The most common Ukrainian surnames list. Ukrainian surnames

Every person is special in their own way. Some have an unusual appearance, others have a beautiful voice, and some have an interesting surname. The surname is part of a person's life. She can be admired by others, but at the same time be a source of ridicule. It is very easy to determine the roots by the last name, just hear the ending. In the past, people chose their surnames according to their profession, so most surnames are consistent with types of work.

Each nation has the characteristics of its own culture, as well as differences in surname suffixes. Some examples of different nationalities:

Russians have the endings -ev, -ov. Popular types: Smirnov, Ivanov.
Ukrainian ones end in -ko, -uk, -yuk. Popular: Shevchenko, Nazarchuk, Serdyuk.
Belarusians are distinguished by the endings -ov, -ko, -ich. Examples: Rabkov, Kuzmich, Vladyko.
Moldovans use the ending -у, -an. For example, Rotaru, Marian.

The list of nationalities could go on for quite a long time, but each will have its own special approach. Slavic surnames may have the same ending, but they will sound completely different.

Ukrainian Cossacks

The Cossacks played a huge role in the way of life of the Ukrainian people. It was in the 15th century that the emergence of the Cossacks led to the strengthening of the national spirit.

Most of the surnames found their origin precisely from Cossack times. Men's versions gained great success, since Cossacks meant only the presence of men. Women's options have not gained the popularity they deserve.

There was the Don Cossacks, where nobles were present. Surname options:

In addition to Ukrainian surnames, there were many other Slavic variants present in the Don Cossacks.

Dictionary of Ukrainian surnames

The Ukrainian language is famous for its pleasant sound, as well as its unusualness. It is closely related to Russian and Polish, so some words are easy to remember.

Each of them needs to be considered:

Surnames are completely different. The list is filled with some fun options. This is a common thing for the Ukrainian language. In addition to funny options, There are popular female surnames, such as:

Tymoshenko.
Tkachenko.
Avramenko.
Kornienko.

The country is famous for its Cossack traditions, as well as the beauty of Ukrainian women. Some of the surnames at the root have a patronymic:

Grigorenko.
Panasenko.
Romanchenko.

The Khokhlyat language can be spread in any sphere. It sounds nice and is unusual to use. If a person wants to change his surname to Ukrainian, then this list will help to find out approximate options.

Attention, TODAY only!

With each year of his life, a person increasingly expands his choice of communication, meeting new people. In order for a new acquaintance to contact 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 the suffixes -an, -yn, -in, -skikh, -ov, -ev, -skoy, -tskaya, -ikh, -yh (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 surnames have the suffix -sk, -tsk, and the ending -й (-я), indicating masculine and feminine gender (Sushitsky, Kovalskaya, Khodetsky, Volnitskaya); There are also double surnames - if a woman, when getting married, wants to keep her surname (Mazur-Komorowska); In addition to these surnames, surnames with an unchanged form are also common among Poles (Nowak, Sienkiewicz, Wujcik, Wozniak). Ukrainians with last name endings ending in -y are not Ukrainians, but Ukrainian Poles.;

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

Latvians- the peculiarity to the masculine gender is indicated by a surname ending in -s, -is, and to the feminine gender - with -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 the ending -e (Grinius - Grinyuvene ), the surnames of unmarried girls contain the basis of the father's surname with the addition of the suffixes -ut, -polut, -ayt and endings -e (Orbakas - Orbakaite);

Estonians- male and female genders are not differentiated using surnames, all foreign surnames (mostly German) were at one time Estonianized (Rosenberg - Roosimäe), this process continues to this day. for example, in order to be able to play for the Estonia national team, football players Sergei Khokhlov and Konstantin Kolbasenko had to change their surnames to Simson and Nahk;

French people- many surnames are preceded by the prefix Le or De (Le Pen, Mol Pompadour); basically, dissimilar nicknames and personal names were used to form surnames (Robert, Jolie, Cauchon - 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); denoting profession (Hoggart - shepherd, Smith - blacksmith); indicating the external appearance of character and appearance (Armstrong - strong, Sweet - sweet, Bragg - boastful);

