How can you find out what nationality you are. Free tests

How to determine your nationality / race?

There is a generally accepted theory: races are determined by blood type - the 1st group is Caucasoid, 2nd Asian, 3rd African and 4th Jewish is the youngest nation.
make your own family tree. can be entrusted to someone. everything will become clear immediately
And why do you need it? There is no purebred. For example, I am mostly Russian, but there were Tatars, Kazakhs, Spaniards, Ukrainians in my family ... And it is unlikely that there are such tests, because the sizes of the skulls are the same, the blood according to biochemical analysis does not differ in different races, because all races have a common ancestor - a man.
Nationality is up to you. You can consider, as a first approximation, the nationalities of the parents, in the second - the parents of the parents. And so on. Somewhere this chain is logical to interrupt.
As for the morphological characteristics of the race - with this, you can probably turn to a specialist scientist (I don’t know how exactly this science is called).
Nationality and race are independent of each other.
The description of different races is very detailed and intelligibly described in the textbook "Anthropology" by E.N. Khrisanfov, I.V. Perevozchikov. I envy those who do not need to know THIS by heart.
Same stuff. I would also like to know.
If you approach the mirror and see a yellowish face through two narrow slits, then you are from the Mongoloid race, if in the dark you come up and see only two brilliant eyes and a snow-white smile of 32 teeth, then you are a negro race, and if in the light you come up and see a bright face with your wide eyes, then you are a European race!
And don't worry, it's completely useless. At this time, not one person, except for the small tribes of Ariki and tropical forests, cannot call himself a pure Russian, or a German, or even a Jew. Believe right now, all races and nationalities are mixed up! And no one will definitely determine your roots. Maybe some great-great-grandfather left Israel, or a distant relative sinned with a German, who will sort them out right now.
nationality is a stupid distinction.
You have to ask your parents. And if there are no parents, then I'm afraid you will never know what nationality you are.
you are a Russian Jew who lives in Germany
Nationality is determined by self-consciousness, and not by the composition of the blood and the parameters of the skull.
who do you feel of that and nationality
Black is American, white is Russian. (Or as written on the birth certificate.)
There is no pure belonging to a nation or race. You can just study the passport data of your parents, grandparents, ask around. However, why would you? Doesn't matter what nation you belong to. Personally, I think citizenship matters a lot more.
P.S.
Jews, Germans and Russians belong to the same race (Caucasian). Race is a broader concept than nation.
Nationality - actually determined by the mother. But the search for their racial identity looks like national fascism.

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, Kukharchik, 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, -aytis, -enas (Pyatrenas, Norvydaitis), female surnames are formed from the husband's surname using the suffixes -en, -juven, -uven and the endings -е (Grinius - Grinyuvene), the surnames of unmarried girls contain the basis of the father's surname with the addition of the suffixes -ut, -polut, -ait and the endings -е (Orbakas - Orbakaite);

Estonians- Male and female genders are not distinguished with the help of surnames, all foreign surnames (mostly German ones) 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), may 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: the Maksyutovs (Maksutovs, obsolete Maksyutovs, 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 Tsarevich Kasim. 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 the Hebrew “even tov” - “precious stone”), Khazin (derived from the Hebrew “chazan”, in a the Shkenazi pronunciation "khazn", meaning "a person leading a divine service in a synagogue"), Superfin (in translation means "very beautiful") and many 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 is collected, you will 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.

This question can be interpreted in two ways:

1. "How to choose which nationality to write in an official document?"

Article 26 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation states: "Everyone has the right to determine and indicate his nationality. No one can be forced to determine and indicate his nationality."

In case you yourself want to indicate your nationality or an official believes that Article 26 does not apply to his department, there is an "Alphabetical list of possible answers of the population for coding the answer to question 7 of the census form L of the 2010 All-Russian Population Census", approved by order of Rosstat No. ", "Estonians Orthodox", "blasphemy", "cosmopolitans", "Jews of Bukhara", "Great Russians", "crossbreed", "Brest residents", "inhabitants of the universe", "bulbashi" and "Khokhls". Citizens of the Russian Federation are not required to choose the nationality of one of their parents and not change it to the grave. It remains to be hoped that the local authorities in your locality are aware of these "innovations".

2. "How to determine your nationality for yourself?"

Perhaps you are not ready to identify yourself in one word, by mom or dad. If so, then no big deal. Self-identification is a deeply personal matter, and the concept of nationality in its Russian version was invented by the Russian state bureaucracy over a hundred years ago for its own benefit. Therefore, it is better to free your consciousness and not confuse these things - after all, this is exactly what Leviathan wants from you.

