Etymology of Russian names and surnames
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Russian names
Names, like everything else in the world, have their own history. They, like other words, are created by human imagination, flourish, die, disappearing from the language of the people who were their creator. The history of Russian names goes back to a very distant era and is closely connected with the history of the Russian people and their language.
About four thousand years ago, ancient tribes lived on the plains stretching between the Odra, Vistula and Dnieper rivers - the ancestors of the ancient Slavs. These tribes lived in a tribal system and spoke the same language, which scientists call Common Slavic.
When the process of unification of tribes began, the Slavs living in the East of Europe laid the foundation for the Russian nation. Their language began to differ somewhat from the language of other Slavs, although it did not lose its family ties with them and with the common Slavic language from which it originated.
The oldest monuments of Russian writing date back to the 10th – 11th centuries. From this time on, a reliable, scientifically based history of Russian names begins.
Ancient Russian names were unique characteristics of people. The name was given to a person as a sign by which one could distinguish him from a family or clan.
In some cases, a person was characterized by some external characteristic, in others - by moral qualities, by position in the tribe or family, in relation to him by parents and relatives, and sometimes by his occupation. The latter was possible because names were given not only in early childhood, as now, but also in adulthood. At the same time, the adult name often lived simultaneously with the child’s name.
Here are some ancient names-characteristics:
according to a person’s appearance: Small, White, Oblique, Pockmarked, Curly, Chernysh;
by human character trait: Kind, Clever, Proud, Quiet, Brave, Proud, Fool, Boyan;
by place in the family: First, Second, Drugan, Tretyak, Zhdan, Nechay, Menshak, Senior;
by profession: Kozhemyaka, Villager, Warrior, etc.
When you first encounter such a name, you might think that these are not names, but nicknames. After all, there was no difference between a name and a nickname in ancient Rus'. And each of these names can be documented.
In the ancient handwritten book “The Initial Russian Chronicle” it is mentioned, for example, that the leader of the East Slavic tribe of the Drevlyans named Mal. What does this name mean? Nothing else except that its owner was not tall. The prince's name was a short but very expressive description of him. The name Mal seems funny to us, but a thousand years ago it never occurred to anyone to see this as some kind of encroachment on princely dignity, because characterization names were common and taken for granted.
The names Brave and Good were also found in ancient manuscripts. They speak of the high moral qualities of their bearers. The name Dobrynya (derived from the name Dobr) means “very kind”, “very good”. Zhdan means “the one who was expected.” In ancient Rus', this name was given to children whose birth was a great joy for their parents. Now only the Zhdanov surname retains traces of this name at its core. The names First and Second arose in large families, where the number of children often exceeded a dozen. In such cases, it was difficult to select characteristic names. The name was chosen simply: he was the first to be born - get the name First or First; born second, you will be second or friend, etc. up to the Ninth and even the Tenth.
Such numeral names were found not only among Russians or Slavs, but also among other peoples of Europe. They were quite common among the ancient Romans: Quintus - the fifth, Sextus - the sixth, Septimius - the Seventh, Octavius - the Eighth, Nonnius - the Ninth, Decimus - the tenth, by the way, the name Nonna came into the Russian language, which means the Ninth. From the roots of ancient Russian nouns, the surnames Pervovy, Pervushin, Drugov, Tretyakov, Devyatovsky, Desyatov and the like were later formed.
The name Menshak (Menshik, Menshoy) was given to the youngest son, and the first-born in such a family received the name Elder. Probably these names were already given to adults, because... It is difficult to determine in advance which of the children will be the last. Of course, the grown-up names had a professional connotation: Selyanin, Kozhemyaka, Boyan.
The name Boyan is based on the root - fight, sign. Boyan is a fighter, a warrior. In ancient handwritten documents, the name Boyan is pronounced and written in the Moscow manner with a vowel a: Bayan. The re-vocalization of the name led to its rethinking: they began to explain it based on the basis of the verb “bayat”, i.e. speak - “talker”, “storyteller”, “songwriter”. This name was given to a famous musician-performer and singer in the ancient world. In honor of him, they named one of the people’s favorite instruments - Bayan.
The whole world seemed animate to our ancestors, all objects had properties similar to human ones, so the ancient Slavs began to use the names of birds, animals, plants and various objects as personal names: Wolf, Bear, Nightingale, Beetle, Eagle, Pike, Oak , Birch, etc.
The desire to be like this or that animal seems ridiculous to us. But ancient people thought differently: the wolf is not beautiful, but he is strong and resilient. And these properties are useful to humans. Therefore, in ancient Rus' it was not uncommon to meet a man with such a formidable animal name.
Subsequently, this name fell out of use among the ancient Slavs, but a derivative from it remained - this is the surname Volkov. But it still exists in many languages of the world, which is explained by the internationality of the very principle of using common nouns. So among the Serbs the name Wolf sounds like Vuk, in German as a component of the names Wolfgang, Adolf, Rudolf. It was also found in ancient European languages: in Gothic - Ulf or Wulf, in Latin Lupus, from which, by the way, came the Russian name Lup, which is found in A. N. Ostrovsky’s play “Puchna” - Lup Lupych Pereyarkov. The name Nightingale was given in ancient times to talented singers. It is not difficult to guess that the Solovyov surname came from this name.
Also, the ancient Slavs had blind faith in mascot names, names with a trick.
Because Our ancestors were very afraid of “evil spirits”, evil words, the evil eye and other dangers that seemed to them everywhere. According to their ideas, those who were most in danger were those who were more honest, whose intelligent, positive traits were usually emphasized by their names and characteristics. In order to deceive evil people and evil spirits, caring parents deliberately gave their good children bad names. Boys who were smart and beautiful were deliberately called Fools and Freaks, honest and brave boys were called Scoundrels and Cowards, and those dear to the heart were called Nechayami.
Traces of such “preventative” names have survived to this day in the foundations of modern surnames such as Nechaevs, Durakovs, etc.
What to name a newborn? This question worries many parents. In pre-revolutionary times, the issue of a name for a child was resolved simply. Registration of newborn children was carried out only by the church where the baptism ceremony took place. Thus, not a single child escaped baptism, even if his parents were unbelievers.
What names were given then? In the Russian Orthodox Church there were (and still are) special books - monthly books, or calendars. In the month's book, for each day of each month, the names of the saints who are honored by the church on that day are written down. Before the baptismal ceremony, the priest offered a choice of several names that were listed in the calendar for the child’s birthday. This usually ended the matter.
Why were there so many Ivans in Rus'? Yes, for the simple reason that the name Ivan (John) appears 170 times (!) in the complete calendar, that is, almost every other day.
True, sometimes the priest made concessions and, at the request of the parents, gave a different name, which was not listed in the calendar for that day. This, in fact, explains that sometimes a name that is rarely found in the calendar appears quite often in life. Thus, the Slavic names Vera, Nadezhda and Lyubov were often given to children in pre-revolutionary times, despite the fact that Vera appears in the calendar only twice a year, and Nadezhda and Lyubov only once each.
But, in any case, the child could only be given the name that was in the calendar. No “free thinking” was allowed here.
Parents found themselves in a different position after the Great October Socialist Revolution. Registration of newborns began to be carried out by civil registry offices (registry offices), and parents could now choose any name: old (former church), borrowed name (Polish, German, etc.) and, finally, could even invent a new name.
Taking advantage of the freedom to choose a name, parents sometimes gave their children strange, unusual names. About three thousand new and borrowed names are known, which, with rare exceptions, will never take root on Russian soil. Here are names such as Oak, Birch, Carnation, Lilac. Almost all elements of the Mendeleev system (Radium, Vanadium, Tungsten, Iridium, Ruthenium, etc.), minerals (Granite, Ruby) are represented. Personal names include geographical names (Altai, Himalaya, Kazbek, Ararat, Volga, Onega, Amur, Cairo, etc.) and all the names of the months, from January to December, mathematical terms and technical names (Median, Radian , Hypotenuse, Algebrina, Tractor, Turbine, Railcar, Diesel, Combine, etc.).
A lot of names were formed from revolutionary slogans, names of institutions, etc. For example, Ikki (Executive Committee of the Communist International), Roblen (born to be a Leninist), Remizan (world revolution began), Revvola (revolutionary wave), Revdit (revolutionary child ), Lorikarik (Lenin, October Revolution, industrialization, collectivization, electrification, radioification and communism), Loriex (Lenin, October Revolution, industrialization, electrification, collectivization, socialism).
There is no need to even talk about such dissonant names as Tsas (Central Pharmaceutical Warehouse), Glasp (Glavspirt), Raitiya (district printing house) and the like.
In the post-revolutionary period, the influx of foreign names increased. There are names borrowed from different peoples: Robert, Romuald, Rudolf, Richard, Josephine, Edward, Eric, Jeanne, etc.
Names appear that consist of two or even several words: White Night, Artillery Academy, Hammer and Sickle, Jean-Paul-Marat. L.V. Uspensky in the article “They call Zovutka” gives the following female names: Great Worker (!) and Cherry Blossom in May.
Finally, there are also names - from the words read from the end: Ninel - Lenin, Avksoma - Moscow.
Being overly carried away by foreign names, parents forgot that these names often sound dissonant with the Russian patronymic and surname of the bearer of the name. For example: Harry Semenovich Popov, Diana Krivonogova, Robert Ovechkin, Red Alekseevich.
Sometimes “revolutionary” names fall into the same awkward combination, for example: Revolution Kuzminichna. Some parents like to give their daughters a diminutive form of their name instead of the full form. Sometimes in registry offices they write it down like this: Lyusya, Ira, Ina, Rita, Nata, etc. While the bearers of the name are still children, this sounds good. But Nata graduated from high school and became a teacher, Aga became a doctor, Rita became an engineer. And how ridiculous it will sound: teacher Nata Petrovna, famous surgeon Lena Romanovna, or even better: professor Lyusya Kondratievna Kondakova!
But the fate, perhaps, of most of these names is the same: the bearer of such a name grows up and raises the question of changing it.
It is impossible not to mention the so-called “fashion” for names. It seems that even the most beautiful names lose their charm if they appear too often. Teacher S.N. Uvarova from the village of Korostovo, Ryazan region, writes that “out of 23 students who graduated from the seven-year school in 1955, there were 17 Nins! Over the past two years, newborn girls in the named village are called either Tanya or Nadya. Exceptions are rare.” At different periods, male names Valery, Gennady, Igor, Gleb, Vsevolod, Vadim were very fashionable. And this is not only in the village. The same thing is written in newspapers in Leningrad and other cities.
Is there a need to blindly follow the example of others with such a wealth of Russian names?
I would like to warn parents about their desire to name their child something special. This leads to the appearance of pretentious names that are unusual for a Russian person and, as a rule, does not subsequently bring joy to their child. It is difficult to recommend names because the choice of name is determined by the taste of the parents. But first of all, old Russian names deserve attention, such as Peter, Alexander, Constantine, Ivan, Maria, etc. Although in the distant past these names were borrowed by us from the Greeks, they have existed on Russian soil for almost a thousand years and have long since become Russified and overgrown a large number of derivative forms.
In addition to the so-called canonical names, many old Russian and Slavic names have come into use among us. For example: Borimir, Borislav, Mstislav, Peresvet, Svetozar, Svyatoslav, Dobroslava, Miloslava, Vsemila, Lyubomir, etc.
Finally, some new names, successfully composed, have also caught on and can be recommended. These are the famous names Vladilen, Vladilena, Ninel and others.
Surnames
Russian first name last name frequency
Surnames in the Russian nominal formula appeared quite late. Most of them came from patronymics (based on the baptismal or secular name of one of the ancestors), nicknames (based on the type of activity, place of origin, or some other characteristic of the ancestor) or other family names. The first people in the Russian lands to acquire surnames were citizens of Veliky Novgorod, who probably adopted this custom from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Then in the XIV-XV centuries. Moscow appanage princes and boyars acquired surnames. Until the end of the 18th - mid-19th centuries, the majority of the population of central Russia did not have surnames. As a rule, Russian surnames were single and passed down only through the male line. In the middle of the 19th century, especially after the abolition of serfdom in 1861, surnames were formed for the majority of peasants. The process of acquiring surnames was basically completed only by the 30s of the 20th century.
For the first time, E.P. turned to the study of surnames in Russia. Karnovich, who in the second half of the 19th century. compiled the "Dictionary of Old Russian names and surnames" (St. Petersburg, 1903). But it was only in the 1980s that the geographic environment of Slavic surnames was first analyzed in the posthumous major work of V.A. Nikonov "Geography of Surnames" (Moscow, 1988). Based on a study of the funds of 52 archives, he collected the names of more than 3 million people of the Russian rural population, as well as from additional sources - more than 1 million people.
The geography of Russian surnames allows us to trace the movement of the population, “migration routes,” and the area of settlement. The origin of such surnames as Ryazantsev, Yaroslavtsev, Tambovtsev is obvious. Surnames ending in -y, -i (Chernykh, Kosykh, Sedykh, etc.) are, as a rule, absent in the Moscow region and are common in Siberia, the Urals, in the interfluve of the Northern Dvina and Sukhona rivers, in the Voronezh - Kursk "triangle" - Eagle. On the contrary, surnames with the suffix ending in -itin were mainly found near Moscow (Borovitinov, Bolkhovitinov) and a little further (Tveritinov).
V.A. Nikonov drew attention to the strict geographical location of the origin of Russian surnames (now mixed). He was the first to divide the European part of Russia according to the most common surnames (surnames-“champions” in the words of V.A. Nikonov), highlighting: 1) Ivanovia, which he associated with the former Novgorod and Pskov lands; 2) Smirnovia, located in the Upper Volga region, on the territory of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality; 3) Popovia, Russian North; 4) Kuznetsoviya, the territory of later (XVI-XVII centuries) Russian settlement to the south and east of Ivanovia and Smirnovia.
