Dictionary of Russian surnames. Surnames of people: meaning, role, characteristics and how surnames originated Dictionary of surnames and their meaning
Tukhachevsky - TUKHACHEVSKY. The ancestors of the marshal, a hero of the civil war, lived in the Tukhachev camp, located on the Severka River, which flows into the Moscow River near Kolomna. A small administrative-territorial unit in the Russian state of the 15th-16th centuries was called a camp. (F).
Tukhtamyshev - RYZHAKOV, RYZHKOV, RYZHOV, RYSHKOV, TUKTAMYSHEV, TUKHTAMYSHEV, TOKHTAMYSH, TAKHTAMYSH. Tuktamyshev himself claims that his family descends from Khan Tokhtamysh himself. Maybe so. But most likely the surname was formed from the name Tukhtamysh, given to the person in memory of the famous khan.
Turovetsky - TUROVETS, TUROVETSKY, TUROVSKY, TURSKY. Initially - the designation of someone who arrived from the settlement of Turov, Turovka (the toponym is not uncommon in Ukraine, Belarus and Poland). (N).
Cloud - TUCHIN, TUCHKOV, TUCHNOLOBOV, TUSHIN, TUSHNOV, TUSHEV, TUSHOV, CLOUCH. Cloud, Tuchko, Tusha - these were the names of obese, overweight people. Tushnoy (fat) - fat. (F). Tushin. Originally - a patronymic from the Russian non-church male name Tusha - “fat, corpulent”. Known in the 16th century. boyar Tusha (the village of Tushino on the Moscow River that belonged to him was named after him; also...
Turovsky - TUROVETS, TUROVETSKY, TUROVSKY, TURSKY. Initially - the designation of someone who arrived from the settlement of Turov, Turovka (the toponym is not uncommon in Ukraine, Belarus and Poland). (N).
Tuchin - TUCHIN, TUCHKOV, TUCHNOLOBOV, TUSHIN, TUSHNOV, TUSHEV, TUSHOV, TUCHA. Cloud, Tuchko, Tusha - these were the names of obese, overweight people. Tushnoy (fat) - fat. (F). Tushin. Originally - a patronymic from the Russian non-church male name Tusha - “fat, corpulent”. Known in the 16th century. boyar Tusha (the village of Tushino on the Moscow River that belonged to him was named after him; also...
Tursky - TUROVETS, TUROVETSKY, TUROVSKY, TURSKY. Initially - the designation of someone who arrived from the settlement of Turov, Turovka (the toponym is not uncommon in Ukraine, Belarus and Poland). (N).
Tuchkov - TUCHIN, TUCHKOV, TUCHNOLOBOV, TUSHIN, TUSHNOV, TUSHEV, TUSHOV, TUCHA. Cloud, Tuchko, Tusha - these were the names of obese, overweight people. Tushnoy (fat) - fat. (F). Tushin. Originally - a patronymic from the Russian non-church male name Tusha - “fat, corpulent”. Known in the 16th century. boyar Tusha (the village of Tushino on the Moscow River that belonged to him was named after him; also...
Turchanin - TURKIY, TURKENIN, TURKENICH, TURKIN, TURKOVSKY, TURCHANINOV, TURCHINOV, TURCHIN, TURYAK, TURYANSKY, TURCHENKOV, TURKEVICH, TURCHANIN. Turkenya meant Turkish woman. “The Turken taught me how to salt them at a time when the Turks were still in our captivity,” says Pulcheria Ivanovna in Gogol’s “Old World Landowners.” Turka in the old vernacular is a Turk. A Turkish is the same as a Turk...
Tuchnolobov - TUCHIN, TUCHKOV, TUCHNOLOBOV, TUSHIN, TUSHNOV, TUSHEV, TUSHOV, TUCHA. Cloud, Tuchko, Tusha - these were the names of obese, overweight people. Tushnoy (fat) - fat. (F). Tushin. Originally - a patronymic from the Russian non-church male name Tusha - “fat, corpulent”. Known in the 16th century. boyar Tusha (the village of Tushino on the Moscow River that belonged to him was named after him; also...
Tamara Fedorovna Vedina
Encyclopedia of Russian surnames. Secrets of origin and meaning
Why does a person need a last name?
