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Why do some Russian surnames end with "-in" and others with "-ov"?
Why do some Russian surnames end with "-in" and others with "-ov"?

Video: Why do some Russian surnames end with "-in" and others with "-ov"?

Video: Why do some Russian surnames end with
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Originally Russian surnames are those that end in "-ov", "-ev" or "-in" ("-yn"). Why is it that they are most often worn by Russians?

Where did the surnames with "-ov" or "-ev" come from?

Surnames with the suffixes "-ov" or "-ev" are, according to various sources, 60-70% of the indigenous inhabitants of Russia. It is believed that these surnames are mainly of generic origin. At first they came from patronymics. For example, Peter, the son of Ivan, was called Peter Ivanov. After surnames entered official use (and this happened in Russia in the 13th century), surnames began to be given by the name of the eldest in the family. That is, Ivan's son, grandson and great-grandson were already becoming Ivanovs.

But surnames were given by nicknames. So, if a person, for example, was nicknamed Bezborodov, then his descendants received the surname Bezborodov.

They often gave surnames by occupation. The son of a blacksmith bore the surname Kuznetsov, the son of a carpenter - Plotnikov, the son of a potter - Goncharov, a priest - Popov. Their children received the same surname.

Surnames with the suffix "-ev" were given to those whose ancestors bore names and nicknames, as well as whose professions ended in a soft consonant - so, the son of Ignatius was called Ignatiev, the son of a man nicknamed Snegir - Snegirev, the son of a cooper - Bondarev.

Where did the surnames for "-in" or "-yn" come from?

The second most common names in Russia are surnames with the suffix "-in", or, less often, "-yn". They are worn by about 30% of the population. These surnames could also come from the names and nicknames of their ancestors, from the names of their professions, and in addition, from words ending in "-a", "-ya" and from feminine nouns ending in a soft consonant. For example, the surname Minin meant “son of Mina”. The Orthodox name Mina was widespread in Russia. The surname Semin comes from one of the forms of the name Semyon (the old form of this Russian name is Simeon, which means "heard by God"). And in our time, the surnames Ilyin, Fomin, Nikitin are common. The surname Rogozhin reminds that the ancestors of this person traded matting or made it.

Most likely, nicknames or professional occupations formed the basis of the surnames Pushkin, Gagarin, Borodin, Ptitsyn, Belkin, Korovin, Zimin.

Meanwhile, word formation specialists believe that the surname does not always unambiguously indicate the nationality of a person or his distant ancestors. To determine this with confidence, you must first find out what kind of word lies at its basis.

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