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, -sted, -strom (Andersson, Olsson, Forsberg, Bostrom);

Norse- formed from personal names using the suffix -en (Larsen, Hansen), surnames without suffixes and endings can occur (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 the suffixes -ini, -ino, -ello, -illo, -etti, -etto, -ito (Benedetto, Moretti, Esposito), can end in -o, -a, -i (Conti, Giordano, Costa) ; the prefixes di- and - indicate, respectively, a person’s belonging to his clan 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 indicating a person’s character are also common (Alegre - joyful, Bravo - gallant, Malo - horseless);

Turks- most often surnames have the endings -oglu, -ji, -zade (Mustafaoglu, Ekindzhi, Kuindzhi, Mamedzade); when forming surnames, Turkish names or everyday words were often used (Ali, Abaza - fool, Kolpakchi - hat);

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

Gagauz: -oglo.

Tatars: -in, -ishin.

Greeks- Greek surnames cannot be confused with any other surnames, only they have the endings -idis, -kos, -poulos (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 residents of Armenia has the suffix -yan (Hakopyan, Galustyan); Also, -yants, -uni.

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

Azerbaijanis- formed surnames by taking Azerbaijani names as a basis and attaching Russian suffixes -ov, -ev (Mamedov, Aliyev, Hasanov, Abdullaev) to them. 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 came from male and female Hebrew 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, his appearance or profession (Kaplan - chaplain, Rabinovich - rabbi, Melamed - pestun, Schwartzbard - black-bearded, Stiller - quiet, Shtarkman - strong).

Ossetians:-ti.

Mordva: -yn, -in.

Chinese and Koreans- for the most part these are surnames consisting of one, less often two syllables (Tan, Liu, Duan, Qiao, Tsoi, Kogai);

Japanese- modern Japanese surnames are formed by merging two full-valued words (Wada - sweet voice 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, to determine a person’s nationality, it is enough to accurately analyze his last name, highlighting the suffix and ending.

WHAT DO SURNAMES WITH “-IN” MEAN? SURNAMES ENDING WITH -IN HAVE RUSSIAN ROOTS OR JEWISH ROOTS?

In the collection of the famous Slavic linguist B. O Unbegun “Russian Surnames” you can read that surnames with “in” are predominantly a Russian type of surname.

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 many examples of erroneous addition of -in to stems with a final hard consonant: Orekhin, Karpin, Markin, where -ov should have been used. And in another case, -ov turned out to be in the place of -in: Shishimorov from the base of shishimora. Mixing of formants is possible. After all, among Russians -in and -ov have been semantically indistinguishable for more than a thousand years. The meaning of the difference has been lost in the common Slavic language; the choice of -ov or -in depends only remnantly 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 bore the personal nickname Sukhoruk, he did not have a surname. And Minin meant “son of Mina.” The Orthodox name "Mina" was widespread in Rus'.

Another old Russian surname is Semin, also a surname with “-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 Hebrew name Simeon, meaning “listening”, “heard by God”. From the name Semyon in Rus', many derivative forms were formed, one of which - Syoma - formed the basis of this surname.

The famous 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's give another example of a surname that we examined in detail in the family diploma. Rogozhin is an old Russian surname. According to the main version, the surname preserves 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.

Coarse woven fabric made from wash tapes was called matting. In Rus', a matting hut (rogozhnitsy, matting) was a workshop where matting was woven, and a matting weaver or matting dealer was called a matting izba.

In his close circle, Rogozhnik’s household were known as “Rogozhin’s wife,” “Rogozhin’s son,” and “Rogozhin’s grandchildren.” Over time, terms denoting the degree of relationship disappeared, and the hereditary surname Rogozhin was assigned to the descendants of Rogozhin.