They say that during the Great French Revolution such an episode occurred.
A certain citizen is being tried for belonging to the enemies of the revolution.
The chairman of the court asks the defendant to state his last name.
“De Saint Cyr,” he answers.
“But there is no nobility in France anymore,” the judge objects, referring to the particle “de”, which meant belonging to high society.
“So I’m just Saint Cyr.”
– The time of superstition and sacrilege (“sen” means saint) has passed.
“Well, I agree to be just a Sire,” says the defendant.
“But “sire” is an address to the king, and we no longer have a king.
“In that case,” the defendant joyfully exclaims, “I have no last name at all, and I am not subject to prosecution.”
The completely discouraged judge was forced to release the man without a last name.
This curious incident very clearly shows how important it is for a person living in society to have a surname. Without it, he is something uncertain, powerless, a person without a future, because it is the surname that is the wealth that even the poorest leave as an inheritance.
A person living in Russia has a first name, patronymic, and last name. This trinity developed gradually; the process took centuries. First there was a name. Then the middle name. Then the last name.
This word itself - surname - also entered our language quite late. It comes from the Latin “family”. And the main purpose of a surname is to designate a single family name, which is used to call the entire family, including close and distant relatives.
The great reformer Tsar Peter I introduced this word into Russian life. Although, as an element of naming, surnames existed before, they were only called nicknames, nicknames. The words “advertisement” and “name” were sometimes used in the same meaning. It is not for nothing that the tsar’s decrees on conducting a population census said that it was necessary to “record all people living in such and such areas by first name and nickname,” i.e., we would say now, by first name, patronymic and last name.
In different social strata, surnames appeared at different times.
The first in the XIV–XV centuries. Naturally, princes and boyars acquired surnames. They were often given by the names of their patrimonial estates: Tverskoy, Zvenigorodsky, Vyazemsky...
In the XVI–XVIII centuries. the names of nobles were formed. Among them there are many surnames of eastern origin, since many nobles came to serve the king from foreign lands. For example, Antioch Dmitrievich Cantemir is one of the founders of Russian classicism and, of course, a nobleman, the son of a Moldavian scientist and politician. We don’t seem to perceive this surname as foreign, yet it is a translation from the Turkic Khan-Temir (“temir” - iron).
In the XVIII–XIX centuries. Servicemen and merchants acquired surnames. They often reflected geographical concepts, but not in the sense of ownership of them, but by the fact of birth: Arkhangelsky, Venevitinov, Moskvin...
In the 19th century The names of the Russian clergy began to take shape: Zvonarev, Dyakonov, Popov, Molitvin... Among them there are many artificially formed from various words not only of Russian, but also of Church Slavonic, Latin, Greek, Arabic and other languages. Many surnames are based on the names of churches and church holidays: Epiphany, Trinity, Assumption... In theological educational institutions, surnames were changed not only for euphony, solidity, and some pomp necessary for future clergy, but also because the “native” surnames of the students were, in the opinion of the spiritual authorities, very “obscene”. And then Pyankov or Pyanov, for example, turned into Sobrievskys (from the Latin sobrius - “sober, teetotaler”).
Peasants - the largest part of the Russian population - did not have surnames until the end of the 19th century, and some acquired them only in the early 30s. XX century, when universal passportization began. Although the so-called street, or village, surnames have been known for a long time, they were distinguished by a certain variability. For example, if the head of the family was called Danila, all his children and spouse were called Danilovs. Danila left to serve the colonel - everyone immediately became a colonel. Returning from the war without an arm or leg - he received the nickname Invalids. Became a blacksmith - the whole family turned into Kuznetsovs.
In addition to the names given at baptism, nicknames were widely used, which also served as the basis for surnames. At the same time, neither one nor the other differed in consistency. A peasant went to the city to do his work, and the clerk gave him a “paper” on which one of his “street” names was written down. He returned - either the old or the new surname-nickname “stuck” to him again. The Russian people have always been sharp-witted and sharp-witted; it was not at all easy to protect yourself from nicknames if you stood out among people in some way.
Using surnames, you can study the class structure of Russia over the centuries. They contain the entire social hierarchy, all class and estate differences. You can trace the development of crafts and professions, explore moral views, vices and virtues.
