The most popular surnames. The most famous surnames

“Whatever you call the boat, so it will float,” the famous captain Vrungel sang. Does it affect human destiny his last name? If your last name is the most popular in the world, are you destined to become equally popular? To find out, let's take a look at the most common surnames in the world.

Most popular surnames

The largest number - 300 million people - on Earth have the surname Li, Chang (Zhang), Wang. It is not difficult for us to guess that they are Chinese. In fact, this is all because the Chinese don’t have much to choose from - there are a billion 300 million people, but there are only about 500 variants of Chinese surnames. For comparison, it’s much easier for Russians - we have 15 thousand versions of family names.

Anyone understands that if there are a lot of people and very few options, then a kind of shortage is created. Therefore, wherever you look, there are Lis or Vans. Lee's citizens number as many as 100,000,000 people. It is difficult to imagine such an “army” of namesakes. 7.9% of Chinese are simply Li. And how many more Vietnamese and even Russians... There is a hieroglyph of the same name in Chinese writing. He gave the name to this surname. This hieroglyph means strength.

The Chinese surname Zhang (Chang) translates to clan. There is another meaning of this word - the chapter of a book. Therefore, the surname Zhang speaks either of numerous kinships, or of the fact that its bearer is related to literature in his professional activity. Of course, this refers to the historical origin of the family name. There are also about 100 million such namesakes.

The most common surname in Russia

Attempts to find out which surnames are most common in Russia have been made more than once. One of the first studies was carried out at the beginning of the 20th century by Oxford philologist Ottokar Genrikhovich Unbegaun, a native of Russia. He began research in St. Petersburg, opening its address book. It was called “All Petersburg”. According to this Russian scholar, in the Northern capital the most common surname in 1910 was Ivanov. And this is not surprising. After all, it comes from the “most Russian” name - Ivan.

By the way, the second attempt to study Russian surnames has already modern Russia, undertaken by Anatoly Fedorovich Zhuravlev, again brought the same surname - Ivanov - to the forefront.

And only research by scientists from the Medical Genetics Center Russian Academy medical sciences changed this result. Scientists have taken up the study of the issue on a large scale - they conditionally divided the country into hypothetical regions and studied them separately. In the end, their answer was that they won... the Smirnovs! A surname derived from the Russian word for "peaceful". In Unbegun's ranking, the Smirnovs are second, and Zhuravlev is fourth. In general, Unbegun's top five looks like this: Ivanov, Smirnov, Kuznetsov, Popov, Vasiliev. Option A.F. Zhuravleva: Ivanov, Vasiliev, Petrov, Smirnov, Mikhailov. And according to the third version, the popularity rating of Russian surnames looks like this: Smirnov, Ivanov, Kuznetsov, Popov, Sokolov.

Comparing all three works, we can say that the most common surnames in Russia are the surnames Ivanov and Smirnov, which are present at the top lines of popularity in all studies.

It should be noted that one of the most popular surnames in Russia is the surname Kuznetsov. If we translate it to English language, then we get the most common surname North America(after Chinese surname Lee, common there too) - Smith. There are about 4,000,000 people on the planet who have this surname. And, if we add to the translations the variants - Kovalev, Koval, then perhaps this surname “with the whole world” competes with the Chinese popularity ratings.

In contrast to common surnames in Russia, we will consider the most unique, interesting and original surnames. It must be said that “surname” in translation means family, family. This is the name of a family that originates from distant ancestors. It must be said that initially the surname was a person’s nickname, speaking about his personal characteristics or profession, or personality characteristics.

Today, if you look at the telephone directory, you can see very funny, but at the same time unique surnames. We read there - God's Will, Suddenly Heaven, Kill the Wolf.

Most common names

One of the most common names on the planet, not surprisingly, belongs again to the Chinese. There are often men named Kim in the world.

In Russia, men are most often called Alexandra. This name is international; it can be found among other languages.

But, despite the fact that the name Kim belongs to the largest nation on Earth, and men named Alexander are found all over the world, the most common male name in the world is Muhammad and its variants. In honor of the prophet of Islam, newborn boys are most often named in all countries where this religion is widespread.

Among female names, the palm is held by Anna and his variations. Translated from Hebrew, it means favor, favor, blessing. You can read more about the most common names.

The leader in the entire world history in this list, according to the site, is a family whose surname was not alphabetic, but numeric - 1792. Unfortunately, it ended its existence in 1904 in France. To completely confirm the uniqueness of their family, parents gave their sons month names. How do you like January 1792 or March 1792?

In India, in one of the provinces, parents “compete” in coming up with unusual names for their offspring. There you can meet people called “Silver Dollar” or “Two Kilos of Rice.”

There is a woman in the USA whose name consists of 598 letters. And the lady refuses to cut it. It’s good that close friends are allowed to call her a short version of her name, otherwise, by the time they greeted the hostess when they came to visit, they would already have to say goodbye.

Among famous people, the leader in terms of unusual name is the artist Pablo Picasso, full name which sounds - Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispin Crispiano de la Santisima Trinidad Ruiz and Picasso. There are 93 letters in total. True, for the Spaniards such pretentiousness is not a very rare occurrence.