V.A. Nikonov also rightly noted some confusion between Popovia and Kuznetsovia. He compiled a map with four outlined arrays - based on the dominant surnames.
Using computer methods, it is possible, figuratively speaking, to “color the map” with a large number of colors, which was used by V.A. Nikonov. In this case, less “pure” but more accessible sources were used.
The main source was not scattered documents from rural registry offices and voter lists, but city telephone directories compiled at the same time, which Nikonov used as auxiliary material. The starting point for the calculations was a table containing the occurrence of one hundred and three of the most “popular” surnames in 516 cities in the USSR. The output table of pairwise correlations of surnames 103x103 was processed manually. Groups of surnames were identified according to a threshold value of the correlation coefficient so that the groups did not overlap (it turned out to be 0.40). As a result, the following groups of surnames were identified (surnames associated with the area by V.A. Nikonov are marked *):
1) Vasiliev*, Fedorov*, Ivanov*, Petrov*, Nikolaev, Alekseev, Alexandrov, Yakovlev, Mikhailov, Semenov, Andreev, Grigoriev - tied to the Pskov-Novgorod lands;
2) Smirnov*, Rumyantsev, Tikhomirov, Sokolov*, Lebedev, Tsvetkov, Vinogradov, Belov, Soloviev, Belyaev, Kudryavtsev, Krylov, Orlov - on the territory of the former Vladimir-Suzdal principality.
Three groups of surnames without a specific geographical reference:
3) Popov*, Martynov, Medvedev, Melnikov, Chernov, Shcherbakov;
4) Vorobyov, Gusev, Zaitsev, Sorokin;
5) Prokhorov, Frolov, Rodionov, Savelyev;
and 64 surnames that defy either classification or localization.
Analysis of the geography of Russian surnames helps to deeply study demographic processes, the history of the ethnic group, families, various socio-cultural and even socio-economic problems.
Meaning and etymology
Anthroponymy of Russian surnames states that most often surnames are formed from personal names through possessive adjectives. The bulk of Russian surnames have the suffixes -ov/-ev, -in, from the answer to the question “whose?” The difference is purely formal: -ov was added to nicknames or names with a hard consonant (Ignat - Ignatov, Mikhail - Mikhailov), -ev to names or nicknames with a soft consonant (Ignaty - Ignatiev, Golodyay - Golodyaev), -in to stems with a, I (Putya (Putyata) - Putin, Busyga - [Busygin], Erema - Eremin, Ilya - Ilyin). This also suggests that, for example, the surnames Golodaev and Golodyaev, which have the same root, are related, but the outwardly similar Golodov, Golodnov, Golodny are not at all.
The vast majority of Russian surnames come from dedichestvo, the temporary surname of the father, that is, the name of the grandfather, thus securing the hereditary name in the third generation. This made it easier to designate families of the same root. If the grandfather, whose name formed the basis of the established surname, had two names - one baptismal, the other everyday, then the surname was formed from the second, since baptismal names did not differ in variety.
It should be noted that Russian officials wrote down their grandfather’s name in late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century and surnames for residents of national outskirts, thus the majority of surnames in Transcaucasia and Central Asia arose.
Russian surnames are mainly formed as patronymics from church or non-church personal names or nicknames, for example, Ivan > Ivanov son > Ivanov, Medved > Medvedev son > Medvedev. This also includes surnames derived from nicknames associated with the profession: Goncharov, Melnikov, Krasilnikov.
Much less often - from the names of the area, for example Belozersky from Beloozero. This method of formation is especially characteristic of princely families, however (unlike Western Europe) it is not typical of noble families.
The surnames of the clergy are derived from the names of parishes (for example, Kosmodemyansky, Rozhdestvensky) or artificially created in the seminary (Afinsky, Dobrovolsky).
The origin of Russian surnames
In different social strata, surnames appeared at different times. The first in the Russian lands to acquire surnames were citizens of Veliky Novgorod and its vast possessions in the north, stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Range. Novgorod chroniclers mention many surnames and nicknames already in the 13th century. So in 1240, among the Novgorodians who fell in the Battle of the Neva, the chronicler mentions the names: “Kostyantin Lugotinits, Gyuryata Pineshchinich, Namest, Drochilo Nezdylov, son of a tanner.” In 1268, “killing the mayor Mikhail, and Tverdislav Chermny, Nikifor Radyatinich, Tverdislav Moisievich, Mikhail Krivtsevich, Ivach, Boris Ildyatinich, his brother Lazor, Ratsha, Vasil Voiborzovich, Osip, Zhiroslav Dorogomilovich, Poroman Podvoisky, Polyud, and many good ъ boyars ". In 1270, “Gavrilo Kyyaninov and his other friends ran to the prince on the Settlement of the Thousand Ratibor.” In the same year, Prince Vasily Yaroslavich “went to the Tatars, taking Petril Rychag and Mikhail Pineshchinich with him.” In 1311, “Kostyantin, Ilyin’s son Stanimirovich, was quickly killed.” In 1315, Prince Mikhail Tverskoy demanded from the Novgorodians: “give me Fyodor Zhrevsky.” In 1316 “Danilko Scribe was killed quickly.” In 1327, “the Novgorodians sent Fyodor the Chariot to the Horde.” In 1329, “I killed the Novgorod ambassador of the honest husband Ivan Syp in Yuryev.” In 1332 “Vastasha rebelled in Novgorod, and took away the posadnichestvo from Fyodor from Akhmyl and gave to Zakharya Mikhailovich, and plundered the courtyard of Smena Sudokov.”
Somewhat later in the XIV-XV centuries. family names appeared among princes and boyars. The princes were nicknamed by the name of their inheritance, and the moment of the emergence of the surname should be considered the moment when the prince, having lost his inheritance, still retained his name as a nickname for himself and his descendants: Shuisky, Vorotynsky, Obolensky, Vyazemsky, etc. A minority of princely surnames originate from nicknames: Gagarins, Humpbacks, Glazatye, Lykovs, etc. Surnames like Lobanov-Rostovsky connect the name of the reign with the nickname. Boyar and noble families were also formed from nicknames or from the names of their ancestors. The process of formation of boyar surnames from hereditary nicknames is well illustrated by the history of the boyar (later royal) family of the Romanovs. Its ancestors were those who lived in the 14th century. Andrey Ivanovich Kobyla and Fyodor Andreevich Koshka Kobylin. The descendants of Fyodor Koshka for several generations bore the nickname-surname Koshkins (however, not all of them: his son Alexander Bezzubets became the ancestor of the Bezzubtsevs, and another son Fyodor Goltyai became the ancestor of the Goltyaevs). The names of his son Ivan and grandson Zakhary Ivanovich were Koshkins. Among the children of the latter, Yakov Zakharovich Koshkin became the founder of the noble family of the Yakovlevs, and Yuri Zakharovich began to be called Zakharyin-Koshkin, while the son of the latter was already called Roman Zakharyin-Yuryev. The surname Zakharyin-Yuryev, or simply Zakharyin, was also borne by Roman’s son, Nikita Romanovich (as well as his sister Anastasia, the first wife of Ivan the Terrible); however, the children and grandchildren of Nikita Romanovich were already called Romanovs, including Fyodor Nikitich (Patriarch Filaret) and Mikhail Fedorovich (Tsar).