Recognizing the meaning of surnames is not so easy. Counts could be the owner of the title, a serf, a servant, or an illegitimate son. In general, surnames that reflect the social and economic relations “master-servant” are very ambiguous: Pomeshchikov is both the landowner himself and the serf who belongs to him; Lakeyev - both the footman himself and his son, who, as they said, “made it into the people.”
The surnames represent the history of the Russian army: Ulanovs, Grenadiers, Dragunovs, Kornetovs, Kadetovs and more familiar to the modern ear Soldatovs, Officers, Kapitanovs, Sergeants... However, history, as we know, develops in a spiral, sometimes everything returns to normal. And now, in order to understand what, say, the name Kadets or Bailiffs means, you don’t need to look into dictionaries: we have both cadets and bailiffs again.
Even such a difficult issue as national relations was reflected in the surnames. At first glance, Kerimov, Guliyev are the names of Azerbaijanis, Gumerov is a Tatar, Karimov is an Uzbek. But all of them are formed according to the model of Russian surnames and formally do not differ from them. Babayev can be both Russian and Dagestani, Karaev can be Russian and Tajik, Yusupov can be Russian and Tatar. The surnames Abramov, Moiseev, Samoilov, Davydov, Yudin, Samsonov, despite their origin from Jewish names, belong almost exclusively to Russians. And the Semenovs, Kozyrevs, Isaevs can be not only Russians, but also Ossetians. So a hasty attempt to determine nationality by surname is without any basis. You can make a mistake...
Russian surnames are a real encyclopedia of everyday life, history, and ethnography. They depict professions and handicrafts, sometimes long lost: Melnikovs, Goncharovs, Bocharovs, Bochkarevs, Sbitnevs, Sbitenkovs, Izvozchikovs, Surtukovs, Karetnikovs, Telegins, Khomutovs, Brichkins, Tarantasovs... They contain dialectisms that we do not know now : Argunov (“argun” - Vladimir carpenter), Buzunov (from the Vologda word “brawler, brawler”), Gontarev (from “gontar” - the one who makes wood chips for roofing), etc. They contain the national diversity of Russia: Khanykov - from the Adyghe “kanyko” - the son of a teacher; Kurakin – from the Turkic “kurak” – dry, skinny; Atasov - from the Udmurt word “rooster”; Boldin - from the Kalmyk name Bold, Bolda...
The Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language by V.I. was a huge help in working on the dictionary for the author. Dahl, books by writer L.V. Uspensky “A Word about Words”, “You and Your Name”, “Dictionary of Russian Personal Names” N.A. Petrovsky, works of the philosopher and theologian P.A. Florensky.
Review of surname dictionaries
The first thing should be done by a person who is looking for an answer to the question “What does this or that surname mean?” – look for the answer in special dictionaries. Today there is no shortage of dictionaries of surnames. Another question is what part of the family fund is considered in them. The answer to this question is a topic for another discussion. Here I want to offer an overview of surname dictionaries. All the works described below are well known to me. I actively use them in my research work. They are always at hand in my office. Some of them were sent to me by the authors themselves.
Many dictionaries of surnames have already been scanned by someone, passed through an image recognition program and posted for public viewing on the Internet on various sites. In some cases, I indicate the addresses of these sites.
This dictionary is not ignored by any serious researcher of Russian surnames. It contains information about the time of recording of non-Christian names in written monuments, and about the bearers of these names. Many of these names are reflected in the foundations of modern Russian surnames. The dictionary does not provide etymological information. Many compilers of later dictionaries of surnames cite in their dictionary entries information from Tupikov’s dictionary (year and place of recording of the name, occupation of the named person) to show the antiquity of the surnames in question (of course, if the naming underlying the surname is presented in Tupikov’s dictionary).
The third part of the work is called “Patronymics”. But there are actually a lot of surnames in it. Thanks to this publication, it is possible to identify the approximate time of the appearance of a surname, the place of its appearance (or existence) in the distant past. In 2004, the Russian Way publishing house made a gift to linguists and historians by reprinting this dictionary in a circulation of 3,000 copies. In 2005, the publishing house “Languages of Slavic Culture” published this work in a circulation of 500 copies.