Any state is a machine of subordination and coercion. The concept of nationality is one of the tools that this machine uses to control the population of Russia. In the history of the USSR and Russia, there were few cases when people or ethnic groups received prizes for "good" nationality. In 99% of cases, nationality does not affect a person's life. But in the 1% of cases when she plays a role, this role is almost always negative:
a person is deported because he is Latvian or Korean;
he is made a vassal of Kadyrov because he is a Chechen;
he is not given access to secret documents, because he is a Jew;
he is arrested on charges of extremism, because he is Russian and has spoken about it publicly too many times;
he is called names at school because he is a Tajik;
he is suspected of betrayal because he is Ukrainian.

Even if you have a real sense of community with people of some ethnic group, remember that the state will never allow this group to really defend their interests. After all, this is a zero-sum game: if the ethnic group has more rights and opportunities, then the official has lost them. The maximum that they will give you is an official from your ethnic group, so that he robs you with an understanding of local specifics and in a national costume.

So my advice is: define yourself as who you feel you are. If the one you feel like is not in the list of 1840 nationalities and this feeling of self does not fit in 2-3 words, it does not matter. For example, I define myself as a "Russian American non-religious half-breed Jew from Latvia" and do not worry that there are not enough people with such a self-identification to dance or fill a cattle car.

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 indicate that a person belongs to the Ukrainian nationality include: - ko, - uk / yuk, - un, -ny / ny, - tea, - ar, - a: Tereshchenko, Karpyuk, Tokar, Gonchar, Mirny. 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.

In a conversation, you can come across the following statement: “Here, his last name ends in -in, which means he is a Jew.” Are Susanin, Repin and even Pushkin Jewish surnames? Some strange idea among the people, where did it come from? After all, the suffix -in- is often found in possessive adjectives formed from nouns of the first declension: koshkin, mother. While adjectives from words of the second declension are formed using the suffix -ov-: grandfathers, crocodiles. Did the words of the first declension as the basis for the surname were chosen only by Jews? It would be very strange. But probably, everything that is spinning on the tongue of people has some basis, even if it has been distorted over time. Let's figure out how to determine nationality by last name.

Ending or suffix?

It is not entirely correct to call the familiar -ov / -ev endings. The ending in Russian is a variable part of a word. Let's see what is inclined in the surnames: Ivanov - Ivanova - Ivanov. It can be concluded that -ov is a suffix followed by a null ending, as in most masculine nouns. And only in cases or when changing gender and number (Ivanova, Ivanovy) do endings sound. But there is also a folk, and not a linguistic concept of "ending" - that which ends. In that case, this word is applicable here. And then we can safely determine the ending of surnames by nationality!

Russian surnames

The range of Russian surnames is much wider than those ending in -ov. They are characterized by suffixes -in, -yn, -ov, -ev, -skoy, -tskoy, -ih, -yh (Lapin, Ptitsyn, Sokolov, Solovyov, Donskoy, Trubetskoy, Moscow, Sedykh).

Russian surnames with -ov, -ev are really as much as 60-70%, and with -in, -yn - only about 30%, which is also quite a lot. What is the reason for this ratio? As already mentioned, the suffixes -ov, -ev are attached to second declension nouns, most of which are masculine. And since in Russian surnames often originated from the name or occupation of the father (Ivanov, Bondarev), such a suffix is very logical. But there are also male names ending in -a, -я, and it was from them that the surnames Ilyin, Nikitin arose, of whose Russianness we have no doubt.

What about Ukrainians?

Ukrainian ones are usually formed with the help of suffixes -enko, -ko, -uk, -yuk. And also without suffixes from words denoting professions (Korolenko, Spirko, Govoruk, Prizhnyuk, Bondar).

More about Jews

Jewish surnames are very diverse, because Jews have been scattered throughout the world for centuries. The suffixes -ich, -man and -er can be their true sign. But here, too, confusion is possible. Family endings -ich, -ovich, -evich are typical for Poles and Slavic peoples living in East Germany. For example, one of the most famous poets in Poland is Mickiewicz.

But the basis of the surname can sometimes immediately suggest the Jewish origin of its bearer. If the basis is Levi or Cohen/Kogan, the clan originates from the high priests - kohens or his assistants - Levites. So everything is clear with Levi, Levitans, Kaganoviches.

What do surnames in -sky and -sky say?