Such Russian surnames ending in “-in” include: Pushkin (Pushka), Gagarin (Loon), Borodin (Beard), Ilyin (Ilya), Ptitsyn (Bird); Fomin (from the personal name 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 starting with “in” are derived mostly end in “-a” or “-ya”. We won’t be able to say “Borodov” or “Ilyinov”; it would be more logical and more sonorous to say “Ilyin” or “Borodin”.

Why do some people think that surnames ending with “-in” have Jewish roots? Is it really? No, this is not true; you cannot judge the origin of a surname by one ending. The sound of Jewish surnames coincides with Russian endings simply by pure chance.

You should always research the surname itself. For some reason, the ending “ov” does not cause us any doubts. We believe that surnames ending in “-ov” are definitely Russian. But there are also exceptions. For example, we recently prepared a beautiful family diploma for one wonderful family named Maksyutov.

The surname Maksyutov has the ending “ov”, which is common among Russian surnames. But, if you examine the surname more deeply, it turns out that the surname Maksyutov is derived 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, Maksyut. This name is still widespread among the Tatars and Bashkirs.

“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) - a Volga-Bulgar princely-Murzin family, descended from the Kasimov prince Maksut (1554), in the genealogical legend Prince Maksut was called an ulan and a descendant of the prince Kashima." Now there is almost no doubt about the origin of the surname.

How do you know if a surname ending in -in is of Jewish origin or is it an original Russian surname? Always analyze the word that underlies your last name.

Here are examples of Jewish surnames with the ending “-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 "person leading worship in the synagogue"), Superfin (translated as "very beautiful") and a lot others.

The ending “-in” is simply an ending by which one cannot judge the nationality of a surname. You always need to research your surname, analyze the word that underlies it and try to look for the first mentions of your surname in various books and archival documents. Only when all the information has been collected will you be able to confidently determine the origin of your surname and find answers to your questions.

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

Many Russians have a firm and unfounded belief that surnames in -skiy are certainly Polish. From history textbooks, the names of several Polish magnates are known, derived from the names of their estates: Potocki and Zapotocki, Zablocki, Krasinski. But from the same textbooks the surnames of many Russians with the same suffixes are known: Konstantin Grigorievich Zabolotsky, okolnichy 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 are Levitsky, Borovikovsky, Makovsky, Kramskoy.

An analysis of modern Russian surnames shows that forms in -sky (-tskiy) 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 every 330 people with the surname Krasnov/Krasnova, there were only 30 with the surname Krasnovsky/Krasnovskaya. But the rather rare surnames Kuchkov and Kuchkovsky, Makov and Makovsky are represented almost equally.

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

Brynsky. The author of this letter, Evgeniy Sergeevich Brynsky, himself sent the history of his surname. We present only a small fragment from the letter, since it is not possible to publish it in its entirety. Bryn is a river in the Kaluga region, flows into the Oka Zhizdra tributary. 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. Let us add that there are several settlements of Bryn in the Kaluga and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. The surname Brynski/Brynska, found in Poland, is derived from the names of two settlements Brynsk in different parts of the country and also, apparently, goes back to the names of the rivers Bryn and Brynica. There is no uniform interpretation of the names of these rivers in science. If the suffix -ets is added to the name of a populated place, then such a word denotes a person from this place. In Crimea in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century, 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 derived from the name of some settlement of Gorbovitsy. In the materials we have, there are only Gorbov, Gorbovo and Gorbovtsy. All these names come from the designations of the terrain: hump - a hillock, a sloping hill.

Dubovskaya. The surname is derived from the name of one of the many settlements: Dubovka, Dubovo, Dubovoe, Dubovskaya, Dubovsky, Dubovskoye, Dubovtsy, located in all parts of the country. It is possible to find out from which one exactly, only from the information preserved in the family, where the ancestors who received this surname lived, or where they came from to their future place of residence. The emphasis in the surname is on “o”: Dubovsky/Dubovskaya.