This is the most famous and most accessible dictionary of Russian surnames. This was the first published dictionary of surnames in the USSR. It came out in its first edition in 1972. Then in 1981. And since in those “stagnant” times the circulation of books reached astronomical heights (compared to the circulation of modern books), then if not all, then almost all libraries in the country were provided with this dictionary. The circulation of these two publications totaled 125 thousand copies. In 1996, in the years when the country had already thrown off the shackles of the “damned” socialism, which was “stifling” the freedom of private enterprise, freedom of thought in general (including onomastic thought), the circulation of this publication was 5 thousand copies. It’s clear that not everyone got it.
The annotations to the second and third editions say that they are both corrected and supplemented. Indeed, in the first edition there are more than 1,500 names, in the second – more than 2,500. To be honest, I have never compared the texts of different editions for corrections and additions. The son of the author of this dictionary wrote in the preface of the third edition that in 1992 Yu. A. Fedosyuk, who constantly made clarifications and additions to the manuscript, prepared the text of a new, corrected and expanded edition of the dictionary. But at the time of its publication he was no longer alive. The third edition also contains more than 2,500 names.
In 2006 and 2009, the Flint: Science publishing house published this dictionary in small editions (1 thousand copies each).
A few words about the author. Yuri Aleksandrovich Fedosyuk (1920–1992) belonged to the first generation of Soviet researchers who were enthusiasts of onomastics, its devotees. Yu. A. Fedosyuk’s official duties were not directly related to either philology or onomastics, but he devoted all his free time to popularizing history and onomastics.
In conclusion, I note that the first two editions were published by the Children's Literature publishing house, the third by the Russian Dictionaries publishing house.
“Dictionary of Russian Surnames” by Yu. A. Fedosyuk is perhaps one of the most accessible, since it is posted on the Yandex “Dictionaries” service. “Dictionary of Russian surnames” by Yu. A. Fedosyuk on Yandex
The author of the dictionary is historian, academician Stepan Borisovich Veselovsky (1876–1952). The work was written on the basis of a huge number of published and unpublished sources (chronicles, acts, categories, etc.) of North-Eastern Rus' of the 15th–17th centuries.
S. B. Veselovsky created “Onomasticon” over many years of work in archives and libraries in parallel with writing studies on the history of pre-Petrine Rus', and especially in the 1930s–1940s. Compared to Tupikov’s book, it contains a lot of new material about personal names, nicknames and surnames in Ancient Rus'. His work contains a list of many hundreds of surnames, nicknames, names - from princes, boyars, nobles to peasants and townspeople, cultivators and artisans, warriors and traders. In a number of cases the author cited.
The reader will not always find on the pages of the work an explanation of the origin of names, surnames and nicknames, references to sources or chronological indications of the existence of certain names, etc., since the author sometimes did not make references to the sources he used. Sometimes only a first name, nickname or surname is given without indicating real historical persons. But more often than not, such data is available and is accompanied by precise indications of people who lived at a certain time and in a certain area.
The book was published by the Nauka publishing house in 1974 with a good circulation of 28 thousand copies.
The work is devoted to the problem of the formation of Russian historical surnames of eastern origin, associated with the transition to Russian service of immigrants mainly from the Golden Horde, as well as from clan and state associations of Turkic-speaking peoples.
The study consists of an introductory chapter and 300 separate articles, which provide a more or less detailed historical and etymological analysis of each specific surname.
The author of the work is the famous Soviet and Russian Turkologist Nikolai Aleksandrovich Baskakov (1905–1995). He was interested in the broad topic of Turkisms in Russian and other eastern languages. The dictionary “Russian surnames of Turkic origin” is part of the development of this topic. He also authored such well-known monographs as “Turkisms in East Slavic Languages” (M., 1974), “Turkic Lexicon in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” (M., 1985).
Of course, the number of surnames with Turkic roots is much larger than those discussed in this book.
Long before the publication of this book-dictionary, Baskakov published the etymologies of Russian surnames of Turkic origin, as they were developed. So the work “Russian surnames of Turkic origin” in the scientific world was expected.
The book was first published in 1979 by the Nauka publishing house (circulation 10 thousand). In 1993, the second edition was published by the Michel publishing house (circulation 20 thousand).