At the end of the 15th century. among the Russian nobles the first surnames of foreign origin appear, primarily the surnames of Polish-Lithuanian and Greek (for example, Philosophers) immigrants; in the 17th century to them are added such surnames of Western origin as Fonvizins, Lermontovs. The surnames of the descendants of Tatar immigrants were reminiscent of the names of these immigrants: Yusupov, Akhmatov, Kara-Murza, Karamzin (also from Kara-Murza). However, it should be noted that the eastern origin of a surname does not always indicate the eastern origin of its bearers: in some cases, they come from Tatar nicknames that were in fashion in Moscow Rus'. This is the surname Bakhteyarova, which was borne by the branch of the Rostov Rurik princes (from Fyodor Priimkov-Bakhteyar), or the surname Beklemishev, which came from the nickname Beklemish (Turkish - guarding, guarding), which was borne by Fyodor Elizarovich, the boyar of Vasily I.
During this period, peasants usually did not have surnames; their function was performed by nicknames and patronymics, as well as the mention of their owner, since in the 16th century. The peasantry of central Russia was subjected to mass enslavement. For example, in archival documents of that time one can find the following entries: “Ivan Mikitin’s son, and his nickname is Menshik,” entry from 1568; “Onton Mikiforov’s son, and nickname is Zhdan,” document from 1590; “Guba Mikiforov, son of Crooked Cheeks, landowner,” entry from 1495; “Danilo Soplya, peasant”, 1495; “Efimko Sparrow, peasant,” 1495. In these records one can see indications of the status of still free peasants (landowner), as well as the difference between the patronymic and the surname (son of such and such). The peasants of northern Russia, the former Novgorod possessions, could have real surnames in this era, since serfdom did not apply to these areas. Probably the most famous example of this kind is Mikhailo Lomonosov. You can also remember Arina Rodionovna Yakovleva, a Novgorod peasant woman and Pushkin’s nanny. Cossacks also had surnames. Surnames were also given to a significant part of the population of the lands that were previously part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - Belarus to Smolensk and Vyazma, Little Russia.
Under Peter the Great, by Senate Decree of June 18, 1719, in connection with the introduction of the poll tax and conscription, the earliest police registration documents were officially introduced - travel documents (passports). The passport contained information: name, surname (or nickname), where he came from, where he was going, place of residence, characteristics of his type of activity, information about family members who were traveling with him, sometimes information about his father and parents.
By decree of January 20, 1797, Emperor Paul I ordered the compilation of a General Arms Book of noble families, which collected more than 3,000 noble family names and coats of arms.
Distribution of surnames among merchants and service people
In the XVIII-XIX centuries. surnames began to spread among civil servants and merchants. At first, only the richest - the “eminent merchants” - were awarded the honor of receiving a surname. In the 15th-16th centuries there were few of these, mostly of Northern Russian origin. For example, the merchants Kalinnikovs, who founded the city of Sol Kamskaya in 1430, or the famous Stroganovs. Among the merchant surnames there were many that reflected the “professional specialization” of their bearers. For example, the surname Rybnikov, derived from the word rybnik, that is, “fish merchant.” One can also recall citizen Kuzma Minin, who, as is known, did not belong to the nobility, but had his own surname already at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries.
Distribution of surnames among the clergy
The clergy began to have surnames only from the middle of the 18th century. Usually they were formed from the names of parishes and churches (Preobrazhensky, Nikolsky, Pokrovsky, Blagoveshchensky, Rozhdestvensky, Uspensky, Kosmodemyansky, etc.). Before this, priests were usually called Father Alexander, Father Vasily, Father or Father Ivan, without any surname being implied. Their children, if necessary, often received the surname Popov.
Some clergy acquired surnames upon graduation from the seminary: Athensky, Dukhososhestvensky, Palmin, Kiparisov, Reformatsky, Pavsky, Golubinsky, Klyuchevsky, Tikhomirov, Myagkov, Liperovsky (from a Greek root meaning “sad”), Gilyarovsky (from a Latin root meaning “cheerful”) "). At the same time, the best students were given the most euphonious surnames and carrying a purely positive meaning, in Russian or Latin: Brilliantov, Dobromyslov, Benemansky, Speransky (Russian analogue: Nadezhdin), Benevolensky (Russian analogue: Dobrovolsky), Dobrolyubov, etc.; on the contrary, bad students were given dissonant surnames, for example Gibraltar, or derived from the names of negative biblical characters (Saul, Pharaoh).
Distribution of surnames among the peasantry
As practice reveals, even among persons born in a legal marriage, there are many people who do not have surnames, that is, bearing so-called patronymic surnames, which causes significant misunderstandings and even sometimes abuses... To be called by a certain surname is not only a right, but it is also the duty of every full-fledged person, and the designation of the surname on some documents is required by law itself.
In central Russia, among the peasantry, surnames until the 19th century. were relatively rare. However, we can recall individual examples - the famous Ivan Susanin, who lived in XVI-XVII centuries. In addition, the names of some peasants are known - participants in certain wars, campaigns, defenses of cities or monasteries and other historical disasters. However, indeed, until the 19th century. The surnames were not widespread among the peasants of Central Russia. But this is rather due to the fact that in those days there was no need for a complete mention of all peasants, and documents in which peasants would be mentioned without exception or in the majority,
The branch of linguistics called onomastics deals with the study of proper names. The term "onomastics" is derived from the Greek word onomastike - "the art of giving names."
Onomastics is traditionally divided into sections in accordance with the categories of objects bearing proper names. Onomastics includes: anthroponymy, which studies the names of people; Zoonymics - studies the names of animals; astronomy - studies the names of celestial bodies.
A distinctive feature of proper names is that in their modern use they, as a rule, do not name concepts, but serve only to designate specific objects. We can fairly firmly determine the difference between a seamstress and a milkmaid, a doctor and an accountant, but no one can say, based only on a person’s name, how Marina differs from Valentina, Sasha from Boris. Proper names have only a denotative meaning (denote a specific object) and are devoid of significative (conceptual) meaning. However, when they appeared, all proper names were used as ordinary nominative lexemes. Restoring the original meaning of a proper name is one of the tasks of modern onomastics.
The origin of anthroponyms - first names, patronymics, last names, nicknames, pseudonyms, etc. - Quite an extensive literature is devoted to this. These are the works of A. V. Superanskaya and A. V. Suslova, E. N. Polyakova and L. V. Uspensky, V. A. Nikonov and Yu. A. Fedosyuk, M. A. Gorbanevsky and N. A. Petrovsky.
Working with anthroponyms always arouses interest in children's (as well as in any other) audience: every person has a name, and everyone wants to know what it originally meant. Perhaps it is with clarification of the original semantics of names that it is worth starting work on etymology in elementary school.