It is wrong to assume that surnames ending in -sky or -sky are necessarily Jewish. This stereotype has developed because they were common in Poland and Ukraine. In these places there were many family estates, the names of the owners-nobles were formed from the name of the estate. For example, the ancestors of the famous revolutionary Dzerzhinsky owned the Dzerzhinovo estate on the territory of modern Belarus, and then Poland.

Many Jews lived in these areas, so many took local surnames. But Russian nobles also have such surnames, for example, the noble surname Dubrovsky from Pushkin's work is quite real. There is another interesting fact. In seminaries, they often gave a surname formed from church holidays - Preobrazhensky, Rozhdestvensky. In this case, the definition of nationality at the end of surnames can lead to errors. Seminaries also served as the birthplace of surnames with an unusual root for the Russian ear, because they were formed from Latin words: Formozov, Kastorov. By the way, under Ivan the Terrible, the deacon Ivan Bicycles served. But the bicycle had not yet been invented! How is it that there is no object, but there is a surname? The answer was this: it turned out to be a tracing paper from the Latin “swift-footed”, only with a native Russian suffix.

Surname ending in -in: we reveal the secret!

So what about the last name ending in -in? Nationality on this basis is difficult to determine. Indeed, some Jewish surnames end in this way. It turns out that in some of them this is just an external coincidence with the Russian suffix. For example, Khazin is descended from the modified surname Khazan - this is how one of the types of servants in the temple was called in Hebrew. Literally, this translates as "overseer", since the chazan followed the order of worship and the accuracy of the text. You can guess where the name Khazanov comes from. But she has the “most Russian” suffix -ov!

But there are also matronyms, that is, those that are formed on behalf of the mother. Moreover, the female names from which they were formed were not Russian. For example, the Jewish surname Belkin is a homonym of a Russian surname. It was formed not from a fluffy animal, but from the female name of Bale.

German or Jewish?

Another interesting pattern was noticed. As soon as we hear names like Rosenfeld, Morgenstern, we immediately confidently determine the nationality of its bearer. Definitely a Jew! But not everything is so simple! After all, these are words of German origin. For example, Rosenfeld is a "field of roses". How did it happen? It turns out that on the territory of the German Empire, as well as in the Russian and Austrian, there was a decree on the assignment of surnames to Jews. Of course, they were formed in the language of the country in which the Jew lived. Since they were not transmitted from distant ancestors from the depths of centuries, people themselves chose them. Sometimes this choice could be made by the registrar. So many artificial, bizarre surnames appeared that could not have arisen in a natural way.

How, then, to distinguish a Jew from a German, if both have German surnames? It's hard to do this. Therefore, here you should not be guided only by the origin of the word, you need to know the genealogy of a particular person. Here, at the end of the surname, nationality simply cannot be determined!

Georgian surnames

It is not difficult for Georgians to guess the ending of surnames by nationality. If Georgians are likely to be -shvili, -dze, -uri, -ava, -a, -ua, -ia, -ni, -li, -si (Basilashvili, Svanidze, Pirtskhalava, Adamia, Gelovani, Tsereteli). There are also Georgian surnames that end in -tskaya. This is consonant with Russian (Trubetskaya), but this is not a suffix, and they not only do not change by gender (Diana Gurtskaya - Robert Gurtskaya), but also do not decline by case (with Diana Gurtskaya).

Ossetian surnames

Ossetian surnames are characterized by the ending -ty / -ty (Kokoyty). Characteristic for this nationality is the ending of the surname in -ev (Abaev, Eziev), usually it is preceded by a vowel. Often the stem of a word is incomprehensible to us. But sometimes it can turn out to be homonymous or almost homonymous to the Russian word, which is confusing. There are among them those that end in -ov: Botov, Bekurov. In fact, these are the real Russian suffixes, and they are attached to the Ossetian root according to tradition in this way to convey surnames in writing. These are the fruits of Russification of Ossetian surnames. At the same time, it is foolish to assume that all surnames ending in -ev are Ossetian. The ending of the surname in -ev does not yet determine nationality. Surnames such as Grigoriev, Polev, Gostev are Russian and they differ from similar ones ending in -ov only in that the last consonant in the noun was soft.

A few words about Armenians

Armenian surnames often end in -yan or -yants (Hakopyan, Grigoryants). Actually, -yan - this is the truncated -yants, which meant belonging to the genus.

Now you know how to find out the nationality at the end of the last name. Yes, it is not always easy to do this with guaranteed accuracy, even with a developed language sense. But as they say, the main thing is that a person be good!