Academician-Slavist N.I. Tolstoy called this book the best about Russian surnames. It was written by Boris Genrikhovich Unbegaun (1898–1972), a Russian German (born in Moscow), who was forced to emigrate from Russia along with the White Army in which he fought.
Abroad, Unbegaun received a university education as a Slavist. One of his scientific topics was Russian onomastics. Even before World War II, his articles on Russian toponyms appeared in print.
The book “Russian Surnames” is written in English and first published in 1972 in London. This is not a dictionary in format. But the book also has value as a lexicographical work. Its main task is to analyze the morphology and semantics of surnames. Surnames are classified according to groups of words that underlie them. Thanks to the surname index, you can quickly find the desired surname and find out what word its basis goes back to and what this word means. True, these interpretations are very laconic. But this is compensated by the number of surnames considered - over 10 thousand.
The special value of this book is that, in addition to Russian ones, it also examines non-Russian surnames: Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, Jewish, Armenian, Georgian, Latvian, etc. The publication of this book has largely satisfied the educational needs of people interested in non-Russian surnames , existing in Russia, in the USSR.
The book was translated into Russian by Soviet linguists and published in 1989 by the Progress publishing house (circulation 50 thousand copies). In 1995, the same publishing house published the book again (circulation 10 thousand copies).
Finally, I will explain why in Russia Unbegaun was known as Boris Genrikhovich, and on the cover of his book there are the initials B.-O. Abroad, a second name was added to his name - Ottokar. Why? I can’t say because I don’t know. And it would be correct to write the initials without a hyphen, since in the English edition there is no hyphen, since Boris Ottokar is two names of one person. And writing with a hyphen would mean that we are talking about one, compound name.
In 1993, a posthumous edition of the dictionary of Russian surnames of the patriarch of Soviet onomastics Vladimir Andreevich Nikonov (1984–1988) was published. Surnames were this scientist's favorite topic. And not only Russians, but also other peoples - Georgian, Mordovian, Central Asian. In the archives, he examined census sheets, voter lists, and registry office books. According to the scientist himself, he collected more than one hundred thousand names. According to his estimates, they cover 9/10 of the entire Russian population. But they make up barely 1/10 of all Russian surnames.
V. A. Nikonov selected 70 thousand surnames in the vocabulary of his “Dictionary of Russian Surnames”. On January 17, 1987, a year before the death of V. A. Nikonov, an interview with him was published in the newspaper “Socialist Industry”. In it, the scientist laments:
– I’m afraid that I won’t see the Dictionary in my lifetime. After all, I’m already over eighty.
According to the scientist, a publisher for this unique dictionary was never found in his country. However, the Japanese offered to publish it.
During his lifetime, V. A. Nikonov published a lot of dictionary materials. Thus, in the collection “Etymology” from 1970 to 1975. 2,200 surnames starting with the letter A were published as “Experience in a dictionary of Russian surnames.” He published fragments of the “Dictionary of Russian Surnames” from 1976 to 1988. on the pages of the popular science magazine “Russian Speech”. It was these materials that formed the basis for the posthumous “Dictionary of Russian Surnames” published by the scientist’s associates. Its circulation is very large for the 1990s - 100 thousand. The publication was carried out by the Moscow publishing house Shkola-Press.
“Materials for a dictionary of Mordovian surnames”, found in the archive of V. A. Nikonov and published in one of the collections “Onomastics of the Volga Region” (M., 2001), are also of undoubted interest. This work contains the etymology of several dozen surnames starting with the letter A.
“Dictionary of Russian Surnames” by V. A. Nikonov is perhaps one of the most accessible, since it is posted on the Yandex “Dictionaries” service. “Dictionary of Russian surnames” by V. A. Nikonov on Yandex
Chaikina Yu. I. Vologda surnames: Etymological dictionary.
In the 1990s, a new type of family name dictionary appeared in Russia - a regional dictionary. Perhaps the first experience is a dictionary of Vologda surnames, compiled by Yulia Ivanovna Chaikina, Doctor of Philology, Professor of the Vologda Pedagogical Institute.
This dictionary was created on the basis of a card index of about 10 thousand cards, the vocabulary of which ranges from 1.5–2 thousand anthroponyms. The material was collected mainly from four sources: List of scribe books of the city of Vologda for 1629, Census Books of Vologda 1711–1712, censuses and measures of Vasily Pikin, Ivan Shestakov, Fifth Revision of merchants and townspeople of Vologda for 1795, List of Vologda inhabitants by alphabet for 1830.
