semantically indistinguishable for more than a thousand years. The meaning of the difference was lost even in the common Slavic language, the choice of -ov or -in depends only survivingly on the phonetic feature of the stem (Nikonov "Geography of Surnames").

Do you know how the surname of the famous leader of the people's militia of 1611-1612, Minin, came about? Minin had a personal nickname Sukhoruk, he did not have a last name. And Minin meant "son of Mina". The Orthodox name "Mina" was widespread in Rus'.

Another old Russian surname is Semin, also a surname on "-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 Jewish name Simeon, meaning "hearing", "heard by God." On behalf of Semyon in Rus', many derivative forms were formed, one of which - Syoma - formed the basis of this surname.

The well-known Slavic linguist B. O. Unbegaun in the collection “Russian Surnames” believes that the surname Semin was formed from the baptismal Russian name according to the following scheme: “Semyon - Syoma - Semin”.

Let us give another example of a surname, which we studied in detail in the 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 trade in fabric.

Rogozhey was called a coarse woven fabric from bast tapes. A bast hut (bast mat, bast mat) in Rus' was called a workshop where bast mats were woven, and a bast mat was called a bast weaver or a bast mat merchant.

In their close circle, Rogozhnik's household was known as "Rogozhin's wife", "Rogozhin's son", "Rogozhin's grandchildren". Over time, the terms denoting the degree of kinship disappeared, and the hereditary surname - Rogozhins - was assigned to the descendants of Rogozhin.

Such Russian surnames ending in "-in" include: Pushkin (Pushka), Gagarin (Gagara), Borodin (Beard), Ilyin (Ilya), Ptitsyn (Bird); Fomin (from the personal name 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 surnames are formed on "in" mostly end in "-a" or "-ya". We will not be able to say “Borodov” or “Ilyinov”, it would be more logical and 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, one cannot judge the origin of a surname by one ending. The sound of Jewish surnames coincides with Russian endings just by pure chance.

It is always necessary to research the surname itself. The ending "ov", for some reason, does not cause us doubts. We believe that surnames ending in "-ov" are definitely Russian. But there are exceptions. For example, we recently prepared a beautiful family diploma for a wonderful family named Maksyutov.

The surname Maksyutov has the ending "ov", common among Russian surnames. But, if you explore the surname more deeply, it turns out that the surname Maksyutov is formed from the Tatar male name “Maksud”, which, translated from Arabic, means “desire, premeditated intention, aspiration, goal”, “long-awaited, desired”. The name Maksud had several dialect variants: Maksut, Mahsud, Mahsut, Maksut. This name is still widespread among the Tatars and Bashkirs to this day.

“The surname Maksyutov is an old princely surname of Tatar origin. Historical sources speak about the ancient origin of the Maksyutov surname. The surname was first documented in the 16th century: Maksutovs (Maksutovs, obsolete Maksutovs, Tat. Maksutovlar) - the Volga-Bulgarian princely Murzin family, descended from the Kasimov prince Maksut (1554), in the genealogical legend, Prince Maksut was called a lancer and a descendant of the prince Kashima." Now there is almost no doubt about the origin of the surname.

How to find out if the surname on -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 ending in “-in” or “-ov”: Edmin (derived from the name of the German city of Emden), Kotin (derived from the Hebrew קטן- in the Ashkenazi pronunciation “kotn”, meaning “small”), Eventov (derived from Hebrew “even tov” - “precious stone”), Khazin (derived from the Hebrew “khazan”, in the Ashkenazi pronunciation “khazn”, meaning “a person leading worship in the synagogue”), Superfin (translated means “very beautiful”) and a lot others.

The ending "-in" is just an ending by which one cannot judge the nationality of a surname. You always need to research the surname, analyze the word that underlies it and try to search in various books and archival documents for the first mention of your surname. Only when all the information has been collected will you be able to establish with certainty the origin of your surname and find answers to your questions.

SURNAMES ENDING IN SKIY/-SKAYA, -TSKIY/-TSKAYA

Many Russians have a firm and unfounded conviction that surnames in -sky are necessarily Polish. From history textbooks, the names of several Polish magnates are known, formed from the names of their possessions: Pototsky and Zapototsky, Zablotsky, Krasinsky. But from the same textbooks, the names of many Russians with the same suffixes are known: Konstantin Grigoryevich Zabolotsky, roundabout of Tsar John III, late 15th - early 16th centuries; clerk Semyon Zaborovsky, early 16th century; boyars Shuisky and Belsky, close associates of Ivan the Terrible. Famous Russian artists Levitsky, Borovikovsky, Makovsky, Kramskoy.

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

A significant part of the surnames ending in -sky / -skaya, -tsky / -tskaya are formed from geographical and ethnic names. In the letters of our readers who want to know about the origin of their surnames, the following surnames are mentioned in -sky / -sky.