Steblivsky. The Ukrainian surname corresponding to the Russian one is Steblevsky; formed from the names of the populated places Steblevka in the Transcarpathian region or Steblev - Cherkassy. In Ukrainian spelling, 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 bearers of the Tersky surname may also be descendants of Cossacks.

Uriansky. The surname, apparently, is derived from the name of the settlement of Urya. In our materials, this name is recorded in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Perhaps there are similar names in other places, since the name of the populated 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 Urianka. 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 stayed for a long time.

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

Shabansky. The surname is derived 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. Records from 1570-1578 mention Prince Ivan Andreevich Shiban Dolgoruky; in 1584 - the grooms of Tsar Feodor Ioannovich Osip Shiban and Danilo Shikhman Ermolaevich Kasatkin. The servant of Prince Kurbsky was called Vasily Shibanov - executed by Ivan the Terrible in 1564.

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

This is how different types of proper names are closely related to each other: personal names, geographical and ethnic names, as well as surnames.

Where did such surnames as Yushchenko, Khmelnitsky, Gavrilyuk and Shevchenko come from? What do Tyagnibok and Zhuiboroda have in common?

This is a unique “-enko”

Surnames ending with the suffix “-enko” are considered the most typical for Ukrainians, and not because they constitute the largest group, but because practically none are found among other Slavic peoples. The fact that such surnames have become widespread in Russia is explained by the fact that Ukrainians, after joining the Moscow State in 1654, constituted the second largest ethnic group after the Russians.

It should be noted that Ukrainian surnames came into use earlier than Russian ones. The very first mentions of a surname with the suffix “-enko” date back to the 16th century. Their localization was typical for Podolia, a little less often for the Kiev region, Zhytomyr region and Galicia. Later they began to actively spread to Eastern Ukraine.

Researcher Stepan Bevzenko, who studied the register of the Kyiv regiment of the mid-17th century, notes that surnames ending in “-enko” accounted for approximately 60% of the entire list of family names of the regiment. The suffix “-enko” is a diminutive, emphasizing the connection with the father, which literally meant “little”, “young man”, “son”. For example, Petrenko is the son of Peter or Yushchenko is the son of Yuska.
Later, the ancient suffix lost its direct meaning and began to be used as a family component. In particular, it became an addition not only to patronyms, but also to nicknames and professions - Zubchenko, Melnichenko.

Polish influence

For a long time, most of today's Ukraine was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which left its mark on the process of formation of surnames. Surnames in the form of adjectives ending in “-sky” and “-tsky” were especially popular. They were mainly based on toponyms - names of territories, settlements, and water bodies.

Initially, surnames with similar endings were worn exclusively by the Polish aristocracy, as a designation of the rights of ownership of a particular territory - Potocki, Zamoyski. Later, such suffixes spread to Ukrainian surnames, being added to names and nicknames - Artemovsky, Khmelnytsky.

Historian Valentin Bendyug notes that from the beginning of the 18th century, “noble surnames” began to be assigned to those who had an education, primarily this concerned priests. Thus, according to the researcher’s calculations, over 70% of the clergy of the Volyn diocese had surnames with the suffixes “-tsky” and “-sky”.

the appearance in Western Ukraine of surnames with endings in “-uk”, “-chuk”, “-yuk”, “-ak” also occurred during the period of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The basis for such surnames became baptismal names, but later any others. This helped solve the problem of identification - separating a specific person from society and separating a Ukrainian from a nobleman. This is how Gavrilyuk, Ivanyuk, Zakharchuk, Kondratyuk appeared, although over time these suffixes became more widely used - Popelnyuk, Kostelnyuk.

Eastern trail

Linguists have established that the Ukrainian language contains at least 4,000 Turkic words. This is due to the active resettlement of some Turkic and other eastern peoples in the Black Sea and Dnieper regions due to the increased Islamization of the Caucasus and Central Asian regions.

All this directly affected the formation of Ukrainian surnames. In particular, the Russian ethnologist L. G. Lopatinsky argued that the family ending “-ko”, common in Ukraine, comes from the Adyghe “ko” (“kue”), meaning “descendant” or “son”.

For example, the frequently occurring surname Shevchenko, according to the researcher, goes back to the word “sheudzhen”, which the Adygs used to call Christian priests. The descendants of those who moved to the Ukrainian lands “sheudzhen” began to add the ending “-ko” - this is how they turned into Shevchenko.

It is curious that surnames ending in “-ko” are still found among some Caucasian peoples and Tatars, and many of them are very similar to Ukrainian ones: Gerko, Zanko, Kushko, Khatko.

Lopatinsky also attributes Ukrainian surnames ending in “-uk” and “-yuk” to Turkic roots. So, as evidence, he cites the names of the Tatar khans - Kuchuk, Tayuk, Payuk. Researcher of Ukrainian onomastics G. A. Borisenko supplements the list with Ukrainian surnames with a wide variety of endings, which in his opinion are of Adyghe origin - Babiy, Bogma, Zigura, Kekukh, Legeza, Prikhno, Shakhrai.

for example, the surname Dzhigurda - an example of Ukrainian-Circassian anthroponymic correspondence - consists of two words: Dzhikur - the name of the Zikh governor of Georgia and David - the Georgian king. In other words, Dzhigurda is Dzhikur under David.

Cossack nicknames

The environment of the Zaporozhye Cossacks contributed to the formation of a large number of a wide variety of nicknames, behind which serfs and representatives of other classes who escaped from dependence hid their origin for safety reasons.

“According to the rules of the Sich, new arrivals had to leave their surnames behind the outer walls and enter the Cossack world with the name that would best characterize them,” writes researcher V. Sorokopud.

Many of the bright and colorful nicknames, consisting of two parts - a verb in the imperative mood and a noun, subsequently turned into surnames without any suffixes: Zaderykhvist, Zhuiboroda, Lupybatko, Nezdiiminoga.

Some of the names can still be found today - Tyagnibok, Sorokopud, Vernigora, Krivonos. A number of modern surnames come from one-part Cossack nicknames - Bulava, Gorobets, Bereza.

Ethnic diversity

The diversity of Ukrainian surnames is the result of the influence of those states and peoples under whose influence Ukraine has been for centuries. It is interesting that for a long time Ukrainian surnames were the product of free word creation and could change several times. Only at the end of the 18th century, in connection with the decree of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, all surnames acquired legal status, including in the territories of Ukraine that were part of Austria-Hungary.

Professor Pavel Chuchka points out that a “Ukrainian surname” should be distinguished from a surname belonging to a Ukrainian. For example, the surname Schwartz, which is still found in Ukraine, has German roots, but its derivative Schwartzuk (son of Schwartz) is already typically Ukrainian.

Thanks to foreign influence, Ukrainian surnames often acquire a very specific sound. For example, the surname Yovban, according to Czuchka, has always been prestigious, as it comes from the name of St. Job, which in Hungarian is pronounced Yovb. But the researcher sees the surname Penzenik in the Polish word “Penzic”, which translates as to scare

Russians - use surnames with the suffixes -an, -yn, -in, -skikh, -ov, -ev, -skoy, -tskaya, -ikh, -yh (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 surnames have the suffix -sk, -tsk, and the ending -й (-я), indicating masculine and feminine gender (Sushitsky, Kovalskaya, Khodetsky, Wolnitskaya); There are also double surnames - if a woman, when getting married, wants to keep her surname (Mazur-Komorowska); In addition to these surnames, surnames with an unchanged form are also common among Poles (Nowak, Sienkiewicz, Wujcik, Wozniak). Ukrainians with last name endings ending in -y are not Ukrainians, but Ukrainian Poles.;

Ukrainians - the first classification of surnames of this nationality is formed using the suffixes -enko, -ko, -uk, -yuk (Kreshchenko, Grishko, Vasilyuk, Kovalchuk); the second series denotes the type of craft or occupation (Potter, Koval); the third group of surnames consists of individual Ukrainian words (Gorobets, Ukrainians, Parubok), as well as a merger of words (Vernigora, Nepiyvoda, Bilous).