One of the tasks of the dictionary is to identify a list of surnames of residents of Vologda in the 16th – first third of the 19th centuries.
The dictionary consistently includes surnames from nicknames, names of professions and toponyms. Also included are surnames from colloquial forms of calendar personal names (Elkin, Palkin, etc.). Surnames from full calendar names (such as Vasilyev) are included occasionally.
The dictionary entry contains information about the social status and profession of those named. It also gives the date of the earliest mention of surnames in local written sources. The word-formation variation of surnames is shown. An important part of dictionary entries is the interpretation of surnames. It begins with establishing the nickname that forms the basis of the surname. Its etymology follows. As you can see, this dictionary represents a synthesis of a historical dictionary of anthroponyms (like Tupikov’s dictionary) and an etymological dictionary of surnames (like Fedosyuk’s dictionary), but on local (Vologda) material.
This work was published in 1995 by the Vologda publishing house "Rus" with a circulation of only 500 copies. The small circulation in our time is compensated by the presence of this dictionary on the Internet. “Vologda surnames” in the electronic collection of the Vologda Regional Universal Scientific Library
Polyakova E. N. To the origins of Perm surnames: Dictionary.
In 1997, a regional dictionary of surnames was published in Perm. It is called “To the origins of Perm surnames.” Its author is Elena Nikolaevna Polyakova, Doctor of Philology, Professor of Perm State University. It became known to a wide circle of readers after the publication in 1975 of a popular science book for students, “From the history of Russian names and surnames,” by the Moscow publishing house “Prosveshchenie.”
The dictionary “To the Origins of Perm Surnames” is dedicated to early Perm surnames and is compiled based on materials from the documentary writing of the Kama region of the second half of the 16th – early 18th centuries. In total, more than 2.5 thousand Perm surnames were considered. Also presented are individual nicknames that served as surnames in documents. Surnames from calendar names (Alekseev, Vasiliev) are excluded from consideration, since their decoding does not present any difficulty for modern readers. However, surnames from incomplete calendar names, unknown or little-known today (Aganev, Artyukin) or from sufficiently modified full calendar names (Vakhromiev, Okulov), are considered.
Each dictionary entry consists of a headword - a surname, a text from the 16th - early 18th centuries in which it is recorded, an etymological certificate (information about possible origins) and a text that contains a nickname or calendar name that gave the surname under study, if such a text is found in Permian monuments.
The circulation of the publication is 490 copies. The dictionary was published under a grant from the Soros International Science Foundation. Printed by the Perm University Publishing House.
In 2004, in Perm, the Knizhny Mir publishing house published 2,500 copies of the Dictionary of Perm Surnames, also authored by E. N. Polyakova. Without having the opportunity to personally familiarize myself with this work, I can get an idea from the review by A. G. Mosin. The structure of the dictionary entry has changed little, but there are more than twice as many dictionary entries. The increase in volume occurred due to the inclusion of denominate surnames in the dictionary (i.e., from calendar names). As A.G. Mosin writes, the main difference between this Polyakova dictionary and her 1997 edition of the dictionary is that it is addressed to a young reader: E.N. Polyakova’s dictionary is recommended by the Scientific and Pedagogical Council of the Department of Education of the Perm Region for students and teachers of secondary educational institutions as a supplement to the textbook “Russian speech of the Kama region: Linguistic local history.”
Dmitrieva L. I., Shcherbak A. S. et al. Surnames of the Tambov region: dictionary-reference book. Vol. 1. Tambov, 1998. 159 pp.; Vol. 2. Tambov, 1999. 163 pp.; Vol. 3. Tambov, 1999. 163 pp.; Vol. 4. Tambov, 2000. 160 pp.; Vol. 5. Tambov, 2000. 147 pp.; Vol. 6. Tambov, 2001. 157 pp.; Vol. 7. Tambov, 2002. 151 pp.; Vol. 8. Tambov, 2003. 151 pp.; Electronic edition, 2004. Reg. certificate No. 5090 dated November 11, 2004, No. 0320401460.