Brynsky. The author of this letter, Evgeny Sergeevich Brynsky, himself sent the story of his last name. We give only a small piece of the letter, since it is not possible to publish it in its entirety. Bryn is a river of the Kaluga region, flows into a tributary of the Oka Zhizdra. In the old days, large dense Bryn forests stretched along it, in which the Old Believers took refuge. According to the epic about Ilya Muromets, it was in the Bryn forests that the Nightingale the Robber lived. We add that there are several settlements Bryn in the Kaluga and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. The surname Brynski / Brynska found in Poland is formed from the name of two settlements Brynsk in different parts of the country and also, apparently, goes back to the names of the rivers Bryn, Brynica. There is no uniform interpretation of the names of these rivers in science. If the suffix -ets is added to the name of an inhabited place, then such a word denotes a native of this place. In the Crimea in the 60s - 70s of the XX century, the winegrower Maria Bryntseva was well known. Her surname is derived from the word brynets, that is, a native of the city or village of Bryn.

Garbavitsky. This Belarusian surname corresponds to the Russian Gorbovitsky (in the Belarusian language, the letter a is written in place of the unstressed o). The surname is formed from the name of some settlement of Gorbovitsa. In the materials we have, there are only Gorbov, Gorbovo and Gorbovtsy. All these names come from the designations of the terrain: humpback - hillock, sloping hill.

Dubovskaya. The surname is formed from the name of one of the numerous settlements: Dubovka, Dubovo, Dubovoe, Dubovskaya, Dubovsky, Dubovskoye, Dubovtsy, located in all parts of the country. To find out from which one, it is possible only according to the information preserved in the family, where the ancestors who received this surname lived, or where they came from to their place of further residence. Emphasis in the surname on "o": Dubovsky / Dubovskaya.

Steblivsky. The Ukrainian surname, corresponding to the Russian one, is Steblevsky; formed from the names of settlements Steblivka in the Transcarpathian region or Steblev-Cherkasy. In Ukrainian orthography, i is written in place of the second e.

Tersky. The surname comes from the name of the Terek River and indicates that one of the distant ancestors of this person lived there. There were the Terek region and the Terek Cossacks. So the bearers of the surname Tersky may also be descendants of the Cossacks.

Uryansky. The surname, apparently, is formed from the name of the settlement Urya. In our materials, such a name is recorded in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Perhaps there are similar names in other places, since the name of the inhabited place is associated with the name of the river and with the designation of the Ur ethnic group, as well as with the name of the medieval Turkic people Uryanka. Similar names could be found in different places, since medieval peoples led a nomadic lifestyle and assigned the name of their ethnic group to those places where they lingered for a long time.

Chiglinsky. The surname comes from the name of the settlement Chigla in the Voronezh region, which, apparently, is associated with the designation of the union of the medieval Turkic tribes Chigili.

Shabansky. The surname is formed from the names of the settlements Shabanovo, Shabanovskoye, Shabanskoye, located in different parts of the country. These names come from the Turkic name Shaban of Arabic origin. In Arabic, Sha'ban is the name of the eighth month of the lunar calendar. The name Shaban is also attested in Russian peasant families in the 15th-17th centuries. In parallel with this, the spelling variant Shiban was noted in the Russian language - obviously, by analogy with the Russian shibat, zashibat. In the records of 1570-1578, Prince Ivan Andreevich Shiban Dolgoruky is mentioned; in 1584, the stirrup grooms of Tsar Theodore Ioannovich Osip Shiban and Danilo Shikhman Ermolaevich Kasatkins. The servant of Prince Kurbsky was called Vasily Shibanov - he was executed by Ivan the Terrible in 1564.

In addition, the name of the ethnic group of the Siberian Tatars, the Shibans, and the generic name of the Crimean Tatars, the Shiban Murzas, are known. In the Perm region there is a settlement of Shibanovo, and in the Ivanovo region - Shibanikha.

Different types of proper names are so closely related to each other: personal names, geographical and ethnic names, as well as surnames.

Surname - the name of the family, which a person receives by inheritance. Many people live for a long time and do not even think about what their last name means. Thanks to the surname, one can not only determine who the great-grandfathers were, but also 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 one can single out the determination of the origin by the endings of surnames.