The most common surname in the world

So, the ranking of the most common surnames looks like this: the top lines are occupied by the Chinese Li, Zhang and Wang. Next comes Vietnamese surname- Nguyen. Following Nguyen are the Spanish-speaking Garcia, Gonzalez, and Hernandez. Then the Anglo-American Smiths. And finally, the Russian Smirnovs. Rounding out the top ten popular surnames are the Millers (Müllers, Millyars) - which in Russian means miller.
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History buffs often complain that we have little written evidence of long ago. the past few days. But besides the chronicles there are others historical sources. One of them is genetics. Genes are preserved for thousands of years and store information about those who passed them on to us. People do not sit still, and genes migrate along with them. The variability of the gene pool in space is studied by genogeography. Its founder, Alexander Sergeevich Serebrovsky, insisted that genogeography is a historical science, not a biological one. Exploring current state gene pool, one can learn a lot about the emergence of peoples and their centers of origin. The past of the gene pool is most important, because it determines both the present and the future.

To study the gene pool, DNA samples must be obtained. It is isolated from the blood that has to be taken from many people living over a wide area, then the sequences of specific genes are isolated and analyzed from all the DNA samples. When enough experimental data is collected, they are subject to statistical processing. The larger the amount of work performed, the more accurate the picture it gives and the more time it takes. And besides time, molecular genetic research of the gene pool requires expensive equipment and a lot of reagents, which are also not cheap.

Fortunately, there are markers that allow larger studies to be carried out at much lower cost. These are surnames. If we assume that a surname is inherited from father to son and further in generations (which, as a rule, is completely fair), and if we know the frequencies of surnames in populations (and collecting such information is quite realistic), then these frequencies can be considered as the frequencies of alleles of one gene and apply all the usual methods of population genetics to the surnames.

The method of using surnames as an analogue of genetic markers was proposed by J.F. Crowe and A.P. Mange back in 1965. Since then, surnames have been widely used to study the gene pool by both foreign and domestic geneticists - Yu.G. Rychkov, A.A. Revazov, E.K. Ginther, their followers and students. It turned out that in different peoples the genetic and “family” diversity is very close to each other, so surnames are a completely adequate marker.

Currently, the collection and genogeographic analysis of Russian surnames is actively being carried out in the laboratory of human population genetics of the State University of Medical Genetics scientific center RAMS. First of all, we are interested in the history of the formation of the Russian gene pool, and therefore we examined the distribution of tens of thousands of Russian surnames. Although this unique work has not yet been completed - given the huge area of ​​​​the range, many years are needed to painstakingly collect data - some results can be drawn now. And this article talks about only a small piece of a huge work.

Each surname has its place

When working with DNA, a scientist cannot study the genotype of every citizen and is forced to limit himself to a certain sample - a relatively small group of citizens, and then suffer from doubts whether it reflects the true state of affairs. As for the names, they have already been carefully collected by officials into lists, and this makes the work much easier: you can abandon the samples and study the entire population. But you have to start somewhere. Why?

Since we are interested in the past of the Russian gene pool, we need to study the names of the indigenous inhabitants of the “original” Russian area, that is, the territory on which the formation of the Russian people took place: Central Russia and the Russian North. In this area, we outlined eight regions, grouped into five regions: Northern (Arkhangelsk region), Eastern (Kostroma region), Central (Kashinsky district of the Tver region), Western (Smolensk region) and Southern (Belgorod, Kursk and Voronezh region). In each region, several rural areas were selected and the surnames of all their adult residents were examined. The selected areas are located on average 1000 km from each other and cover the entire territory like a network. We took into account the names of almost a million rural residents and found 67 thousand different surnames. No gene has so many alleles. But is it necessary to analyze all the names? It depends on whether they are all “native”.

In our troubled times, migrants can be found even in villages and small towns, and their names, once included in the analysis, will be distorted historical picture. Therefore, to study the gene pool of the indigenous population, it is necessary to remove from the resulting list all the names included in the “original” area by migrants. But the lists of surnames that geneticists work with do not contain any other information except the surname itself and the place where it is now located. Therefore, in order to exclude “stray” surnames, we selected only those that are borne by at least four people in the study area, for example, two parents and their two adult children, that is, surnames that are no longer historically random and are highly likely to persist in future generations. After such a selection, the number of surnames was reduced to 14,428, that is, about a quarter of the original list of surnames remained, but these surnames are most of census population (approximately 700 thousand people out of a million). It is these indigenous surnames that replace genetic markers in our population studies. They behave like alleles of a gene.

First, surnames vary markedly in frequency. Thus, approximately one in a hundred residents of the main Russian area is Kuznetsov, every seventy-fifth is Ivanov, and Smirnov is almost every fiftieth. Other surnames are so rare that only a few carriers could be found in the entire Russian area. Secondly, surnames are unevenly distributed over the territory of the range: in some places it is dense, and in other places there is nothing at all. Scientists have compiled a general list of all surnames, arranged in descending order of frequency. The same lists were compiled for each of the five regions. Regional lists differ from each other both in the set of surnames and in the order in which they are located.

When each surname found its place in the lists, all-Russian and at least one regional, as well as on geographical map, it became possible to begin the actual study of family geography and comparison of regions (it was not for nothing that they were singled out). For clarity (and visibility), you can first consider not all surnames, but only the most frequent ones in the general list and their “place index” (I P - Index place). What it is?

Each surname in the general list has serial number, or point: the most common surname is assigned the number 1, the tenth - 10, the hundredth - 100, and so on. In regional lists, names are not in the same order as in the general list, but retain the same score. Last names have the same score in regional lists. The total points of the most common surnames region, divided by the number of summed up surnames, is the “place index”. The closer the place index is to the all-Russian one, the closer the region is to general order Russian surnames, the less original it is. For each region, three variants of the index were considered: I P5, I P10 and I P20 - for the five, ten and twenty most common surnames.

For example, we have a list of Western region surnames, arranged in descending order of frequency. How close is it to the all-Russian one? The five most common “Western” surnames are Ivanov, Novikov, Kozlov, Vasiliev, Petrov. And in the all-Russian list, Ivanov ranks second, other names are eighth, seventh, thirteenth and twelfth, respectively. To calculate the place index for five names, we average these values: (2+8+7+13+12):5=8.4. For the all-Russian list I P5 is equal to three: (1+2+3+4+5):5. And now, according to the place index, the Western region can be easily compared with any other regions, and with the “original” Russian area. The reader can do this independently using the table below.

In terms of place index, three regions of the middle zone (Eastern, Western and Central) are close to the spectrum of all-Russian surnames, while Northern and Southern differ significantly from it. This means that when we move from west to east, we see much less genetic variation than when we move from north to south (or from south to north). Therefore, our “original” Russian area is striped, and in it we can distinguish southern zone, Central Russian and Russian North. In the middle zone, the same surnames as in the “all-Russian” list predominate, and in the South and North - local ones, and in both “peculiar” regions, for some reason, the same surname came out in first place - Popov.

It is interesting that the portrait of the gene pool of other peoples of Eastern Europe turned out to be completely different - there the variability is more along the “west-east” axis. And the Russian gene pool, which occupies a huge part of Eastern Europe, has discovered its own structure, obviously connected with its history. And in three horizontal stripes of Russian national flag hidden, it turns out, is a deep genetic meaning.

For all three versions of the index, the researchers obtained similar results, which means that we're talking about about a pattern that little depends on the sample size, therefore, the analysis of only 20 of the most common surnames allows us to roughly classify gene pools without waiting for the completion of complex types of analysis for complete family lists regions. Unfortunately, a full analysis cannot be avoided: without studying all the surnames, you cannot determine which of them are indigenous and which are common. But most importantly, it is never known in advance how many surnames can be limited without distorting the picture. Therefore, in order to assess the true “relationships” of the regions, it is necessary to analyze the entire family fund.

Speaking about regions, we cannot ignore the issue of their similarity in terms of the spectrum of surnames. Are there surnames that appear in all regional lists? It turned out that yes. Taking into account the additionally surveyed Siberian region, there were 250 such surnames, and we are pleased to present a list of them.

One might have expected that all-Russian surnames, due to their commonality, would be evenly distributed throughout the entire area, but this did not happen. Each of them, like all other surnames, has its own geographical distribution area, which is unpredictable. For example, Ivanov is, one might say, the face of the Russian ethnic group (Russian Ivans). In the church calendar, the name John appears 79 times, its frequency among other calendar male names is about 15%. For such a common and, presumably, polyphyletic surname (that is, it arose many times throughout the entire range from the most common name), it was natural to expect widespread distribution. Nevertheless, in some territories Ivanovs are practically absent. Their range is located in the west and northwest, from where it stretches as an almost continuous “mountain massif” to the northeast. In the north and south, with the exception of individual “islands,” Ivanovs are very rare.

The most common Russian surname is Smirnov. Three latitudinal zones are clearly distinguished for it: northern, central Russian and southern. The bulk of the Smirnovs settled in the middle zone. In the Russian North, Smirnovs are found everywhere, but rarely. There are no Smirnovs in the south.

The areas of the Kozlovs and Volkovs surprisingly coincide, forming a “corridor” that leads from the Smolensk lands through the Volga-Oka interfluve to the lands of Tver and Kostroma, and then, expanding, but weakening in frequency, goes north, to Vologda and Arkhangelsk. Moreover, as it should be in the food chain, almost everywhere there are more Kozlovs than Volkovs. Kotovs walk on their own and are found in scattered “islands” in a sea of ​​populations in which there are no Kotovs. There are also surnames evenly distributed throughout the Russian area, the Kuznetsovs, for example, but there are very few of them everywhere.

By the way, according to the frequencies of “all-Russian” surnames, the regions took different places in the genetic space than according to the results of the “hot twenty”: the central position went to the Southern region. Apparently, settlers from all over Rus' were heading south, and therefore the frequencies common surnames in this region are close to average. Perhaps an analysis of all-Russian surnames will help identify the most intense migration flows that have left their mark in all parts of the Russian area. But this is only a working hypothesis that requires special testing.

In these studies, and in many others for which there is simply no space to describe them, surnames serve as a convenient equivalent for genetic markers. But surnames are not genes, they have their own history and, unlike genes, nationality. And if you let the names speak, they will tell you a lot of new and interesting things about the Russian gene pool and its structure.

Each place has its own surname

Let's try to evaluate the origin of the 50 most common surnames in each regional list. To do this they will have to be classified. In fact, such a classification should be carried out by a specialist in the field of the science of names - onomastics. But we did not find linguists who wanted to participate in such work, and we ourselves distributed the names among classes. There are five of them: calendar(that is, surnames derived from the name from the calendar - Orthodox calendar), "animal" , To which were assigned all the names that have a connection with living things on Earth - not only animals, but also birds, fish, insects, plants, and even their parts (for example, Leaves, Flowers), professional, "conspicuous" which mark features of a person’s external or social appearance, and "others" surnames not assigned to any of the listed classes. Looking at the 50 most common regional surnames in terms of this classification, we unexpectedly discovered how distinct each region is.

A distinctive feature of the Southern region is the huge number of professional surnames: 34%. They cover a wide range of professions - weavers, blacksmiths, potters, coopers, tailors, hat makers (Shapovalov), bakers (Kalashnikov), and wheelwrights. Moreover, the same type of activity is represented by several common surnames. Bondari - Bondarev and Bondarenko. Weavers - Tkachev and Tkachenko. Blacksmiths - Kuznetsov, Kovalev and Kovalenko. Tailors - Kravtsov and Kravchenko, Shevtsov and Shevchenko. There are very few “animal” surnames in the Southern region, but for some reason there are three times more Medvedevs than in the North: the popular belief that where there are more animals, there are more surnames derived from them, is not confirmed. It is possible, however, that at the time when the fund of “animal” surnames was being formed, there were a lot of bears in the south... “Notable” surnames are also few (14%), but they speak very expressively about the presence of migration and, perhaps, about the appearance of the aliens: Novikov, Litvinov (“Litvins” the Russians also called Belarusians who, before reunification with Russia, lived as part of the Lithuanian and then the Polish-Lithuanian state), Cherkashin (“Cherkashians” - the population of the Right Bank Ukraine and the Cossacks of the Dnieper region), Chernykh, Lysenko, Golovin (big-headed, smart). By the way, only in the south are there surnames derived from the names of other regions - Smolensky (120 people), Kursk (64 people), Kostromitsky (46 people) and Arkhangelsk (23 people).

The main difference between the North is the abundance of “other”, including dialect, surnames: 34%! Among them are two very northern ones - Mezly and Morozov (usually a child born on a frosty day was called Moroz). But the main part are dialect surnames: Leshukov (this is what children were called to “amulet” against goblin), Porokhin (associated with winter powder), Oshukov (a dialect derivative of Orthodox name Osip), Saukov (a dialectal name from the Orthodox name Savva), Galashev (a dialectal name from Galaktion), Fofanov (a dialectal name from Feofan, but also a nickname, “simp”), Chursanov (Chur is a Slavic pagan deity of the hearth), and also Tretyakov and Shestakov (the third and sixth child in the family), Bulygin, Kuvaldin, Kogin, Dverin and Karmanov.

The abundance of “animal” surnames - distinguishing feature Central region. There are half of these names. In addition to all-Russian ones, this list also contains special surnames that depict the specific image of the Central region: Bobrov, Voronin, Zhukov, Zhuravlev, Kalinin, Korolkov, Krylov, Skvortsov, Sobolev, Tsvetkov.

In the eastern region, what is most striking is the unusual high frequency Smirnovs - 5.9%! This frequency is 2-7 times higher than the frequencies of leaders in other regions. The peculiarity of the Smirnovs awaits its researchers. Moreover, Tikhomirovs are also common in the Eastern region with a high frequency (0.8%). But main feature The Eastern region has an unusually high frequency of “noticeable” surnames - 36%. And what glorious surnames: Smirnov and Tikhomirov, Belyaev and Belov, Serov and Ryzhov, Sizov and Rumyantsev, Shorokhov (with traces of pockmarks) and Krutikov, Bolshakov and Gromov (a strong voice, such surnames were often worn by singers), Chistyakov and Scriabin (that is, “neat”, from “to scrape”), Kudryavtsev and Kudryashov, Razumov and Veselov... All together they paint a very joyful portrait of the Eastern region. Let us remember the “notable” names of the Russian South: Novikov, Litvinov, Chernykh, Golovin, Lysenko. And in the North - Khromtsov, Ryabov, Chernousov, Leshukov, Sukhanov... It’s still amazing how different regional portraits are!

The Western region is perhaps the most typical. His “portrait” is very poor in unique surnames. But this region still has one characteristic difference - the predominance of calendar surnames. There are 60% of them, two to four times more than in other main regions. But there are almost no professional names in the West (4%), only the Kuznetsovs and Popovs are included in the “top 50”.

Outskirts

The ethnic area of ​​Russians has been steadily expanding over the centuries, and we included in the analysis three regions on the outskirts of the “original” Russian area. The North-Western region is represented by the population of two historically and geographically different districts of the Pskov region: the Ostrovsky district from ancient times belonged to the Pskov lands, while the territory of the Porkhovsky district was part of Novgorod lands and only after the fall of Veliky Novgorod it went into the possession of Pskov.

Another outskirts is Kuban. Kuban Cossacks settled near the southern border of the original Russian range in the mid-19th century, at the end of Caucasian War. They come partly from Don Cossacks, partly Russian immigrants from Southern and Central Russia. Although the Cossacks are by definition a “professional” group of service people, they are usually viewed as a unique ethnic group. The list included the names of only descendants Kuban Cossacks, and the recently arrived Russian population was not taken into account.

The modern population of the Kemerovo region represents a different layer of later Russian migrations - to Siberia. The population of the Kemerovo region was formed by the merger of many migration flows, and it can be considered as a model of the modern population that has gone beyond the “original” Russian area. Perhaps it even represents some kind of model of our future. All three districts were analyzed by both place index and surname types.

In the North-West region, the predominance of calendar surnames is striking - 82%. But there is only one professional name in the “top 50” (2%) - the Kuznetsovs. According to the three options I P, the North-West region is very close to the North, but not to the West, therefore, in terms of the degree of originality of common surnames, the North-West cannot in any way be classified as a region of the Central Russian strip. This is truly an outlying region.

The most important feature of the family portrait of the Kuban Cossacks is their originality. It is an order of magnitude greater than in the main Russian regions, and even several times higher than in the most unique of them, the Southern region. Kuban Cossacks have a large share of professional surnames (22%). In this they are similar to the Southern region. But the Cossack family foundation cannot in any way be considered a “branch” of the Southern region. It has a rich range of unique features and stable connections with the all-Russian core of surnames.

The Siberian population is the most remote, separated from Moscow by 3000 km. But it is separated from its original habitat not so much geographically as historically. This is a migration zone, intermediate, fluid, which endless streams of new migrations do not allow to form its own identity. And thanks to this fluidity, the family portrait of the Siberian region noticeably resembles the Central Russian strip. The Siberian gene pool turned out to be “more all-Russian” than many ancestral territories, whose originality is due to their history. Analysis of the classes of surnames suggests that of all the regions of the central zone, the Siberian region most of all gravitates towards the Western, the most geographically remote. Perhaps the most powerful wave of migration came from the West, but this hypothesis requires testing.

Thus, the two groups of Russian settlers represent two different models for the formation of common surnames: the Cossacks are sharply unique, and the Russian Siberians are as close as possible to the all-Russian set.

So what does the study of Russian surnames provide for the study of the Russian gene pool? ?

Firstly, surnames turned out to be another reliable source of information about its structure. The “indications” of surnames surprisingly coincide with the “indications” of genes. They confirmed the known differences between southern and northern Russian populations, with smaller differences between western and eastern ones. Surnames given Additional information and on many more specific issues, clarifying and clarifying the structure of the Russian gene pool. For example, using indigenous surnames, we predicted random inbreeding for the indigenous population in 49 areas. This level and the associated burden of hereditary diseases are steadily increasing from the southwest to the east.

Secondly, the analysis of surnames can be used as intelligence for planning genetic research itself: first, study the structure of the gene pool using family data, identify the main patterns, the main population groups - and based on these data, conduct genetic research. One more striking use of surnames can be proposed: for the study of migrant gene pools. For example, knowing the frequencies of genes in the original groups and having data on surnames, you can find out the frequencies of genes in the migrant group without studying it!

Of course, the benefits of surnames do not end there. Main result Our work with surnames is an opportunity to study the “structure” of different gene pools, both Russian and many others.

The article uses materials from the book by E. V. Balanovskaya, O. P. Balanovsky
"Russian gene pool. A Look into the Past,” which will be published this year by the Luch publishing house (Moscow).

Historians are expanding the list of personal nicknames every year Slavic origin. Many people would be interested to know their origins. But sometimes it is impossible to determine this by the sound itself, since various suffixes, prefixes and prefixes have been added to the derived word over the years, distorting its original meaning.

Russian names and surnames

To determine the origin of a person’s family, his passport data is used. Key points acts as the root of the word, which forms Russian names and surnames. They differ in prevalence. By the sound you can determine the eminence of the family or the belonging of ancestors to different social groups and castes of society: peasants, boyars, clergy. The etymology of some includes archaisms and strange stems; you can use a reference book to determine these yourself.

Origin

Derivatives and roots can originate from the nicknames of ancestors, funny nicknames, names, areas of activity. The origin of Russian surnames, in most cases, is unraveled in its etymology. You should take an interest in this clue, because through it you can find out about an outstanding ancestor or the eminence of the family. For those who want to determine the origins of their family nickname, there are alphabetical collections that are replenished and updated annually; on their pages, almost everyone can find out the history of their name.

The most popular derivatives:

• On behalf of the ancestor (whose? Whose will you be?) - Ivanov, Sidorov, Kuzmin, Petrov.
• From the geographical names - Vyazemsky, Stroganov, Smolensky.
• From the nicknames of the clergy - Rozhdestvensky, Preobrazhensky, Uspensky.
• From the names of plants and animals - Sokolova, Orlova, Hare, Lebedeva, Golubeva.
• From count and boyar titles - Minin, Tikhomirov, Tikhonravov, Godunov.