Since 1985, the names of the Tambov region have become the object of scientific research by a group of teachers and students. Their systematic study began in 1991. The results were eight editions of the dictionary-reference book “Families of the Tambov Region” (1998–2003) and a disk (electronic edition) with the same name (2004).
A group of teachers from Tambov State University worked on the dictionary. G. R. Derzhavin. The composition of the group has changed over the years. It constantly included L. I. Dmitrieva and A. S. Shcherbak. L. V. Goluzo and I. G. Goluzo also took part in the compilation of the first three issues. The scientific editor of the dictionary-reference book was Professor A. L. Sharandin.
The circulation of printed editions of the dictionary is scanty - at first 100 copies, individual issues - 200, 250 copies. All of them were published by the publishing house of TSU named after. G. R. Derzhavin.
Each issue contains surnames for all letters of the Russian alphabet. Moreover, some names are repeated in different issues. It must be assumed that the disc released in 2004 absorbed all the names from the paper releases. In the monograph by A. S. Shcherbak “Problems in the study of regional onomastics. Onomasticon of the Tambov Region" (Tambov, 2006) it is said that each of the eight editions of the dictionary contains about 1000 dictionary names, and more than 9000 names are presented in the electronic version.
Both paper editions and the electronic edition contain the same short preface (three pages), which presents a classification of surnames, numbering five groups: patronymic, matronymic, nickname, from the names of kinship relationships, artificial.
As the compilers of the dictionary write, they sought to solve the following problems:
1. Record the surnames existing in the Tambov region as completely as possible.
2. Register basic information about the surname in a dictionary entry: the type of surname, what source it goes back to, give, if possible, the etymology of the name if the surname is patronymic, give an interpretation of archaic or dialect words if the surname is nicknamed.
3. Give emphasis for all surnames, indicating the accentological variant, if available.
Dictionary entries in the dictionary “Surnames of the Tambov Region” are structured as follows. The surname explained in this dictionary entry appears in bold. Then the type of surname and the source to which it etymologically goes back are indicated. If necessary, all changes that occurred when borrowing a particular name from which the surname was formed are explained.
I will give examples of several dictionary entries (stress is emphasized as in the dictionary, i.e., a stressed vowel is indicated by a lowercase letter).
ATRYASKIN is a nickname. Goes back to the nickname OTRYASKA: OTRYASKA from shake off– “shake off the dirt from clothes, tablecloth, feet”; in tamb. in dialects - shake off the young“The people they meet shake the young people by the shoulders until they pay off with a handful of nuts or sunflower seeds.” The spelling of the surname reflected Akane.
ALGASOVSKY is a nickname. Goes back to naming a person by his previous place of residence: ALGASOVSKY - “a native of Algasov, a village in the Tambov region.”
ULiTIN is a matronymic surname. Goes back to the female Christian baptismal name IULITTA (etymology is unclear). On Russian soil, there was a loss of the initial [I] and a simplification of the double T ([TT] - [T]). A colloquial form of the name appeared - ULiTA, from which the surname was formed.
USPENSKY is an artificial surname for clergy. Goes back to the name of the church holiday of the Dormition or the name of the church in which the priest served.
Since the dictionary is dedicated to the surnames of the region, and not of some ethnic group in the region, it contains surnames not only of Russian origin, but also of other origins, for example, Belarusian, Ukrainian.
The undoubted advantage of this dictionary is that it also includes surnames from male baptismal names like Vasiliev, Ivanov, Petrov etc., which are often not included in dictionaries for other regions. Thus, the dictionary gives an idea of the relationship between groups of surnames from various lexical sources.
Unfortunately, the compilers of the dictionary do not write anywhere what sources they used to identify the stock of surnames in the Tambov region. Probably, these were mainly modern lists of residents of the region, and the dictionary is focused on the current state of the family fund of the Tambov region. This is one of its differences from other regional dictionaries of surnames, which usually contain surnames extracted from business writing monuments dating back to the period up to the beginning of the 18th century. Another difference is that in the dictionary of surnames of the Tambov region there is no focus on regional specifics. The all-Russian and regional are presented in a natural ratio.
This material will be continued! I also intend to consider dictionaries of Smolensk, Trans-Ural surnames, surnames of northwestern Rus' of the 15th-17th centuries.
