Where did the surnames come from? Where did the surname Ivanov and other surnames come from? The last "familyless" people.

Where do our last names come from? Most of The population of Russia received surnames only towards the end of the 19th century. The “second name” gradually took root among the people, and it is all the more interesting to find out how this happened. Is a surname not a luxury? The first owners of surnames in Rus' were noble residents of Veliky Novgorod. Since the 12th century, this area has been in a special position: it received the status of an independent republic and independently conducted business with neighboring states such as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This is where the fashion for surnames came from. And it has become much more convenient to keep track of troops this way: you won’t confuse one Mikhail, Ivan or Boris with another. For example, here is the earliest famous lists victims with the names: “Novgorodets fell: Kostyantin Lugotinits, Gyuryata Pineshchinich, Namst, Drochilo Nezdylov son of a tanner...” (First Novgorod chronicle of the older edition, 1240). Following the Novgorodians, princes and boyars acquired surnames in the 14th-15th centuries. The first were usually named after the lands that belonged to them. So the owners of the estate on the Shuya River became the Shuiskys, on Vyazma - the Vyazemskys, on Meshchera - the Meshcherskys, the same story with the Tverskys, Obolenskys, Vorotynskys and other -skys. By the way, -sk- is a common Slavic suffix; it can be found in Czech surnames (Komensky), and in Polish (Zapototsky), and in Ukrainian (Artemovsky). The moment of origin of a surname is considered to be its preservation by descendants even after the loss of the corresponding lands. Whose will you be? The boyars received their surnames by the baptismal name of the ancestor or his nickname: such names answered the question “whose?” (implied “whose son?”, “what kind?”) and included possessive suffixes. The suffix -ov- was added to worldly names ending in hard consonants: Smirnoy - Smirnov, Ignat - Ignatov. -Ev- - to names and nicknames ending in b, -ii, -ey or ch: Bear - Medvedev, Yuri - Yuryev, Begich - Begichev. Well, the suffix -in- was given to surnames formed from names with the vowels “a” and “ya”: Apukhta -Apukhtin, Gavrila - Gavrilin, Ilya -Ilyin. The most famous story the emergence of the boyar family - about the Romanovs. Their ancestor Andrei Kobyla had three sons: Semyon Stallion, Alexandra Elka Kobylin and Fyodor Koshka. They gave birth to the Zherebtsovs, Kobylins and Koshkins. The latter bore this surname for several generations until they decided that being called by a nickname was not too noble. And they first became the Yakovlevs (after the great-grandson of Fyodor Koshka) and the Zakharyins-Yuryevs (after the names of his grandson and another great-grandson), and after that they were completely entrenched in history as the Romanovs (after the great-great-grandson of Fyodor Koshka). Many are surprised by such surnames as Durnovo, Sukhovo, Zhivago, Chernago, Sedykh, Fominykh. In fact, there is nothing strange about them, the same answer to the question “whose?”, only a little outdated or plural: Bad - Durnovo, Zhivoy - Zhivago, Sedye - Sedykh. Russians - non-Russian surnames Next in line to receive surnames were the nobles. Among them there were a lot of people who came to serve the Russian sovereigns from other countries. It all started with surnames of Greek and Polish-Lithuanian origin at the end of the 15th century, and in the 17th century they were joined by the Fonvizins (German von Wiesen), the Lermontovs (Scottish Lermont) and other surnames with Western roots. The surnames that were given to the illegitimate children of noble people have foreign language roots: Sherov (French cher “dear”), Amantov (French amant “beloved”), Oksov (German Ochs “bull”), Herzen (German Herz “heart” ). By-product children generally “suffered” a lot from their parents’ imagination. Some of them didn't bother to come up with new name, but simply shortened the old one: so from Repnin Pnin was born, from Trubetskoy - Betskoy, from Elagin - Agin, and from Golitsyn and Tenishev the “Koreans” Go and Te came out. The Tatars also left a significant mark on Russian surnames. This is exactly how the Yusupovs (descendants of Murza Yusup), the Akhmatovs (Khan Akhmat), the Karamzins (Tatar punishment “black”, Murza “lord, prince”), the Kudinovs (distorted Kaz.-Tatar. Kudai “God, Allah”) and other. Local, but not princes After the nobles, simple service people began to receive surnames. They, like the princes, were also often called by their place of residence, only with “simpler” suffixes: families living in Tambov became Tambovtsevs, in Vologda - Vologzhaninovs, in Moscow - Moskvichevs and Moskvitinovs. Some were satisfied with the “non-family” suffix, denoting a resident of a given territory in general: Belomorets, Kostromich, Chernomorets, while others received the nickname without any changes - hence Tatyana Dunay, Alexander Galich, Olga Poltava and others. I Kastorsky The surnames of clergy were made up of the names of churches and Christian holidays(Rozhdestvensky, Uspensky), and were also artificially formed from Church Slavonic, Latin and Greek words. The most interesting of them were those that were translated from Russian into Latin and received the “princely” suffix -sk-. Thus, Bobrov became Kastorsky (Latin castor “beaver”), Skvortsov became Sturnitsky (Latin sturnus “starling”), and Orlov became Aquilev (Latin aquila “eagle”). Peasants' surnames late XIX centuries were rare. The exceptions were non-serf peasants in the north of Russia and in the Novgorod province - hence Mikhailo Lomonosov and Arina Rodionovna Yakovleva. After the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the situation began to improve, and by the time of universal passportization in the 1930s, every resident of the USSR definitely had a surname. They were formed according to already proven models: the suffixes -ov-, -ev-, -in- were added to names, nicknames, places of residence, and professions. They turned out to be quite nice Petrovs, Ivanovs, Bochkarevs, Kuznetsovs, Melnikovs, Pryakhins and others.