Meaning

Etymology and the formation of a proper genus name are of interest to an increasing number of people. The meaning of Russian surnames is determined by determining the root part of the word; it indicates the meaning. The meaning of family names like Bondarev, Kovalev, Shevtsov - indicate the craft that someone from the family was engaged in. Muzzle, Stoyan, Brave - on external or internal characteristics an individual person. All members of the family were called by the nickname of the head of the family, and this was passed down from generation to generation.

When did surnames appear in Russia?

The assignment of a generic nickname to identify each clan began to take shape in the 15th century. When surnames appeared in Russia, they initially referred to representatives of the upper strata of society: boyars and aristocrats, and later, in the 18th century, to church ministers. Until the 19th century, peasants and artisans received their nicknames. Their genus names were derived from the nicknames of one of the members of the family or occupation. In historical scrolls and records, listings were found that explain this phenomenon: “Vasily, son of the Kuznetsov... Ivan, son of the Khlebnikov”

How many surnames are there in Russia

The study of these data is still in question. There is no absolutely correct numerical value that could accurately answer the question of how many surnames exist in Russia today. Researchers have taken on such a complex task only a few times; officially, about 250 thousand meanings have been included in the collection, and these lists are constantly replenished with new forms of nicknames that were once given.

Declension of surnames in Russian

Rules Russian language strictly determine the spelling and pronunciation of passport data. Declension of surnames in Russian occurs according to the following basic rules: standard ones are declined as adjectives, and those of foreign origin are declined as nouns. They do not decline with a zero ending, or ending in a consonant (Bondar, Nitsevich, Ponomar), ending in -o (Petrenko, Shevchenko, Kovalenko), foreign ones ending in -a, -ya (Varnava, Okidzhava, Zola).

The most common surname in Russia

Boris Ubengaun was the first to begin compiling a directory that lists the names of Russia. It contains various variations due to the process of transformation of folk nicknames. Each position has an explanation (highlighted parts of word formation that explain the essence of a particular word). There are positions that can be found more often, and there are those that are very rare. The data was taken based on the population census of the city of St. Petersburg.

Common surnames in Russia:

• Vladimirov;
• Sergeev;
• Petrov;
• Ivanov.

Beautiful Russian surnames

There are people whose generic nicknames captivate with their sound. These include those derived from geographical names or long nicknames given to church ministers. This etymology is rare and sounds aristocratically melodic. Many people change their birth details in their passports in order to get a name that is beautiful and stands out from the crowd. People to whom it was inherited are considered lucky.

The most beautiful surnames in Russia:

• Preobrazhensky;
• Caesar;
• Christmas;
• Vyazemsky;
• Uspensky.

Slavic

There are genus names that originate from the ancient Slavs. These nicknames are very rare and therefore valuable to historians. Their small number is due to the fact that derivatives originate from the names of pagan gods or Old Slavonic names. With the advent of Christianity, such nicknames were categorically prohibited, people were baptized and renamed en masse, therefore those who have preserved them to this day are a godsend, a shining example pagan culture.

Old Slavic surnames, examples:

• Yarilo;
• Dovbush;
• Putyata;
• Lada;
• Saint;
• Dobrynin;
• Peaceful.

Popular

According to the population census conducted in the 80s of the last century, with former USSR, about 50% of the rural and 35% of the urban population have generic nicknames, formed on the principle of patronymics with the addition of suffixes. This study is recognized as the highest quality and most detailed up to our times. Popular Russian surnames: Sidorov, Smirnov, Kuzmin, Vasiliev. The second place in frequency is occupied by nicknames that indicate the type of activity: Kuznetsov, Bondarev, Reznikov, Khlebnikov, etc.

Rare Russian surnames

It is difficult to create a reliable list that includes all items. But the main ones have been selected. It is not often that you meet people who have a family nickname that completely coincides with a geographical name or is formed from a combination of two words. There are few who are lucky enough to become namesakes of famous historical figures and heroes literary novels.

Rare surnames in Russia:

• Astrakhan;
• Kamchatka;
• Goddess;
• Krutiperets;
• Crusoe;
• Karenin.

funny

Sometimes among acquaintances there are family nicknames that involuntarily make you smile with their comical nature. They surprise fellow citizens, and especially foreigners, with their pronunciation, they consist of adding the stems of some nouns or verbs, they can denote a funny or strange action, name objects whose names sound strange in human name. A person who has to wear them can hardly be called lucky.

Funny Russian surnames:

• Kostogryzov;
• Mozgoedov;
• Popkin;
• Rzhach;
• Login;
• Khachapuri;
• Shit grandfathers;
• Snot.

Russian noble families

Their owners can have no doubt about the high title of someone from their family; they were assigned exclusively to nobles, boyars, and high-ranking officials. People close to high positions and ruling power. They can also be merchants. The presence of such titular nicknames among the peasantry, workers from the common population or artisans is excluded; their mere presence indicated a high social status its owner.