Latvians - the peculiarity of the masculine gender is indicated by a surname ending in -s, -is, and in the feminine gender - with -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, -juven, -uven and the ending -e (Grinius - Grinyuvene), the surnames of unmarried girls contain the basis of the father's surname with the addition of the suffixes -ut, -polut, -ayt and the ending -e (Orbakas - Orbakaite);

Estonians - male and female genders are not distinguished by surnames, all foreign surnames (mostly German) were once Estonized (Rosenberg - Roosimäe), this process continues to this day. for example, in order to be able to play for the Estonia national team, football players Sergei Khokhlov and Konstantin Kolbasenko had to change their surnames to Simson and Nahk;

The French - many surnames are preceded by the prefix Le or De (Le Pen, Mol Pompadour); basically, dissimilar nicknames and personal names were used to form surnames (Robert, Jolie, Cauchon - 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); denoting profession (Hoggart - shepherd, Smith - blacksmith); indicating the external appearance of character and appearance (Armstrong - strong, Sweet - sweet, Bragg - boastful);

Germans are 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, -sted, -strom (Andersson, Olsson, Forsberg, Bostrom);

Norwegians - formed from personal names using the suffix -en (Larsen, Hansen), surnames without suffixes and endings can be found (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 the suffixes -ini, -ino, -ello, -illo, -etti, -etto, -ito (Benedetto, Moretti, Esposito), can end in -o, -a, -i (Conti, Giordano, Costa ); the prefixes di- and - indicate, respectively, a person’s belonging to his clan 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 indicating a person’s character are also common (Alegre - joyful, Bravo - gallant, Malo - horseless);

Turks - most often their surnames have the endings -oglu, -ji, -zade (Mustafaoglu, Ekindzhi, Kuindzhi, Mamedzade), when forming surnames they often used Turkish names or everyday words (Ali, Abaza - fool, Kolpakchi - 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, -poulos (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 - common surnames ending in -shvili, -dze, -uri, -ava, -a, -ua, -ia, -ni, -li, -si (Baratashvili, Mikadze, Adamia, Karchava, Gvishiani, Tsereteli);

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

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

Azerbaijanis formed surnames by taking Azerbaijani names as a basis and attaching Russian suffixes -ov, -ev (Mamedov, Aliyev, Gasanov, Abdullaev) to them. 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 came from male and female Hebrew 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, his appearance or profession (Kaplan - chaplain, Rabinovich - rabbi, Melamed - pestun, Schwartzbard - black-bearded, Stiller - quiet, Shtarkman - strong).

Ossetians: -ti.

Mordva: -yn, -in.

Chinese and Koreans - for the most part these are surnames consisting of one, less often two syllables (Tan, Liu, Duan, Qiao, Tsoi, Kogai);

Japanese - modern Japanese surnames are formed by merging two full-valued words (Wada - sweet voice 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, to determine a person’s nationality, it is enough to accurately analyze his last name, highlighting the suffix and ending.

WHAT DO SURNAMES WITH "-IN" MEAN? SURNAMES ENDING WITH -IN HAVE RUSSIAN ROOTS OR JEWISH ROOTS?

In the collection of the famous Slavic linguist B. O Unbegun “Russian Surnames” you can read that surnames ending with “in” are predominantly a Russian type of surname.

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 many examples of erroneous addition of -in to stems with a final hard consonant: Orekhin, Karpin, Markin, where -ov should be. And in another case, -ov turned out to be in the place of -in: Shishimorov from the base of shishimora. Mixing of formants is possible. After all, among Russians -in and -ov have been semantically indistinguishable for more than a thousand years. The meaning of the difference has been lost in the common Slavic language; the choice of -ov or -in depends only remnantly on the phonetic feature of the stem (Nikonov “Geography of Surnames”).