Surname endings

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

English. It is very difficult to single out certain endings indicating 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 the Armenian surnames end in -yan: Aleksanyan, Burinyan, Galustyan.
Belarusians. Belarusian surnames end in -ich, -chik, -ka, -ko: Tyshkevich, Fedorovich, Glushko, Vasilka, Gornachenok.
Georgians. It is very simple to identify a person of Georgian nationality, their surnames end in - shvili, - dze, - ah, - wah, - ni, - li, - si: Gergedava, Geriteli, Dzhugashvili.
Jews. If the surname has the root Levi or Cohen, then its owner belongs to the Jewish nationality: Levitan, Koganovich. But you can also meet surnames with endings - ich, - man, -er: Kogenman, Kaganer.
Spaniards and Portuguese have surnames with endings - ez, - from, - az, - from, oz: Gonzalez, Gomez, Torres. There are also surnames that indicate the character of a person: Alegre - joyful, Malo - bad.
Italians. If we talk about Italians, then their surnames end in - ini, - ino, - illo, - etti, - etto, - ito: Puchinni, Brocki, Marchetti. The prefix di and da can indicate that the genus belongs to a certain territory: da Vinci.
Germans. German surnames mostly end in - man - er and they indicate the type of human activity (Becker - baker, Lehmann - landowner, Koch - cook) or contain some characteristic (Klein - small).
Poles. Surnames ending in -sk; - ck; -y indicate the belonging of a person (or his ancestors) to the Polish nationality: Godlevsky, Kseshinsky, Kalnitsky, and their roots go back to the time of the creation of the Polish nobility (gentry).
Russians. Surnames ending in -ov, -ev, -in, -skoy, -tskoy: Ignatov, Mikhailov, Eremin. Russian surnames in structure are patronymics, which are formed from the names: Ivan - Ivanov, Grigory - Grigoriev; but among the examples you can find surnames formed from the name of the area where the family lives: White Lake - Belozersky.
Ukrainians. The endings that show that a person belongs to the Ukrainian nationality include: - ko, - uk / yuk, - un, -ny / ny, - tea, - ar, - a: Tereshchenko, Karpyuk, Tokar, Gonchar, Peaceful. Surnames mainly show that the clan belongs to a certain craft.

Onomastics

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

You will need

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

Instruction

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

Notice the suffix. Since in Russian more often than other foreign surnames are found, 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 did not answer the question of what nationality your last name is. Often one or another, object, animal, becomes its basis. An example is the surname Gonchar, Ukrainian Gorobets (in translation - Sparrow), 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 belong to the Slavic peoples (Russians, Belarusians, Poles, etc.), but are also found in other languages.

Assess your surname in terms of belonging to the Jewish people. Common Jewish surnames include the roots "Levi" and "Kohen", 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 originated from male (Moses, Solomon) or female names (Rivkin, Beilis), or formed from the merger of a male name and a suffix (Abrahams, Yakobson, Mandelstam).

Remember if Tatar blood flows in your veins? If your surname consists of a combination of words and suffixes "in", "ov" or "ev", then the answer is obvious - they were in your family. This is especially well seen in the example of such surnames as Bashirov, Turgenev, Yuldashev.

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

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 its subordinate lands. Chronicle evidence draws our attention to this fact, talking about the Battle of the Neva in 1240.

Later, in the XIV - XV centuries, princes began to acquire generic names. Nicknamed after the name of the inheritance that they owned, having lost it, the princes began to leave for themselves and their descendants its name as a family name. So the Vyazemsky (Vyazma), Shuisky (Shuya) and other noble families appeared. At the same time, those derived from nicknames began to be fixed: Lykovs, Gagarins, Gorbatovs.

Boyar and then noble surnames, for lack of status in their appanage, were formed to a greater extent from nicknames. Also, the formation of a surname from the name of the ancestor has become widespread. Bright to the reigning family in Russia - the Romanovs.

Romanovs

The ancestors of this old boyar family were the ancestors who at different times bore nicknames: Kobyla, Koshka Kobylin, Koshkins. The son of Zakhary Ivanovich Koshkin, Yuri Zakharovich, was already called both by his father and by his nickname - Zakharyin-Koshkin. In turn, his son, Roman Yuryevich, bore the surname Zakhariev-Yuriev. The Zakharyins were also the children of Roman Yuryevich, but from the grandchildren (Fyodor Nikitich - Patriarch Filaret), the family continued under the name of the Romanovs. With the surname Romanov, Mikhail Fedorovich was elected to the royal throne.

Last name as identification

The establishment by Peter I in 1719 of passports for the convenience of collecting the poll tax and the implementation of the recruitment gave rise to the spread of surnames for men of all classes, including peasants. At first, along with the name, the patronymic and / or nickname were entered, which then became the owner's surname.

The formation of Russian surnames on -ov / -ev, -in

The most common Russian surnames are formed 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. At the same time, the personal name of the ancestor passed into the category of possessive adjectives formed from the name with the help of the suffixes -ov / -ev, -in and answering the question “whose?”
Whose Ivan? - Petrov.

In the same way, at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, Russian officials formed and recorded the names of the inhabitants of the Russian Transcaucasus and Central Asia.