Russian Surnames

Surnames in Russia have always been more than just an addition to a name. They made it easy to determine the social status of a person, the occupation of his ancestors, and the territorial part of the state where the family and the bearer of the surname originated from. Prior to the October Revolution, a person's surname could even determine if they were born legitimately or not. After the revolution and the formation of the USSR, Russian citizens sometimes changed their surnames for security reasons (for example, noble surnames could be a pretext for repression, while Jewish surnames hindered education and careers in certain fields and later became the cause of dismissals and legal persecution), or for ideological reasons (new Soviet citizens preferred to get rid of old surnames, especially those indicating their church or non-proletarian origin). A new society was forming - the "Soviet people." Many immigrants from the eastern republics changed their surnames to the most common Russian ones in order to assimilate into the general population. The total number of Russian surnames exceeds 15,000.^[1]

The surname Ivanov is the most widely used surname in modern Russia, followed by Kuznetsov, Smirnov, Popov, and Petrov, which are also among the top five most popular. Nearly one-third of the surnames in Russia nowadays are of non-Russian origin, including those of Arabian, Turkic, Ukrainian, Armenian, Jewish, Chinese, and Korean descent.^[2]

History of Russian Surnames

See also: Russian Jewish surnames

For a long time, there were no official surnames in Russia. People used to go by their first names, patronymics, and nicknames. It wasn't until the 13th century that the first written records of surnames appeared, but they were only present in Novgorod. Russian surnames originally came from patronymics, which were based on the Christian name of a male ancestor. Surnames were also formed from the names of places, occupations, and popular nicknames.

Surnames became mandatory in the 16th century for privileged classes such as princes, boyars, nobles, and merchants. Wealthy landowners from prominent areas were the first to add their land's name to their surnames (e.g., Vyazemsky, Tverskoy), and the most influential and wealthy merchants, mostly from northern Russia, added their occupational specialties to their surnames (e.g., Rybnikov - fish seller). Double-barreled surnames combining a princely name with a nickname also appeared (e.g., Lobanov-Rostovsky).

For Jews (who formally had autonomy), surnames were introduced in accordance with the "Regulation on Jews" in 1804.

Russian surnames were mostly single or hyphenated (formed from the name of the principality with a nickname) and were passed down strictly through the male line.

Derivation of Russian surnames

According to a study on Russian surnames by Karaulova et al., "similar to other Slavic naming traditions, a Russian surname can be composed of almost any word by adding one of several specific suffixes. As a result, surnames in Russia are continuously being created: for example, both 'Lenin' and 'Stalin' are made-up surnames, which were initially used as aliases." ^[3] Most Russian surnames are derived from patronymics or nicknames and grammatically formed as possessive adjectives.^[4] As a result, there are numerous surnames like Mikhailov, Svetlov, and Peskov, indicating that the person is a descendant of someone named Mikhail, or their ancestors had a nickname ‘svet’ (light) or ‘pesok’ (sand) accordingly. More Russian surname patronymic suffixes: --yv, -ev, -in, - iy, -oy.

To distinguish a female surname, an -a or -aya ending is added, making it clear whether you are dealing with a man or a woman: Mikhailova, Svetlova, Nikolskaya, Peskova, Kuchinskaya.

In the past, it was customary for married women to take their husband's surname, but this has not been a legal requirement in Russia since 1918. Nowadays, many women choose to keep their original surname, especially when they get married later in life, to avoid the hassle of changing their name.

Most common origins of Russian surnames

Surnames derived from old pagan Slavic names of the pre-Christian era (10th century):

Zhdanov (from ‘zhdan’ -- waited for)
Liubimov (from ‘liubim’ -- beloved)

Some of those names have a negative meaning, for they were supposed to keep away evil spirits:

Nekrasov (from ‘ne krasiv’ -- not pretty)
Durov (from ‘durak’ -- stupid)
Chertanov (from ‘chert’ -- devil)

Surnames derived from Christian names:

Surnames derived from professional nicknames:

Plotnikov (from ‘plotnik’ – carpenter)
Goncharov (from ‘gonchar’ – potter)
Bondarchuk (from ‘bondar’ – cooper)
Koval (from ‘koval’ – blacksmith)
Rybakov (from ‘rybak’ – fisherman)

Surnames derived from geographical names (cities, villages, rivers, lakes, etc.) from where one of the surname holder's ancestors came:

Surnames derived from animal names:

Kozlov (from goat)
Kotov (from ‘kot’ -- cat)
Zaytsev (from ‘zayac’ -- hare)
Volkov (from ‘volk’ -- wolf)
Medvedev (from ‘medved’ -- bear)

Surnames of Orthodox clergy: