The life of every person is filled with new acquaintances almost daily, but sometimes you can get into a very awkward situation, making a mistake with the nationality of a person and behaving inappropriately for the nationalistic characteristics of the people to which the new acquaintance or acquaintance belongs. Therefore, it is quite important to have knowledge of how to determine nationality by last name. Facial features do not always accurately indicate the origin: just like a person’s speech.
Determine nationality - is it difficult?
Probably, few people are interested in how to find out their nationality by last name, because from birth we are aware of our belonging to one or another people. However, the question of how to find out the nationality of a new person in your social circle by last name is very relevant.
How it all works
Many people know that the ending of a surname in most cases indicates the origin of a person. There are no algorithms in the construction of endings, they just need to be memorized.
But is it worth unconditionally believing stereotypes and is it worth breaking them?
What do endings, suffixes and prefixes say?
Ukrainians
In this case, the signs of nationalist affiliation are determined not by the ending, but by the suffix:
- -enko, -ko, -uk, -yuk, -yak (Nagornyak, Goncharuk, Fomenko);
- some surnames were formed on the basis of some craft or occupation of the past (Koval, Gonchar);
- there are also common words (Khlopets, Gorobets, Ukrainian);
- there are also mergers of words (Nepyivoda, Vernigora).
Russians
If a person's last name ends in -ov, the nationality is Russian. The same applies to the following endings: -ev, -skih (Vudilov, Kamensky).
Latvians
Everything is simple here: men's - end in -s, -is; female - on -e, -a, -on (Verlitskis, Shurins - Shurin).
Belarusians
The classic surnames of Belarusians have the endings -ich, -chik, -ka, -ko, -onak, -yonak (Falkevich, Dubrovka, Kolshonok, Nukharchik).
At times Soviet power Belarusian surnames were Polonized (Dubrovsky, Kalshonko).
Lithuanians
For men, surnames end in -onis, -unas, -utis, -aitis, -enas (Luenas, Ronvidaitis, Narnunas).
Women's are formed from men's with the help of suffixes -en, -yuven, -uven and endings -e (Luenas - Luenasuven). Such transformations occur either with the surname of the husband or father. In the second case, the suffixes -ut, -yut, -ayt are added, as well as the ending -e (Korbatas - Korbatite).
Estonians
Men and women do not differ in surnames. All foreign surnames, which are available to citizens of Estonia, were once converted into Estonian. The so-called Estonianization law is still in effect today, so in order to play for the Estonian football team, some of the team members had to change from Sergey Khokhlov and Konstanstin Kolbasenko to Simson and Nahk.
Poles
Perhaps, many are aware of the signs of the surname of the Poles. They are characterized by the presence of suffixes -sk, -tsk and endings -y, -oy (-aya), which indicate the masculine or feminine gender (Gurskaya, Gurskaya, Matsedonsky).
There are also so-called double surnames when a woman at marriage unites her and her husband. Therefore, among the Poles you can meet, for example, Mazur-Komorovskaya.
French people
AT French surnames the prefix Le or De (De Long, Le Pen) is often found. For the most part, they are formed from nicknames and names (Joli, Roberto).
English
In England, many surnames were formed from the place of residence (Wales, Scott), profession (Clerk - employee, Smith - blacksmith), character (Armstrong - strong, Sweet - sweet).
Italians
In Italy, surnames with suffixes -ini, -ino, -ello, -illo, -etti, -etto, -ito (Ramasetto, Furtini, Moretti) are common. Some surnames have the endings -o, -a, -i (Conti, Costa).
The prefixes di- and da- in the surname are people corresponding to noble family(Da Vinci, Di Moretti).
It is not so difficult to learn the significance of surnames, because it is not necessary to memorize everything. Select the most necessary to always be aware of who your interlocutor is. How to find out nationality by last name? Just! Thanks to this information, you can easily determine the nationality of a person.
From school, many have learned the rule that when pronouncing and writing female surnames cases are not declined, and masculine - on the contrary, like similar adjectives or nouns. Is everything so simple, and are male foreign surnames inclined in Russian - this article is devoted to this, based on the monograph by L.P. Kalakutskaya, published in 1984.
Importance of the problem
There are many situations in which the correct spelling and correct pronunciation of surnames in different cases is very important:
- The child began to study at school, and he needs to correctly sign a notebook or diary.
- A young man or an adult man is awarded a diploma or a letter of thanks.
- On the serious event announce the exit or performance of a man with a complex surname. It's not nice if it gets distorted.
- When preparing important documents (certificate, diploma) or preparing case materials to establish family ties (in court, at a notary).
- Know if they're leaning male surnames, is necessary for people of many professions who deal with the execution of personal files or other business papers.
Russian surnames
The most common surnames in Russia - with suffixes - sk (-ck), ov (-ev), in (-yn) People: Razumovsky, Slutsky, Ivanov, Turgenev, Mukhin, Sinitsyn. All of them are easily inclined, like ordinary adjectives, both in the feminine and in the masculine. Exception - surnames on -ov, -in, the ending of which in the prepositional case is somewhat different from the traditional one.
Foreign surnames with suffix -in (-yn) also have a mismatch with Russians in the instrumental case. Let's look at an example:
Do male surnames tend to th without suffix - sk, which are also found in Russia (Tolstoy, Berezhnaya, Sukhoi)? Few (in scientific papers in philology there is a complete list of them), they easily change in cases similar to adjectives with a similar ending.
Ukrainian surnames
The most famous Ukrainian surnames- on the -enko and -ko: Bondarenko, Luchko, Molodyko. If you look at Russian literature, then in works of art (A.P. Chekhov, for example), writers are quite free to write them in male version and in the plural: "Let's go visit the Bondarenkos."
This is incorrect, because the official spelling is different from works of art and colloquial speech. The answer to the question whether Ukrainian male surnames tend to - enko and -ko, unequivocal - no. Example:
- I am writing a letter to Oleg Bondarenko.
- She has an affair with Ivan Luchko.
And this applies to all families. Ukrainian origin, even as rare as Alekhno, Rushailo, Soap, Oatmeal. Surnames are never inclined to -ago, -ovo, -yago: Vodolago, Durnovo, Dubyago. But what about those that end in consonants?
Surnames beginning with -k
Historically, suffixes -uk (-uk) they indicated either a kindred or a semantic affiliation: Ivan's son - Ivanchuk, cooper's assistant - Bondarchuk. To a greater extent, they are inherent in the western part of Ukraine, but are widespread among all Slavic peoples. Do male surnames tend to - uk?
According to the laws of the Russian language, female surnames do not change by case, but male surnames ending in a consonant (the exception is the ending -their,-s), decline without fail:
- I wrote a letter to Olga Dimitryuk.
- I was invited to visit Igor Shevchuk.
- I recently saw Sergei Ignatyuk.
All surnames expressed by nouns are subject to change in cases: Mole, Wolf, Wind, Pillar. There is one subtlety here: if the surname is Slavic, then the existing fluent vowel is not always preserved in the root. In jurisdictions, its spelling is important, although many sources do not consider the pronunciation to be incorrect without it. As an example, consider the surname Hare. More often pronounced: "She called Ivan Zayets." This is acceptable, but more correct: "She called Ivan Zayats."
Common in Ukraine and surnames in -ok, -ik: Pochinok, Gorelik. Knowing the rule that all male surnames with a consonant at the end change by case, it is easy to answer the question: do male surnames tend to -to:
- She came to the house of Ilya Pochinok (here the fluent vowel disappears).
- He knew Larisa Petrik well.
Exception to the rule
The Slavs often have family endings in -their(s): Chernykh, Ilyinsky. In the first half of the 20th century, male surnames with similar endings were often changed by case. According to the norms of the Russian language today, this is wrong.
The origin of these surnames from the adjective plural requires the preservation of their individuality:
- He greeted Peter Bela X.
Although there is a consonant at the end, this is an exception to the rule that you need to be aware of when answering the question of whether male surnames are declined.
Quite common is the ending in -h: Stoikovich, Rabinovich, Gorbach. The general rule applies here:
- Waiting for Semyon Rabinovich to visit.
- He liked Anna Porkhach's exhibition very much.
Armenian surnames
Armenia is a small country with a population of just over 3 million people. But about 8.5 million representatives of the diaspora live in other countries, so they are very widespread. They can often be identified by their traditional ending - an(-yang): Avjan, Dzhigarkhanyan. In ancient times, there was a more archaic family form: -ants (-yants), -oz, which is still common in the south of Armenia: Kurants, Sarkisyants, Tonunts. Is the Armenian male surname inflected?
It is subject to the rules of the Russian language, which have already been mentioned in the article. Male surnames with a consonant at the end are subject to case declension:
- together with Armen Avjan ( wherein "together with Anush Avjan");
- watched a movie with Georg Tonunts ( wherein "Film starring Lili Tonunts").
Ending in vowels
Male surnames remain unchanged if they, regardless of origin and belonging to a particular country, end in the following vowels: and, s, y, u, e, e. Example: Gandhi, Dzhusoyty, Shoigu, Camus, Maigret, Manet. It does not matter at all whether the stress falls on the first or last syllable. This includes Moldovan, Indian, French, Georgian, Italian and Example: " He recently read the poems of Shota Rustaveli". But do male surnames tend to - and I)?