As you can find out, most of the names came to Rus' from other languages: Greek, Latin, many names of Hebrew origin, and only a relatively small part of anthroponyms have Slavic origin and borrowed from the Old Church Slavonic language.
Before the adoption of Christianity, there were no canonical names in Rus', and a newborn could be named whatever the heart desired: “Whatever word came to mind, that’s how the baby was awarded. This is how Wolf, Ravine, Dobrynya, ... Kislitsa, Failure, ... appeared. Crane, Neumyvaka... etc." And only after 988 they began to name babies according to the calendar. At the same time, the evaluative, conceptual character of the name disappeared. It is interesting that a peculiar return to the pagan principle of choosing a name occurred after 1917. It was then that the names Vladlen and Vladlena (Vladimir Lenin), Maren (Marx and Engels), Istalina (Joseph Stalin), Gertrud and Gurtrud (hero or heroine of labor), Idea, Iskra, Electrification, Tractorina, Oktyabrina and the like appeared.
Fortunately, this anthroponymic anarchy did not last long. “Fortunately” - because, according to psychologists and neurologists, people with dissonant, “provocative”, rare and funny names are much more prone to cardiovascular diseases than others, nervous disorders. Canonical names that have become traditional and familiar to us, even in their original meaning, most often could not evoke negative emotions in humans, because for the most part they were associated with the concepts of goodness, luck, beauty: Alexey - “protector”, Arseny - “courageous”, Valentina - “strong, healthy”, Gregory - “cheerful”, etc.
At the same time, there were names whose original meaning could be perceived in different ways: Arthur is translated from Celtic as “bear”, Vlas in Greek - “fat man”, Taras (Greek) - “troublemaker”, Wanda (Old Slavonic) - " debater."
It's probably worth welcoming that modern name does not characterize a person!
It should be noted that in modern use personal names have lost not only their conceptual content, but also their stylistic coloring. Back in the 19th century, one name could have different options, which were used to name various persons: George - the name of a saint, Yuri - the name of a prince, Egor - all others (George, Yuri, Egor - this is a modification of one name); John - priest, king; Ivan is the name for all other classes. During the time of Pushkin and even at the beginning of the 20th century, different versions of the same name had different social implications.
Known interesting fact, when it was the social differentiation of names that helped to establish the falsification of literary documents: a whole chest (!) with manuscripts, the authorship of which was attributed to A. S. Pushkin, was found in the Moscow region. However, in the letters contained in the sensational discovery, the following was repeatedly repeated: “Ekaterina Andreevna Karamzina,” and any literate person of the Pushkin era knew that the name Ekaterina was applicable only to the queen.
The loss of stylistic coloring of a proper name does not give us the opportunity to adequately understand some literary works. So, Chekhov's heroine ("The Lady with the Dog") calls her husband Dimitri. We cannot understand all the nuances of such treatment without knowing the differences between Dmitry and Dimitri. The same thing happens when we perceive the title of M. Bulgakov’s comedy “Ivan Vasilyevich changes his profession”: only the house manager changes his profession, and the tsar is not a profession, it is a way of life and worldview, and Ioan Vasilyevich does not change his profession.
If the etymology of canonical names can be considered quite complete and unambiguous, then the etymology of surnames is a much more complex matter. The surname, as an inherited official name indicating a person’s belonging to a particular family, did not immediately begin to be used in Rus'. First names appeared among the representatives high society, and the bulk of the population is also in mid-19th century, made do with first and patronymic names in the form of a short possessive adjective in -ov, -in: Evgeniy Vasiliev in the mid-19th century did not mean a first and last name, but a combination of a given name and a patronymic. Patronymic names in -ich were allowed only to the highest ranks.
The etymology of surnames is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. So, for example, the surname Shchukin seems to be derived from the common noun - pike, but language historians have established that this anthroponym came from a non-church male name Shchuka, and for the first time Shchukin - a patronymic in the form of a possessive adjective, which answered the question “whose?” As scientists have established, the vast majority of Russian surnames come from patronymics. When establishing the origin of an anthroponym, it is necessary to take into account in what social environment, in what territory it was widespread, since completely different principles for creating surnames operated, for example, among peasants, the clergy, and in seminaries.
Toponyms - the names of various geographical objects - contain great potential opportunities for work. "It's impossible to imagine life modern society without geographical names. They are ubiquitous and have always accompanied our thinking since childhood. Everything on earth has its own address, and this address begins with the place of birth of a person. His native village, the street on which he lives, the city, the country - everything has its own name. Daily newspaper reading, classical literature, the study of cultural history and the development of science lead to a new, ever-expanding stock of geographical names in our language."
Based on the nature of objects, the following main types of toponyms are distinguished: oikonyms - names of settlements (Moscow, Tver), hydronyms - names of water bodies (Volga, Seliger), oronyms - names of relief features (Alps, Ural Mountains).
Toponyms can arise as a result of natural historical development (Kyiv, Smolensk, Paris) or be created deliberately (Petrozavodsk, Washington).
Toponyms, as a rule, are more closely associated with named objects than anthroponyms, and therefore they have a greater connection with the concept than other proper names. Their lexical meaning includes an address-indicative component. We name: Alps, Paris, Baikal - and immediately imagine what the word means, where the object is located.
The semantics of the names of geographical objects is often motivated. The original meaning of a toponym may contain information about the topographical features of the object (Staritsa, Krasnoyarsk, Goritsy), indicate its connection with socio-historical conditions and facts (Vyshny Volochek, Torzhok, Tsaritsyno, Patriarshey, St. Petersburg, Kuznetsky Most), reflect the originality of the flora and fauna (Seliger, Dubovka, Alupka).
However, one should not confuse the word-formation analysis of toponyms with their etymological interpretation. In word-formation analysis, the motivation of the analyzed toponym by the generating word is obvious; the toponym is built according to the existing ones modern language word formation patterns, and there is no work for the etymologist here. For example: Volgograd, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Rostov-on-Don, Pyatigorsk, Zaporozhye (beyond the Dnieper rapids), etc.
However, many toponyms, and especially those that have existed for a long time, are most often unmotivated for modern native speakers. Reconstructing their original meaning has proven difficult, and many of the most famous place names retain the mystery of their name, despite the intensity of etymological research. Nevertheless, research continues, and their results make a certain contribution to the study of the history of the language (since toponyms may contain roots that have already disappeared from the language), the history of the country (for example, it was with the help of toponyms that it was possible to establish the prehistoric areas of distribution of the Sami tribe, Lithuanian tribes, Radimichi and Vyatichi).
For some toponyms, there are several etymological versions, but none of them is fully proven. Thus, regarding the word Moscow, etymologists have proven with complete certainty only that the hydronym (the name of the river) is older, and the city received its name from the hydronym. The origin of the name of the river is associated with Finno-Ugric roots: moska - “bear”, ava - “female” (i.e. Moscow - “bear”). This version is confirmed by the presence of an image of a bear in the coat of arms of Moscow.