The surname Topolnitsky in most cases is of Polish origin and is formed either from Poland itself or from neighboring states (Belarus, Ukraine). The overwhelming majority of representatives of the Topolnitsky family belonged to the Polish gentry. In 10% percent, the bearer of the surname is possibly a descendant of an ancient Russian princely or boyar family. But in both cases, the surname mainly indicates the area where the person’s distant ancestors lived or locality, where, according to legend, this family comes from, but the surname can also come from the name or nickname of a person’s distant ancestor. Also, in 29% of cases this surname was given by an ancestor clergyman when he graduated from the seminary. In such cases, the surname was given at the will of the school leadership and could be derived from the name of the locality, church holiday, named after the saint.

The surname Topolnitsky, it can be argued, is not very rare in the geographical regions of Russia. In chronicles, the bearers of the surname were important persons from the Russian Pskov merchant class in the 15th-16th centuries, having at their disposal the venerable sovereign privilege. The first evidence of the surname can be seen in the census table Ancient Rus' during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. The Grand Duke had a special list of privileged and best names, which were given to loved ones only in case of praise or encouragement. Therefore, the indicated surname conveyed its own initial origin and is exceptional..

Spelling the surname in Latin: TOPOLMZNITSKIIY

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9 namesakes found

Russian surnames. The scientist’s work serves as evidence of how rich and diverse the world of this category of anthroponyms is.

Time of appearance of surnames

The very first bearers of surnames were residents northern Italy, they appeared among them in the X-XI centuries. Then the active process of assigning hereditary names to people captured France, England, and Germany. The European population, primarily noble feudal lords, gradually acquired their own family name.

In Russia, before the abolition of serfdom, many peasants did not have surnames, although already in the 16th century. the law prescribed their mandatory receipt by princely and boyar families, then this spread to the noble and merchant classes. A Senate decree in 1988 noted that having a certain surname is the responsibility of every Russian person. The final process of forming family names was completed already with Soviet power, in the thirties of the XX century.

What were people called in Rus' before the appearance of surnames?

Before the appearance of surnames in Rus', people had only personal names, at first non-canonical, which in modern understanding should be classified as nicknames: for example, Nezhdan, Guban, Hare, Nenasha. Then, in the second half of the 16th century. for changing Slavic names new names of people who were canonized or became venerable church figures came, recorded in the Monthly Dictionary. Non-Christian names finally fell out of use in Rus' a century later.

To distinguish people, they began to come up with middle names, mentioning the father (in our opinion, patronymic): for example, Ivan Petrov son, later on – Ivan Petrovich.

Origins

The nobility who owned the lands received, depending on the name of the appanage principalities that belonged to them (Rostov, Tverskoy, Vyazemsky), many boyar surnames came from nicknames (Lobanov, Golenishchev), and later double ones could be found, which combined both the nickname and the name of the appanage . Among the first noble families There were also borrowed from other languages: for example, Akhmatovs, Yusupovs, Lermontovs, Fonvizins.

The surnames of representatives of the clergy most often ended in -iy and indicated the place of parish (Pokrovsky, Dubrovsky), but sometimes they were simply made up for the sake of euphony.

The peasant population of Russia everywhere began to receive surnames after the abolition of serfdom. But in the north Russian state, they arose earlier in the Novgorod lands (suffice it to recall the great scientist M.V. Lomonosov). This is explained by the fact that in these territories there was no serfdom.

Most of the peasants acquired their family name thanks to the creativity of officials, who were ordered by royal decree to give surnames to the entire population of Russia. As a rule, they were formed by the name of the father or grandfather. Many originated from nicknames (Malyshev, Smirnov), were associated with the type of activity (Goncharov, Melnikov) or place of birth and residence. Serfs who became free sometimes received their surnames former owners(usually with minor changes). It was not uncommon for generic names to be simply invented by savvy officials.

The last "surnameless" people

In the 20-40s of the XX century. in the northern territories Soviet Union there were still “nameless” ones left. Receiving main document, identification of a citizen, passport, Chukchi, Evenks and Koryaks became Ivanovs, Petrovs, Sidorovs - thus manifesting the imagination of Soviet officials, on whose shoulders fell the responsibility of “familizing” these nationalities.

Most of the Russian population received surnames only towards the end of the 19th century. The “second name” gradually took root among the people, and it is all the more interesting to find out how this happened.

Is a surname not a luxury?

The first owners of surnames in Rus' were noble residents of Veliky Novgorod

Since the 12th century, this area has been in a special position: it received the status of an independent republic and independently conducted business with neighboring states such as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This is where the fashion for surnames came from. And it has become much more convenient to keep track of troops this way: you won’t confuse one Mikhail, Ivan or Boris with another.

Here, for example, is the earliest known list of the dead with their names:

“Novgorodets fell: Kostyantin Lugotinits, Gyuryata Pineshchinich, Namst, Drochilo Nezdylov son of a tanner...” (First Novgorod chronicle of the older edition, 1240).

Following the Novgorodians, princes and boyars acquired surnames in the 14th-15th centuries. The first were usually named after the lands that belonged to them. So the owners of the estate on the Shuya River became the Shuiskys, on Vyazma - the Vyazemskys, on Meshchera - the Meshcherskys, the same story with the Tverskys, Obolenskys, Vorotynskys and other -skys.

By the way, -sk- is a common Slavic suffix; it can be found in Czech surnames (Komensky), and in Polish (Zapototsky), and in Ukrainian (Artemovsky). The moment of origin of a surname is considered to be its preservation by descendants even after the loss of the corresponding lands.

Whose will you be?

The boyars received their surnames according to the baptismal name of the ancestor or his nickname: such names answered the question "whose?" (implied “whose son?”, “what kind?”) and included possessive suffixes. The suffix -ov- was added to worldly names ending in hard consonants: Smirnoy - Smirnov, Ignat - Ignatov. -Ev- - to names and nicknames ending in b, -ii, -ey or ch: Bear - Medvedev, Yuri - Yuryev, Begich - Begichev. Well, the suffix -in- was given to surnames formed from names with the vowels “a” and “ya”: Apukhta -Apukhtin, Gavrila - Gavrilin, Ilya -Ilyin.

The most famous story of the origin of the boyar family is about the Romanovs. Their ancestor Andrei Kobyla had three sons: Semyon Zherebets, Alexander Elk Kobylin and Fyodor Koshka. They gave birth to the Zherebtsovs, Kobylins and Koshkins. The latter bore this surname for several generations until they decided that being called by a nickname was not too noble.

And they first became the Yakovlevs (after the great-grandson of Fyodor Koshka) and the Zakharyins-Yuryevs (after the names of his grandson and another great-grandson), and after that they were completely entrenched in history as the Romanovs (after the great-great-grandson of Fyodor Koshka).

Many are surprised by such surnames as Durnovo, Sukhovo, Zhivago, Chernago, Sedykh, Fominykh. In fact, there is nothing strange in them, the same answer to the question “whose?”, only a little outdated or in the plural: Durnoy - Durnovo, Zhivoy - Zhivago, Sedye - Sedykh.

Russians - non-Russian surnames

The nobles were next in line to receive surnames. Among them there were a lot of people who came to serve the Russian sovereigns from other countries.

It all started with surnames of Greek and Polish-Lithuanian origin at the end of the 15th century, and in the 17th century they were joined by the Fonvizins (German von Wiesen), the Lermontovs (Scottish Lermont) and other surnames with Western roots.

The surnames that were given to the illegitimate children of noble people have foreign language roots: Sherov (French cher “dear”), Amantov (French amant “beloved”), Oksov (German Ochs “bull”), Herzen (German Herz “heart” ). By-product children generally “suffered” a lot from their parents’ imagination. Some of them did not bother to come up with a new surname, but simply shortened the old one: this is how Pnin was born from Repnin, Betskoy from Trubetskoy, Agin from Elagin, and the “Koreans” Go and Te came from Golitsyn and Tenishev.

The Tatars also left a significant mark on Russian surnames. This is exactly how the Yusupovs (descendants of Murza Yusup), the Akhmatovs (Khan Akhmat), the Karamzins (Tatar punishment “black”, Murza “lord, prince”), the Kudinovs (distorted Kaz.-Tatar. Kudai “God, Allah”) and other.

Local, but not princes

After the nobles, ordinary service people began to receive surnames. They, like the princes, were also often called by their place of residence, only with “simpler” suffixes: families living in Tambov became Tambovtsevs, in Vologda - Vologzhaninovs, in Moscow - Moskvichevs and Moskvitinovs. Some were satisfied with the “non-family” suffix, denoting a resident of a given territory in general: Belomorets, Kostromich, Chernomorets, while others received the nickname without any changes - hence Tatyana Dunay, Alexander Galich, Olga Poltava and others.

I am Kastorsky

The surnames of clergy were formed from the names of churches and Christian holidays (Rozhdestvensky, Uspensky), and were also artificially formed from Church Slavonic, Latin and Greek words. The most interesting of them were those that were translated from Russian into Latin and received the “princely” suffix -sk-.

Thus, Bobrov became Kastorsky (Latin castor “beaver”), Skvortsov became Sturnitsky (Latin sturnus “starling”), and Orlov became Aquilev (Latin aquila “eagle”).

"Strange" surnames

Until the end of the 19th century, peasant surnames were rare. The exceptions were non-serf peasants in the north of Russia and in the Novgorod province - hence Mikhailo Lomonosov and Arina Rodionovna Yakovleva.

After the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the situation began to improve, and by the time of universal passportization in the 1930s, every resident of the USSR definitely had a surname. They were formed according to already proven models: the suffixes -ov-, -ev-, -in- were added to names, nicknames, places of residence, and professions.

They turned out to be quite nice Petrovs, Ivanovs, Bochkarevs, Kuznetsovs, Melnikovs, Pryakhins and others. However, the Perdunovs, Smertins and other Fools emerged from somewhere. It is clear that they also originated from the nicknames: Fart, Death, Fool, which, deservedly or not, were given to their neighbors by their fellow tribesmen. But even the parents themselves sometimes called their children quite offensive names: Nelyub, Nenash, Bad, Blockhead, Kruchina.

How in your right mind could you name your child that?

The thing is that our ancestors were very superstitious and hoped to protect their child from the evil eye with such an unpleasant nickname. In this regard, it is not a fact that any modern Almazov will be more successful than Neschastlivtsev or Idiotov.

Most of the Russian population received surnames only towards the end of the 19th century. The “second name” gradually took root among the people, and it is all the more interesting to find out how this happened.

Is a surname not a luxury?

The first owners of surnames in Rus' were noble residents of Veliky Novgorod. Since the 12th century, this area has been in a special position: it received the status of an independent republic and independently conducted business with neighboring states such as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This is where the fashion for surnames came from. And it has become much more convenient to keep track of troops this way: you won’t confuse one Mikhail, Ivan or Boris with another. Here, for example, is the earliest known list of the dead with the names: “Novgorodets fell: Kostyantin Lugotinits, Gyuryata Pineshchinich, Namst, Drochilo Nezdylov son of a tanner...” (First Novgorod chronicle of the older edition, 1240).

Following the Novgorodians, princes and boyars acquired surnames in the 14th-15th centuries. The first were usually named after the lands that belonged to them. So the owners of the estate on the Shuya River became the Shuiskys, on Vyazma - the Vyazemskys, on Meshchera - the Meshcherskys, the same story with the Tverskys, Obolenskys, Vorotynskys and other -skys. By the way, -sk- is a common Slavic suffix; it can be found in Czech surnames (Komensky), and in Polish (Zapototsky), and in Ukrainian (Artemovsky). The moment of origin of a surname is considered to be its preservation by descendants even after the loss of the corresponding lands.

Whose will you be?

The boyars received their surnames by the baptismal name of the ancestor or his nickname: such names answered the question “whose?” (implied “whose son?”, “what kind?”) and included possessive suffixes. The suffix -ov- was added to worldly names ending in hard consonants: Smirnoy - Smirnov, Ignat - Ignatov. -Ev- - to names and nicknames ending in b, -ii, -ey or ch: Bear - Medvedev, Yuri - Yuryev, Begich - Begichev. Well, the suffix -in- was given to surnames formed from names with the vowels “a” and “ya”: Apukhta -Apukhtin, Gavrila - Gavrilin, Ilya -Ilyin.