Both options meet here, so it's better to present them in a table:
| bow down | Don't bow down | |
| Letters -and I) not under stress | The last letters follow the consonants: Pied Ha, cafe ka.
| If the last letters follow a vowel - and: Mor ia, Gars and I.
|
| Letters -and I) are under stress | The last letters follow the consonants, but have Slavic roots: Loza, Mitta.
| The last letters follow consonants or vowels and have French origin: Dumas, Benoit, Delacroix, Zola.
|
To consolidate knowledge, do male surnames tend to - a, we offer you an algorithm that can always be at hand.
German surnames
The origin of Germanic surnames is similar to their history in other states: most are derived from personal names, geographical names, nicknames or occupation of their carriers.
The settlement of the Volga region by the Germans in the 18th century led to the fact that their spelling in Russia was often carried out with errors, so there are many similar surnames with a discrepancy in one or two letters. But in fact, all of them, with rare exceptions, end in a consonant, so when answering the question of whether male German surnames, we can state with certainty: yes. Exceptions are: Goethe, Heine, Otto and others, ending in
Since German surnames change by case, they should be distinguished from Slavic ones. In addition to the common ones, such as Müller, Hoffman, Wittgenstein, Wolf, there are ending in -them: Dietrich, Freindlich, Ulrich. In Russian surnames before -them rarely are soft consonants with hard pairs. This is due to the fact that there are almost no adjectives with similar stems in the language. Slavic surnames, unlike German ones, do not decline (Fifth, Borovsky).
If at the end -ь or -й
The rule according to which male surnames are inclined, having consonants without an ending as a basis, also applies to those cases where at the end is put -b or th. They change in cases like second declension nouns. However, in the instrumental case they have a special ending - ohm (em). They are perceived as foreign. To answer the question of whether male surnames tend to -b and th, consider an example:
- Nominative (who?): Vrubel, Gaidai;
- Genitive (of whom?): Vrubel, Gaidai;
- Dative (to whom?): Vrubel, Gaidai;
- Accusative (of whom?): Vrubel, Gaidai;
- Creative (by whom?): Vrubel, Gaidai;
- Prepositional (about whom?): about Vrubel, about Gaidai.
There are exceptions to the rule. So, don't lean not euphonious surnames(Dumpling), as well as coinciding with the geographical name (Uruguay, Taiwan). Even if it stands after the hissing (Night, Mouse), the surname is inclined according to the male version.
Double and compound surnames
China, Vietnam and Korea differ in what their inhabitants wear compound surnames consisting of several words. If they end in a consonant, they decline general rules, but only their last part. Example:
- We listened to Kim Jong Il's speech.
Russian double surnames are inclined in both parts according to the general rules:
- painting by Petrov-Vodkin;
- theater Nemirovich-Danchenko.
If the first part is not a surname, but serves as an integral part, it does not change in cases:
- Ter-Hovhannisyan's jump;
- work by Demuth-Malinovsky.
Whether male surnames of other foreign countries are declined depends entirely on the rules of Russian grammar, which were discussed in the article. The question of the use of the plural or singular when listing two persons remained unclear.
singular and plural
In what cases is the plural used, and in what singular, best seen from the table:
Male surnames, unlike female ones, are declined, but there are many cases discussed in the article when they are also not subject to change. The main criteria are the ending of the word and the country of origin of the surname.
In Russia, there are many surnames that end in "-sky" or "-tsky". Curious, what are they talking about? It turns out that there are several versions of the origin of such surnames.
Polish surnames
According to one version, all surnames of this kind are of Polish origin. That is, for example, those who bear the surnames Pototsky, Slutsky, Zabolotsky, Polyansky, Svitkovsky, Kovalevsky, Smelyansky, have Polish roots in the family.
"noble" surnames
One version says that in Russia, boyars and representatives of the nobility received surnames with the suffixes "-sky / -sky" according to the names of their ancestral destinies - Vyazemsky, Dubrovsky, Baryatinsky and so on. Surnames became hereditary, passed from father to son as a symbol of territorial power. The Thousand Book for 1550 lists 93 princely names, of which 40 end in "-sky". By the way, it is believed that this tradition still came from Poland. The mentioned suffixes were a sign of belonging to the gentry - representatives of the Polish aristocracy. Gradually, this began to be practiced in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, also exclusively among representatives of the upper class.
An attempt to "improve" common surnames
Ethnographers suggest that there was also a trend to improve common surnames by adding a suffix. This was especially common among Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians who lived on the same territory as the Poles. So, Borodin could turn into Borodinsky, Gatchin - into Gatchina, Zaitsev - into Zaychevsky.