© Nazarov Alois
Nowadays, every person has a surname. Just as a name is given, a surname is “assigned.” Most people live with their own surname all their lives, and girls live until marriage, after which they change their maiden name to the surname of their husband. There are cases where men take their wives' surnames, but such cases are less common. Have you ever wondered where your last name came from, how old it is, centuries, thousands of years old? After all, you can change your surname, but then the dynasty of kinship may end, and no one guarantees that there are still people on Earth with a surname like yours. We offer you a directory of surnames in which you can try to find yours.
There are such a huge number of surnames that we are simply not able to collect information about all surnames. The directory contains more than 40,000 Russian surnames.
Dictionary of Russian surnames
The surname dictionary can be used as a reference book; free surnames are grouped by letter. The list of surnames is quite detailed, more than 40,000. The history of the surname can go back many centuries. During its existence, a surname can undergo quite significant changes, with the loss of both individual letters and entire syllables, which can radically change the original meaning of the surname. Finding out about the origin of a surname and what it actually means, in some cases, can be quite simple. Usually, it is easy to guess the meaning of a simple surname and without hints, for complex surnames this may not be possible at all.
It can be assumed that the origins of any surname lie either in a craft or in the personal characteristics of people, which were later transformed into the now known surnames. No genealogy is able to trace the real state of affairs. At best, you can find mention of your last name in historical documents and in this way determine how old it is. The maximum that we have today is a family tree that can be traced back no more than 10 generations.
How to find out the meaning of a surname? Unfortunately, only the very first bearers of the surname knew the original meaning of their surname, maybe direct relatives and that’s it. Then it’s just guesswork and fortune telling on coffee grounds. Let's be realistic, if you do not have reliable and detailed information about your ancestors, who they were, where they lived, then your secret surname may never be solved. Therefore, information about the places of residence of all your ancestors can be of great help in finding the origin of a surname. This is very important, because the same word underlying a surname can have completely different meanings among different peoples and in different dialects. Moreover, even familiar words in the old days had meanings different from modern ones.
In this encyclopedia of surnames you will find both common and very rare surnames, of course there are also the most beautiful surnames. Naturally, the concept of beauty is very subjective and everyone will have their own opinion on this matter. Look at the common last names of visitors. Pay attention to the funniest surnames that real people have to live with. The most interesting thing is that they came down from time immemorial in exactly this form. It turns out that before, people didn’t see anything funny or shameful in their surnames. Only in this case could they be preserved.
In the life of every person, everything connected with his past and the history of his family is very important, even if we do not remember every day how many destinies and stories lie behind the shoulders of our family, but for us it is our last name is a very significant part of one’s own individuality.
The surname, like a person’s name, reflects the tribute to our ancestors that we pay, passing on the memory of our own family from generation to generation.
Until the middle of the 19th century most Russian people didn't use surnames. The origin of surnames is of great interest, because at first they were used only by feudal lords, and only later they began to be used by peasants and commoners. In addition, in addition to names, patronymics and nicknames were previously used to replace them.
With the abolition of serfdom, a very difficult task arose, the solution of which took quite a lot of time: it was necessary to give yesterday's serfs surnames that recently only belonged to the upper strata of society. This is where their story begins.
Word "surname" It has Latin origin. In ancient Rome it applied only to slaves. But in Europe this word has spread with the meaning of “family”, “spouses”. In Slavic countries this word was first also used as “family”.
Having learned and remembered their last name for the rest of their lives in childhood, many perceive it simply as a given and very significant for us. A very popular question is what meaning does this or that carry, how does it influence its bearer and how significant is such an influence in life.
This thematic section provides a list popular surnames, which may not be exhaustive, but can certainly help shed light on what lies within their diversity.
The key is the ability to avoid cliches and hackneyed formulations. Because at this stage there is a lot of information that can hardly be called sufficiently reliable and accurate.
After all a surname is a legacy that a person carries throughout his life and passes on to his children, giving them a connection with the history of their ancestors over several generations.
Also, the surname is what we use when an official tone is needed in communication and more accurate identification of a particular person. The wife takes it from her husband, for her it is an expression of the promise of fidelity and trust in the chosen man. The diversity of surnames is a direct reflection of the culture of a nation, the breadth of development of its representatives and society.