According to another version, the word Moscow comes from the Finnish “musta” - “black” and “va” - “water” (that is, Moscow - “black water, black river”, and indeed, the Moscow River flows through peat areas, and the color water appears black due to the characteristics of the bottom). It is also believed that the name Moscow came from the Scythian language, where it meant “strong racer, huntress” (which indicates the relatively fast flow of the river). There is also an assumption that the toponym arose as a result of combining the words “mosk” - “flint” and “khov” - “shelter”. Total number There are more than a dozen versions, and etymological research continues.
However, even in cases where the original meaning of a toponym is established absolutely precisely and unambiguously, for most native speakers the geographical name remains unmotivated. For example, it has been established that the hydronym Neva originated from the Finnish languages, where neva means “swamp”. At the same time, we must take into account that Nevo is an old name Lake Ladoga, after which the river could be named. Etymologists have given an unambiguous “translation” of the oikonym Sevastopol: this is an artificial name, given to the city Potemkin in 1783. The word is formed from two Greek roots: “sevastos” - “glorious” and “polis” - “city”.
Working with the etymology of toponyms will not only increase interest in the Russian language, but will also expand knowledge in the field of history, culture, and geography.
For example, when explaining the original meaning of the oikonym Staritsa as “a city located in the old river bed,” it would be nice to clarify where this regional center of the Tver region is located. The definition of the hydronym Yauza as a “connecting river” (from the prefix “ja” and the root “university” - “knot, knit”) will also force one to turn to a geographical map.
Turning to the history of the meaning of toponyms can be fraught with mysteries and sometimes even curiosities. Thus, for several decades, Japan owned the original Russian island of Sakhalin. In 1945, Sakhalin again became part of Russia. However, the islands appeared on the map geographical names, which could not be explained either from the point of view of the Russian language or based on the Japanese roots of the words: Moruji and Mauraefueshiki. Scientists struggled for a long time to solve these names until they decided to take the old Russian geographical map Sakhalin, where the names were found: Morzh (in place of Morudzi) and the village of Muravyovskoye (instead of Mauraefuesiki). These turned out to be old Russian names, but transmitted in “Japanese transcription”.
The literature on toponymy is quite extensive. These are the works of M. N. Melkheev and V. A. Nikonov, M. V. Gorbanevsky and V. P. Neroznak, L. V. Uspensky and A. V. Superanskaya, V. D. Bondaletov and E. M. Pospelov.
Sometimes the term "onomastics" is used as a synonym for the term "anthroponymy" - from the Greek antropos - "man", and ynyma - "name".
Secondary municipal educational institution secondary school rural settlement "Village named after Polina Osipenko" of the municipal district named after Polina Osipenko, Khabarovsk Territory
Abstract
"About our names"
Completed:
2b grade student
Simonova Milena
Scientific supervisor:
primary school teacher
Stetsenko V.V.
2012
Plan:
1 Introduction.
2 Main part.
2.3 Study analysis
3. Conclusions, conclusion.
Introduction.
Every person receives a name at birth. We don’t choose names ourselves, our parents do that. But finding out the origin of the name, the history of the name, the interpretation of your name is probably interesting to any person. After all, the variety of both female and male names is enormous. Some of them have ancient roots, in this case the origin of the name is associated with ancient history, while some were formed quite recently and are only decades old. But no matter what the name is, it has its own interpretation, has its own origin and its own meaning. And before moving on to specific interpretations of names, it makes sense to make a short excursion into history in order to better understand the origin of the names that surround us.
2 Main part.
2.1 History of the origin of names.
Names, like everything else in the world, have their own history. They arise, change, disappear. The history of Russian names is closely connected with the history of the people and their language. Ancient Russian names were unique characteristics of people. The name was given to a person as a sign by which one could distinguish him from a family or clan.
In some cases, a person was characterized by some external signs, in others - by his position in the family, in relation to his relatives, and sometimes by his occupation. At the same time, the “adult” name sometimes lived simultaneously with the “children’s” name.
Here are a few Russian names and characteristics:
according to a person’s appearance - Small, White, Oblique, Pockmarked, Curly, Chernysh, Milava, Nekrasa, Chernukha;
according to human character traits - Dobrynya, Brave, Proud, Silent, Bayan, Clever, Fool, Nesmeyana, Annoyance, Dobrava;
by place in the family - First, Second, Drugan, Tretyak, Zhdan, Nechai, Menshak, Elder, Nezhdana, Neupokoy;
by profession - Kozhemyaka, Villager.
Some who may not believe in their authenticity will think that these are nicknames. But these are really the names of our ancestors. And in Ancient Rus' until the 10th century there was no difference between a name and a nickname. Choosing a name in those distant times depended on the wishes of his father and mother. Our ancestors had names: Wolf, Goose, Winter, Swan, Bull, Nightingale, Trouble, Raspberry.
At the end of the 10th century (988), Prince Vladimir the Red Sun gave consent to the Emperor of Byzantium (Greece) for the baptism of Rus'. The rite of “baptism” consisted in the fact that residents of Russian villages were driven in crowds into the river and forced to rinse their bodies with water three times in order to wash away the “old pagan name and faith." The Christian priests standing on the shore at that time crossed each one with a cross and gave them a new name. So the Zhdans and the Braves, the Ryzhuns and the Malyutas became Vasilys and Kirills, Annas and Evdokiyas.
The names brought to Rus' along with Christianity were borrowed from eastern and European peoples. Most of the new names were of ancient Greek origin.
In the era of Christianity, so-called baptismal names appeared, which corresponded to the names of saints. The vast majority of them are no longer Slavic, but Greek origin. However, some Slavic names were recognized by the church, even though they had no relation to the saints. These are, for example, Yaroslav, Mstislav, Rostislav, Svyatoslav, Vyacheslav and the Scandinavian Oleg. The most common names in the Christian era were Ivan and Fedor. The names Peter, Paul, John (Ivan), Alexey, Philip, Mark were also widely used. Many of the baptismal names were of Hebrew origin, for example: Anna, Jacob, Daniel.
From Greek language names came:
Alexander is a courageous defender.
Alexey is a defender.
Anastasia is resurrected.
Andrey is courageous.
Artemy (Artyom) – healthy, unharmed.
Galina is quiet.
Gennady is well-born.
Georgy and Yuri are farmers.
Evgeniy is noble.
Elena is bright and clear.
Zoya is life.
Nikita is the winner.
Nicholas is the winner of nations.
Oksana (Ksenia) is hospitable.
Peter is a stone.
Sophia is wise.
Tatiana - mistress, etc.
The names came from Latin:
Albina is white.
Valentin is healthy and strong.
Victor is the winner.
Vitaly is vital.
Clara is clear.
Maxim is the greatest.
Margarita is a pearl.
Natalya is dear.
Roman - Roman, Roman.
Elvira – blonde, fairy light, etc.