"Geographical" origin
There is a version that today most of similar surnames, in the past was formed from the geographical names of settlements, rivers and lakes. So, a resident of Ryazan in another region was called "Ryazan", over time this could turn into a surname. The surname Verzhbitsky is quite common: settlements with this name existed in Poland, and in Russia, and in Ukraine, and in Belarus.
Jewish surnames
Another hypothesis says that at least some of the surnames beginning with "-sky" may have Jewish roots. Such surnames were given to Jews living in the territories of the Baltic and Slavic countries, also by the name of the area. For example, Antokolsky, Vilkomirsky, Gilichensky, Mirgorodsky.
"Spiritual" surnames
Graduates of theological seminaries in Russia were assigned new, beautiful, harmonious surnames that would fit their priestly rank. So there were Christmas, Ascension, Resurrection, Preobrazhensky, Trinity, All Saints. The surname Lebedinsky presumably also belongs to the “spiritual” ones: after all, the swan is a recognized symbol of spiritual purity, including in Orthodoxy.
Most likely, the surnames ending in "-sky" or "-tsky" are still completely different in origin, and only by the root one can sometimes guess where they could come from in principle.
In the vast majority of cases, Russian surnames end in -ov and -ev. Surnames ending in -in and -yn are also widely used. How did it happen, and what is behind it? Faktrum decided to look into this issue.
The secret of the appearance of surnames on -ov and -ev
The endings -ov and -ev in the most common Russian surnames did not appear by chance. Historians believe that their appearance is mainly associated with the origin of the genus. So, for example, if a person was called Ivan, and his father was Peter, then he automatically received the surname Petrov, since he was the son of Peter. Later, in the XIII century, surnames began to be used officially, and they were given by the name of the oldest person in the family. Thus, not only the son of Peter became Petrov, but also all his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
However, this is not the only reason, according to which most Russian surnames received suffixes -ov and -ev. Some of them came from nicknames. To make it clearer, let's give an example: if a person was called Beardless, then his children and grandchildren became Beardless. The type of human activity could also play a key role in this matter. Plotnikov received just such a surname, since his father was a carpenter, and Kuznetsov was the heir to a blacksmith. As for the suffix -ev, it appeared in the surnames of those people whose ancestors were engaged in activities whose names ended in a consonant soft letter. Well, for example, the children and grandchildren of a man who received the nickname Snegir were already called the Snegiryovs, and the cooper's descendants were called the Bondarevs.
The mystery of the origin of surnames on -in and -yn
In second place in popularity in Russia are surnames with -in and a little less often with -yn. In fact, there is no secret here. Their origin is also connected with the names and nicknames of their ancestors, with their occupation. Such surnames were formed when words ending in -а and -я were taken as the basis, as well as nouns female with a soft consonant at the end. For example, the surname Minin obviously came from female name Mina, which, in turn, was quite popular in Russia in the old days.
Agree, these days, surnames like Fomin and Ilyin are quite common. Now it is obvious that Thomas and Elijah were among the ancestors of these people. But the surname Rogozhin says that the ancestors, apparently, were engaged in the manufacture or trade of matting. As in the case of surnames in -ov and -ev, these were also based on names, nicknames and professions.
The most common Russian surnames end in "-ov", "-ev". Do you know how many indigenous people in the country wear them? Up to 60-70%. The second place in popularity is occupied by Russian surnames on "-yn", "-in". This is almost 30% of the population. When did the first surnames appear, and why are they based on different suffixes?
A bit of history
Until the 13th century there were no surnames in Russia, but patronymics began to be used to distinguish people with the same names. So, Ivan, the son of Peter, could be called Ivan Petrov. Mikhail, son of Semyon, by Mikhail Semyonov.
With the introduction of surnames, they began to be given not by the father, but by the oldest in the family: Fedorov is both the great-grandson, and the grandson, and the son of Fedor.
The origin of the surname is a whole science. She began to be assigned to someone depending on the nickname: Bezusy - Bezusov. Someone - by occupation: a blacksmith - Kuznetsov, a priest - Popov, a potter - Goncharov.
The suffix "-ev" appeared in surnames if the name, profession or nickname ended in a soft consonant: Ignatius - Ignatiev, cooper - Bondarev.
Why do some surnames end in "-yn", "-in"? Their origin has the same explanation, but they are based on feminine names or words that end in "-ь", or masculine (feminine) gender - on "-a", "-ya". For example, Ilya - Ilyin, Foma - Fomin, bird - Ptitsyn, squirrel - Belkin, silence - Tishin.