Russians noble families:

• Stroganov;
• Godunov;
• Tikhomirov;
• Minin;
• Novgorodtsev;
• Tikhonravov;
• Ventsenostsev.

Old Russian

This term denotes not only Old Slavonic nicknames from the times of paganism, but also those that, by their etymology, designate outdated concepts and words of ancient use, eradicated from modern speech. Interesting to consider are generic nicknames that name old monetary units, household items, crafts not found in the modern world. All these signs indicate a long history of the family and roots that go far.

Old Russian surnames:

• Kunin;
• Altynov;
• Kalita;
• Zlatnikov;
• Pryalkin;
• Kozhemyaka;
• Bandurov.

Rating of surnames in Russia

The top 100 items that can often be found in the passports of fellow citizens have been compiled. All of them were selected based on the directory and ordered during the census during the year. This information will be especially interesting for girls, because everyone dreams of meeting her man and getting married. Statistics say that in 89% of cases, women switch to a male generic nickname upon marriage. Such a top will clearly show the most likely options that everyone may encounter. The section includes the first 10 positions.

• Ivanov;
• Smirnov;
• Kuznetsov;
• Popov;
• Sokolov;
• Vasiliev;
• Fedorov;
• Novikov;
• Egorov;
• Kozlov.

Famous Russian surnames

Their list is compiled based on the frequency of use among the population. The most popular surname in Russia is Ivanov. Even foreigners know about this, associating with her all the names of Russian compatriots. It went down in history and became a classic. For example in German this nickname became Muller, in America and Britain - Smith, in Poland - Novak or Kowalski, in Georgia - Mamedov.

Famous Russian surnames:

• Sidorov;
• Ivanov;
• Petrov;
• Kozlov;
• Smirnov;
• Popov;
• Sokolov.

Video

100 most common surnames in Russia

The most common surnames and their history of origin:

Kuznetsov Surname from the father's name by occupation. Since the blacksmith was the most necessary and for everyone famous person in the village, naming on this basis was ubiquitous. Therefore, the surname Kuznetsov is one of the most common in Russia;
Thousands of Kuznetsovs lived in Moscow (second in number only to the Ivanovs, of whom there were thousands. In some areas, the surname Kuznetsov took first place in frequency (for example, in the volosts of Kerensky and Chembarsky districts of the Penza province, out of thousands of Russians included in the calculations, the Kuznetsov person) Throughout the country as a whole, the spread of the surname Kuznetsov is somewhat limited by the use of the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian dialect word koval in the same meaning of “blacksmith,” so surnames with this stem spread from the west and southwest. Other nations also have very common surnames with the stem. , meaning “blacksmith”, for example, the most common English surname is Smith, the German Schmidt (N) Kovalev is one of the most common Russian surnames, although the words “koval” are in Russian; literary language No. In southern Russia and Ukraine, a blacksmith is called a farrier. “If you’re not a farrier, don’t dirty your hands” (that is, don’t get dirty) advises folk wisdom; don't take on a job you don't know. (F) Kovalenya. One of the suffixes forming Belarusian surnames-enya. Kowalski Polish or Ukrainian surname. Kovalikhin and Kuznechikhin, metronymic surnames, are derived from the name of a woman, the wife of a blacksmith. Kovalkov, Kovankov are verified Ukrainian or Belarusian surnames.

2. Smirnov Smirnov is one of the most common Russian surnames. In Moscow alone there are seventy thousand Smirnovs. Why? In a large peasant family, quiet, non-shouting children were a great relief for parents. This quality, rare for small children, was imprinted in the worldly name Smirna; it often became the main name of a person for the rest of his life ( church name those around them were forgotten) From the Smirnykhs came the Smirnovs. (F) The most common Russian surname in a vast strip covering the entire Northern Volga region, most often in the Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Ivanovo regions and adjacent areas of neighboring regions; to the east, this zone extends to the Kirov region. As you move away from this zone, the frequency decreases. In Moscow, the surname Smirnov took fifth place in a thousand people) By origin, it is a patronymic from a Russian non-church male name Smirnaya, i.e. “meek, quiet, obedient” Early examples of patronymics in the Vladimir tithe of the city “Ivan Smirnovo son of Samarin” “Stepan meek son of Kuchuks” Common noun changed the vowel and place of stress, and the surname retained its archaic form (similar to: Tolstoy, Tolstoy (N)) The surnames Smirnin, Smirenkin are from the ancient Slavic names Smirena, Smirenka. Smirensky, Smirnitsky seminary names from the same root.