So, starting from the 10th century and up to the 17th century, there was a tradition of giving a child two names: baptismal church name and worldly, given by parents to designate intra-family nicknames. At the same time, the baptismal name was mandatory, but the secular name was not. By the end of the 17th century, nicknames in Rus' were already used quite rarely, and many ancient pagan Slavic and Scandinavian names also did not survive. At the same time, only the church could give a person a name - this order was in effect until 1905, then these strict rules were somewhat relaxed, and only since 1917 it became possible to give a child any name without regard to the church.
Everything was changing rapidly. The names also changed. The fighters of the 1917 revolution received not only the right to work, but also the right to choose a name. Before this, only a priest could give a newborn a name, and they did not dare to argue with the priest. Sometimes he would call a newborn Dula or Trofillius, and then he would suffer for the rest of his life.
In 1917, the Church was separated from the state. The signs of that heroic time are imprinted in the names: Avangard, Coat of Arms, Industry, Barricade. The breadth of interests and imagination was amazing: Oktyabrina, Noyabrina, Electrification, Energy.
Female names after the October Revolution:
Oktyabrina - from the word October;
Maya - from the name of the month May;
Krasarma is an abbreviated phrase for “red army”;
Donara – “daughter of the people”;
Ninel - the word Lenin, read from right to left;
Lucia is part of the word “revolution”;
Vladilena – short for Vladimir Lenin
Male names after the October Revolution:
Marlene – Marx and Lenin;
Kim – Communist Youth International;
Vilen – short for Vladimir Ilyich Lenin;
Renat – “revolution, science, labor”;
Vilorik - “V.I. Lenin – organizer of workers and peasants.”
Of course, in today's life names of this kind rarely appear. And yet, occasionally we come across newspaper reports that they live, it turns out, in our country: Lancet, Delegate, Lawyer, Police, December.
Thus, most Russian names come from the Greek language, which gives us the corresponding interpretations of the names, for example, Nikolai - the winner, Vasily - the king, some - from the Latin language, for example, Valentin - strong, Innocent - innocent. It turns out that there are very few truly Slavic names among Russian names: Vladimir, Svetlana, Lyudmila and all kinds of “glories” (Yaroslav, Svyatoslav, etc.). The non-Russian origin of Russian names is explained by the fact that children received baptismal names precisely from the church, and religion appeared in Rus' from the Greeks... But, over time, the alien names have become so “Russianized” that it seems to us that both Alexanders and Mikhails truly have Russian origin.
2.2 Sociological research.
If in the past names were influenced by the church, today fashion has such an influence on them. The fashion for certain names suddenly makes them popular in one or another period of history. For example, Kristin or Yan were practically never seen in Orthodox Russia, but by the end of the 20th century there were quite a lot of them, while the Prokhors and Savelis began to be forgotten. Periodically, fashion arises for Elizabeth, Darius, Anastasius, and sometimes fashion returns to us old names, rarely used under Soviet rule: Matvey, Danila, Nikita.
But, no matter how much fashion changes, some names have been preserved for centuries, they have become part of the already traditional Russian names, which, if they give way to the “most fashionable”, then not for long, keeping within themselves Russian history and secret. Alexander, Sergey, Mikhail, Ekaterina, Olga, Tatyana - the list will be quite long...
I decided to check which names are popular in our school at the present time and conducted a sociological study.
The most popular names in the village secondary school named after P. Osipenko:
Less popular names:
Rare names at school:
Denis Elvira Leonid Paul Lily Alina Love Anton Elena Ivan Vyacheslav Pauline Irina Nikolay Oleg Yuri | Prokhor Matvey Sabrina Zinaida Stanislav Timofey Arina Milena Igor Ilya Vadim Vasily Hermann Snezhana Zakhar Yaroslav Savely Diana Angela Albina Stepan Gregory | Semyon Egor Olesya Albert Marina Antonina Georgiy Anatoly Violetta Faith Regina Elina Ruslan Suzanne Dauria Yana |
Conclusions:
There is a fashion for names. It all depends on the time and place where you live. The criteria for choosing a name should include the family significance of the name, its literary and oral fame, its true traditionalism, and nationality. Of course, the beauty of the sound of the name and ease of pronunciation are taken into account.
Anastasia - popular name at the end of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century.
Victoria was a rare name in the 20th century, but became popular in the 21st.
At the end of the 20th century, the following names were popular: Catherine, Maria. At the beginning of the 21st century, their popularity declined.
In the 20th century, the names Andrey, Sergey, Alexey, Alexander were popular. Their popularity has remained in the 21st century. Many more children are called these names.
In the 20th century, it was not fashionable to call boys names such as Timofey, Matvey, Semyon, Stepan. In the 21st century, these names began to return.
In the 21st century, the names began to return: Alina, Anfisa, Vasilisa. A fashion has appeared to call children very rare names: Diana, Violetta, Elvira, Regina, Darina, Albert, German, Mark.
The etymology of proper names is of undoubted interest. While studying this problem, scientists have found that onyms can be genetically traced back to both common nouns and proper names.
However, not every common noun can equally become a proper name. More freely, such common nouns are used as proper nouns in which the motivation of the name is not recognized by native speakers, when the connection between its meaning and what it names is broken (compare: lion is a predatory animal and Leo is the name of a person). Such names include, for example, Vera, Nadezhda, Love, Rose, Lily (female names), Winter, Trouble, Kulik, Bear (surnames).
Proper names from which onyms are formed primarily refer to anthroponyms or toponyms.
Let's consider the etymology of some personal names and surnames.
If you look at the documents of the 16th century, you can find the following names of persons in them: Prince Danilo, Prince Yuriev, the son of the little eared one, Ivan Elizariev, the son of the chickens, Ugrim Lvov, the son of degenerates, Vasily the bull Melentyev, Pronka Bebekov, the scoundrel Fenin, the sheepskin Senka. Some are named by first name and patronymic, others by first name and nickname. But these are not surnames yet.
In the XVI-XVII centuries. Russians are introducing a single three-member system of names (first name, patronymic and last name). At first, representatives of the upper strata of the population were called this way, and later (in the 18th century) also the lower ones: voivode Ofanasy Ivanovich Nesterov, voivode Lev Timofeevich Izmailov, clerk Kostyantin Mikhailov, clerk Mikhail Postnikov.
What elements were used to make up first and last names?
The role of the very first proper names was played by common nouns. Over time, their meaning may have been forgotten.
L. M. Shchetinin in interesting book“Names and Titles” talks about how many surnames-nouns are untouched casts of ancient pre-Christian and later secular Russian names.