Such Russian surnames ending in “-in” include: Pushkin (Pushka), Gagarin (Loon), Borodin (Beard), Ilyin (Ilya), Ptitsyn (Bird); Fomin (from the personal name 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 starting with “in” are derived mostly end in “-a” or “-ya”. We will not be able to say “Borodov” or “Ilyinov”; it would be quite logical and more sonorous to say “Ilyin” or “Borodin”.

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

How do you know if a surname ending in -in is of Jewish origin or is it an original Russian surname? Always analyze the word that underlies your last name.

Here are examples of Jewish surnames with the ending “-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 “hazn”, meaning “a person leading worship in the synagogue”), Superfin (translated as “very beautiful”) and a lot others.

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

Brynsky. The author of this letter, Evgeniy Sergeevich Brynsky, himself sent the history of his surname. We present only a small fragment from the letter, since it is not possible to publish it in its entirety. Bryn is a river in 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. Let us add that there are several settlements of Bryn in the Kaluga and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. The surname Brynski/Brynska, found in Poland, is derived from the names of two settlements Brynsk in different parts of the country and also, apparently, goes back to the names of the rivers Bryn and Brynica. There is no uniform interpretation of the names of these rivers in science. If the suffix -ets is added to the name of a populated place, then such a word denotes a person from this place. In Crimea in the 60s - 70s of the 20th century, 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.

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

Shabansky. The surname is derived 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 the Arabic language, 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 1570-1578 Prince Ivan Andreevich Shiban Dolgoruky is mentioned; in 1584 - the grooms of Tsar Theodore Ioannovich Osip Shiban and Danilo Shikhman Ermolaevich Kasatkin. The servant of Prince Kurbsky was called Vasily Shibanov - executed by Ivan the Terrible in 1564.

This is how different types of proper names are closely related to each other: personal names, geographical and ethnic names, as well as surnames.

The surname of ex-footballer Andrei Shevchenko has become the most common in Ukraine / photo: ukraina-vpered.com

After the Ukrainian media began to actively interest in the fate of the rector of the National University of the State Tax Service, it turned out that his surname is one of the three most common in Ukraine, reports Segodnya.

The publication writes that the most popular surnames in Ukraine are Shevchenko, Melnik and Boyko. Moreover, Melniks could populate the whole of Kerch, Shevchenko would be enough for Nikopol, and Boyko would be enough for Uzhgorod.

It is curious that the surnames popular in Russia (Smirnov, Ivanov and Kuznetsov) are not even in the top ten in Ukraine. But there are still a lot of them: the same Ivanovs number about 90 thousand.

/ Today

And the rarest surnames in our country are often difficult to pronounce. Among them: Abdugafarov, Abibulla, Alyabyeva, Bordzika, Briharya, Mkoriz, Luft, Likhogvor, Zez, Zatserklyany, Ekh, Durandina, Dudu, Dirbaba, Grob, Vier and Hegel (their representatives have less than 50 namesakes in Ukraine).

As it turned out, many representatives of the world’s most popular families live in Ukraine. For example, there are more than 100 million Chinese people with the surname Li in the world. In our country there are more than 2 thousand bearers of this surname. The second most popular surname in the world is Zhang (also about 100 million people) in Ukraine, 449 people have the surname Wang or Wang (more than 93 million people) - about 1,700 Ukrainians.

There are about 3 thousand people with the Vietnamese surname Nguyen (and there are more than 36 million of them in the world). In addition, the world's top ten includes the names Garcia, Gonzalez, Hernandez, Smith, Smirnov and Muller. Smirnovs, according to telephone databases, we have more than 45 thousand. In addition, 131 Muellers, 29 Garcias, 53 Gonzales, 19 Hernandezes and 46 Smiths live in Ukraine.