3. Ivanov Patronymic from the common form Ivan from the canonical male personal name John. Ivanov is the most common surname of Russians, since the name remained the most common among Russians for several centuries (from century to century: among the peasantry it covered from up to all men. In Moscow there are thousands of Ivanovs (of which Ivan Ivanovich) It is characteristic that in this territory the surname Ivanov is usually not very common, inferior to many others, but it is widespread everywhere and therefore in major centers and ranks first in the country overall. Its relative rarity in certain areas is due to the fact that the name was used in many various forms, patronymics from which became surnames. There are significantly more than a hundred of these forms, and the surnames and patronymics formed from these forms are correspondingly numerous. (N) The most common male name in Rus', Ivan, “Ivanov is like filthy mushrooms,” people joked) has given rise to dozens of derivative forms. I confidently include the surname Ivin in this list, since most Ivins are not from the name of the tree, but from Iva, a shortened form of the name Ivan. Ivsha is also one of the forms of this name. Itsko, Ishko are diminutive forms of the name Ivan. Itsko is more characteristic Belarusian language and Smolensk dialects, Ishko Ukrainian language and South Russian dialects. Ishunya, Ishuta are ancient diminutive forms of the name Ivan. (F) V c. the surname was used with an emphasis on a. Nowadays it is more often used with the stress on the last syllable. It is characteristic that some bearers of the surname insist on a form with an emphasis on a, which seems to them more noble than the usual one with an emphasis on the last syllable.

4. Popov Not all Popovs and Popkovs are descendants of priests. As a personal name, Pop (Popko) was very common among worldly people. Religious parents willingly named their children Popili Popko. Example: landowner Popko (near Senka Pop, peasant Popko Efimov, peasant Sometimes the surname Popov was given to a worker, farm laborer. (F) One of the most common surnames in Russia, especially in the north of the country. Counting surnames in the Arkhangelsk province showed an unprecedentedly high frequency of Popovs in a thousand people. In Moscow, a thousand Popovs originally meant: patronymic "son of a priest" from the nickname Pop; from the documents of the century. peasant Senka Pop, Don Cossack Mikhailo Pop, etc. As an assumption of the spread of this surname in the north of Russia, we can assume the election of the clergy in these areas: until the century, priests were not appointed there, but were elected by the residents themselves from among themselves (N)

5. Sokolov The names of animals and birds are one of the main sources of nicknames and surnames derived from them. "Bird" surnames occupy positions in the first hundred Russian surnames. Sokolov is the most common among the “birds” and is in seventh position in the frequency list of all Russian surnames. (U) Sokolov. Patronymic from the Russian non-church male name Sokol. One of the ten most common Russian surnames. According to B. Unbegun's calculations, in St. Petersburg it ranked seventh in frequency, and of all surnames formed from non-canonical names, it was second only to Smirnov. The unusually high frequency of Russian surnames based on the names of birds was noted by the prominent foreign Slavist V.R. Kiparsky, proving in his articles that this is dictated by the cult of birds among the Russians. My calculations confirmed that Russian surnames are indeed associated with birds more often than with animals or, for example, fish. But this phenomenon cannot be explained by the cult of birds, since the majority of surnames are of later origin centuries. only a minority are older) and we can talk about the origin not of surnames, but of the names from which they are derived. However, in this case, the main reason is not the cult of the bird, but the enormous economic and everyday role birds in the life of Russians: widespread industrial hunting, poultry farming in every family, grandiose falconry hunts and much more (for more details, see Nikonov V.A. Name and society. M. (N) Sokolikha, Sokol’s wife. Surnames in -sky can be Ukrainian Polish origin. Possibly from the geographical names Sokol, Sokolovo. Similarly Sokologorsky Sokolinaya Gora. Similarly Russian Sokoltsov
Next in the ranking are:

6. Lebedev
7. Kozlov
8. Novikov
9. Morozov
10. Petrov
11. Volkov
12. Soloviev
13. Vasiliev
14. Zaitsev
15. Pavlov
16. Semenov
17. Golubev
18. Vinogradov
19. Bogdanov
20. Vorobiev
21. Fedorov
22. Mikhailov
23. Belyaev
24. Tarasov
25. Belov
26. Komarov
27. Orlov
28. Kiselev
29. Makarov
30. Andreev
31. Kovalev
32. Ilyin
33. Gusev
34. Titov
35. Kuzmin
36. Kudryavtsev
37. Baranov
38. Kulikov
39. Alekseev
40. Stepanov
41. Yakovlev
42. Sorokin
43. Sergeev
44. Romanov
45. Zakharov
46. ​​Borisov
47. Korolev
48. Gerasimov
49. Ponomarev
50. Grigoriev
51. Lazarev
52. Medvedev (from Layola: let’s remember the president of the Russian Federation)
53. Ershov
54. Nikitin
55. Sobolev
56. Ryabov
57. Polyakov
58. Tsvetkov
59. Danilov
60. Zhukov
61. Frolov
62. Zhuravlev
63. Nikolaev
64. Krylov
65. Maximov
66. Sidorov
67. Osipov
68. Belousov
69. Fedotov
70. Dorofeev
71. Egorov
72. Matveev
73. Bobrov
74. Dmitriev
75. Kalinin
76. Anisimov
77. Petukhov
78. Antonov
79. Timofeev
80. Nikiforov
81. Veselov
82. Filippov
83. Markov
84. Bolshakov
85. Sukhanov
86. Mironov
87. Shiryaev
88. Alexandrov
89. Konovalov
90. Shestakov
91. Kazakov
92. Efimov
93. Denisov
94. Gromov
95. Fomin
96. Davydov
97. Melnikov
98. Shcherbakov
99. Blinov
100. Kolesnikov