“Among them,” he writes, “one can single out the names of specific objects - worldly personal names of the distant past: Veil, Drop, Kvach, Kvasha, Kopeyka, Korzh, Purse, Latka, Vine, Pie, Pooh, Ruble, Scraper, Sheaf, Salt , String, Point, Pipe, Tinder, Chopper, Cup, Fur Coat; the name of body parts that acted as nicknames for the ancestors of a particular surname: Beard, Belly, Lip, Tail, Leg, Nostril, Leg, Nose, Arm, Mustache, Ear, Neck, Cheek. Characteristic physical signs their owners were also identified by nicknames, now surnames: Hump, Baldness, Bruise, Shishka. Many surnames come from worldly names, borrowed at one time by man from animals, fish, birds, insects and plants: Bull, Wolf, Hare, Elk, Stallion, Cow, Rabbit, Rat, Fox, Bear, Gopher, Seal, Ruff, Tench , Perch, Carp, Catfish, Pike, Sparrow, Crow, Jackdaw, Pigeon, Goose, Quochka, Sandpiper, Eagle, Bird, Ryapolov, Bullfinch, Owl, Nightingale, Magpie, Seagull, Mosquito, Fly, Spider, Locust, Willow; Buckwheat, Oak, Tench, Burdock, Hazel, Ivy; Rakita, Turnip, Cattail, Pine. Among our surnames there are names of mushrooms: Borovik, Honey fungus, Boletus; berries: Berry, Berry, Viburnum, Raspberry; flowers: Orchid, Violet (the latter are mainly borrowed and, therefore, of later origin."
With the adoption of Christianity in Rus', Greek, Latin, and Hebrew names became widespread and were canonized by the church. These names, for the most part, have survived to the present day and form the basis of modern Russian personal names. They have long been perceived only as a person’s “passport” name, as unmotivated names.
However, their etymology indicates that it is not by chance that common nouns became proper names, since, being common nouns, they indicated the moral and ethical qualities of a person, his position in society, named objects, phenomena, useful to people that give him pleasure.
Agnes - from Greek. agne - pure, immaculate or from lat. agnus - lamb, lamb.
Ada - from ancient Hebrew. ada - to dress up, put on jewelry.
Akaki - from Greek. akakos - not doing evil, not malicious.
Alexander - from Greek. alexo - to protect and andr (n. andros) - husband, man.
Alexey - from Greek. alexo protect.
Anastasia from the Greek anastas - resurrected.
Angelina - from Greek. angelos - messenger.
Andrey - from Greek. andreios - courageous, brave.
Anna - ancient Hebrew the name Nappa - from ep - grace, comeliness.
Valentin - from lat. valens (genus valentis) - strong, healthy.
Vasily - from Greek. basileus - king.
Victor - from lat. viktor is the winner.
Blast furnace - from lat. domna - madam.
Donat - from lat. donatus - gifted.
Eugene - from Greek. eugenes - noble.
Hippolytus - from Greek. hippos - horse and lyo - to untie, unharness.
Kasyan - from lat. cassus - empty.
Natalia - from lat. natalis - native.
Pavel - from lat. paulus - small.
Paramon - from Greek. paramonos - durable; reliable, faithful.
Plato - presumably from the Greek. platus - broad-shouldered; full.
Regina - from lat. regina - queen.
Ruth - ancient Hebrew name Rut. Presumably from re‘ut - girlfriend; friendship.
Samson - from ancient Hebrew. simsi - sunny.
Semyon - from ancient Hebrew. sama’ - listen.
Saveliy - ancient Hebrew. name Sa'ul - asked (from God).
Sarah - ancient Hebrew name Sara - noble, princess.
Solomon - from ancient Hebrew. salom - peace.
Timothy - from Greek. time - honor, honor and theos - God.
Tryphon - from Greek. tryphon (from the verb tryphao) - living in luxury.
Fedor - from Greek. theos - God and doron - gift.
Felix - from lat. felix - happy.
Philip - from Greek. philippos - lover of horses.
Another group consists of Slavic personal names, which are found not in one, but in several Slavic languages. Their etymology is transparent and does not require explanation.
Most often this difficult words, the roots of which express the concept of light, peace, goodness, goodness, glory, joy, love, harmony, whiteness as a symbol of purity. For example: Veleslav, Blagoslav, Vladimir, Vladislav, Vsemil, Vseslav, Gremislav, Dobromil, Dobromir, Dobroslav, Ladimir, Ladislav, Luchezar, Lyubomir, Lyudmila, Mechislav, Milan, Milen, Militsa, Milovan, Milorad, Miloslav, Mira, Mirolub, Miroslav, Mstislav, Rada, Radimir, Radislav, Ratibor, Rodislav, Rostislav, Svetislav, Svetlan, Svetovid, Svetozar, Svetolik, Svyatoslav, Slava, Slaviy, Tsvetan, Yaropolk, Yaroslav.
Slavic personal names are surprisingly euphonious. They express the attitude of the Slavs to the purpose of man in life, his perception of the surrounding world, nature, and people. But the main thing is that they seem to contain the wish of parents for their children to justify the names given to them, the belief that the name they choose will influence the formation of character and the behavior of its bearer.
The third group is formed old Russian names that existed in pre-Christian era or appeared in subsequent times.
Bazhen - MS. dial bazhat - to desire something very much, to crave; bazheny - desired, dear.
Dobrynya - from good (cf. kind, good).
Zhdan - Old Russian. zhdan - adj. from verb. wait - wait, expect.
Cue - from cue - hammer. The name of one of the founders of Kyiv.
Kupava - from kupa- (cf. bathe).
Lada - lada - beloved, dear. Lada is a pagan goddess of marriage and love.
Lel - by name pagan god, son of Lada, patron of marriage and love.
Lyubava - from love (cf. beloved, love).
We love - Old Russian. love (from the verb love) - beloved.
Miloneg - from mil- (cf. dear) and neg- (cf. bliss, gentle).
Peresvet - from other Russian. re- is a prefix with the meaning very and light - (cf. light).
Svyatopolk - from saint- (cf. saint) and regiment.
Tomila and Tamila - from ancient Russian. tomiti meaning to torment, torment.
Tsvetan - borrowings. from the South Sl. language Wed. Bulgarian, Serbian Tsvetan.
Old Russian personal names have been preserved in fairy tales and epics and are almost never used as names at the present time.
Many personal names, as history shows, then became surnames. For example, Trouble, Thunderstorm, Mountain, Borovik, Kalina, Verba, etc.
Surnames are often formed from the name of the place of residence or place of birth: Tambovkina (from the name of the city of Tambov), Kamsky (from the name of the Kama River). Such surnames include: Moskvin, Moskovsky, Ryazantsev, Ustyuzhaninov, Zvenigorodsky, Sibiryakov, Rossiysky, Lesya Ukrainka (pseudonym), Onegin, Volgin, Donskoy, Pechorin.
By surnames you can determine what they did, who the ancestors of the bearer of such a surname were, such as Goncharov, Lekar, Pasechnik, Bondarev, Klyucharyov, Shaposhnikov, Khorunzhev, Esaulov. However, some of such surnames as Knyazev, Boyarsky, Popov could indicate not the father’s occupation or his social position, but his belonging to this person (cf.: “Whose people are you?” - “We are Knyazevs” or “We are priests, and they are boyars”).
Surnames are also formed from ethnonyms: Greeks, Kalmyks, Litvinov, Lyakh, Lyakhov, Mordovtsev, Gruzinsky, French, Tatarinov.
Vvedenskaya L. A., Kolesnikov N. P. - Etymology - St. Petersburg, 2004.