The most famous story of the origin of the boyar family is about the Romanovs. Their ancestor Andrei Kobyla had three sons: Semyon Zherebets, Alexander Elk Kobylin and Fyodor Koshka. They gave birth to the Zherebtsovs, Kobylins and Koshkins. The latter bore this surname for several generations until they decided that being called by a nickname was not too noble. And they first became the Yakovlevs (after the great-grandson of Fyodor Koshka) and the Zakharyins-Yuryevs (after the names of his grandson and another great-grandson), and after that they were completely entrenched in history as the Romanovs (after the great-great-grandson of Fyodor Koshka).

Many are surprised by such surnames as Durnovo, Sukhovo, Zhivago, Chernago, Sedykh, Fominykh. In fact, there is nothing strange in them, the same answer to the question “whose?”, only a little outdated or in the plural: Durnoy - Durnovo, Zhivoy - Zhivago, Sedye - Sedykh.

Russians - non-Russian surnames

The nobles were next in line to receive surnames. Among them there were a lot of people who came to serve the Russian sovereigns from other countries. It all started with surnames of Greek and Polish-Lithuanian origin at the end of the 15th century, and in the 17th century they were joined by the Fonvizins (German von Wiesen), the Lermontovs (Scottish Lermont) and other surnames with Western roots.

The surnames that were given to the illegitimate children of noble people have foreign language roots: Sherov (French cher “dear”), Amantov (French amant “beloved”), Oksov (German Ochs “bull”), Herzen (German Herz “heart” ). By-product children generally “suffered” a lot from their parents’ imagination. Some of them did not bother to come up with a new surname, but simply shortened the old one: this is how Pnin was born from Repnin, Betskoy from Trubetskoy, Agin from Elagin, and the “Koreans” Go and Te came from Golitsyn and Tenishev.

The Tatars also left a significant mark on Russian surnames. This is exactly how the Yusupovs (descendants of Murza Yusup), the Akhmatovs (Khan Akhmat), the Karamzins (Tatar punishment “black”, Murza “lord, prince”), the Kudinovs (distorted Kaz.-Tatar. Kudai “God, Allah”) and other.

Local, but not princes

After the nobles, ordinary service people began to receive surnames. They, like the princes, were also often called by their place of residence, only with “simpler” suffixes: families living in Tambov became Tambovtsevs, in Vologda - Vologzhaninovs, in Moscow - Moskvichevs and Moskvitinovs. Some were satisfied with the “non-family” suffix, denoting a resident of a given territory in general: Belomorets, Kostromich, Chernomorets, while others received the nickname without any changes - hence Tatyana Dunay, Alexander Galich, Olga Poltava and others.

I am Kastorsky

The surnames of clergy were formed from the names of churches and Christian holidays (Rozhdestvensky, Uspensky), and were also artificially formed from Church Slavonic, Latin and Greek words. The most interesting of them were those that were translated from Russian into Latin and received the “princely” suffix -sk-. Thus, Bobrov became Kastorsky (Latin castor “beaver”), Skvortsov became Sturnitsky (Latin sturnus “starling”), and Orlov became Aquilev (Latin aquila “eagle”).

"Strange" surnames

Until the end of the 19th century, peasant surnames were rare. The exceptions were non-serf peasants in the north of Russia and in the Novgorod province - hence Mikhailo Lomonosov and Arina Rodionovna Yakovleva.

After the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the situation began to improve, and by the time of universal passportization in the 1930s, every resident of the USSR definitely had a surname. They were formed according to already proven models: the suffixes -ov-, -ev-, -in- were added to names, nicknames, places of residence, and professions.

They turned out to be quite nice Petrovs, Ivanovs, Bochkarevs, Kuznetsovs, Melnikovs, Pryakhins and others. However, the Perdunovs, Smertins and other Fools emerged from somewhere. It is clear that they also originated from the nicknames: Fart, Death, Fool, which, deservedly or not, were given to their neighbors by their fellow tribesmen. But even the parents themselves sometimes called their children quite offensive names: Nelyub, Nenash, Bad, Blockhead, Kruchina. How in your right mind could you name your child that? The thing is that our ancestors were very superstitious and hoped to protect their child from the evil eye with such an unpleasant nickname. In this regard, it is not a fact that any modern Almazov will be more successful than Neschastlivtsev or Idiotov.