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The most popular surname in Russia and its origin
"What's in my name for you ..." Pushkin once wrote in the album of Caroline Sobanska, known in the aristocratic circles of the beautiful Polish woman, addressing her one of her best lyrical works. To paraphrase the words of a famous poet, let's say differently: what do our names and surnames mean, why do some seem attractive, euphonious, and others, on the contrary, cause a negative reaction?
Business card
Hence it is clear that the most popular in Russia surname, a visiting card, so to speak, of domestic anthroponyms is Ivanov. It was worn for many centuries by peasants - the most numerous class of the population of the country. Even the saying goes like this: "We have Ivanov, like a filthy mushroom." What is remarkable: in order to "refine" the common origin of the surname, some of its owners began to change the stress from the last syllable to the first, from the sound "o" to "a" at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. For example, this was one of the brightest poets of the Silver Age, Vyacheslav Ivanov. Such a substitution did not affect the fact that this was the most popular surname in Russia, and it remains to this day.
Smirnovy from Smyrnae
When the profession determines the name
The nickname for the feathered
This popular Russian names, of course, do not end there. Romanovs are widely known, the "high-frequency" Popovs, Morozovs, Ermakovs, Tikhonovs.
Entire families take the origins of their nicknames from those settlements where their ancestors first settled. And here is another phenomenon of onomastics: the most popular Russian surname of "bird's" origin is the Sokolovs. There is nothing to surprise with. Hunting is not only one of the main means of harvesting food among the ancient Slavs, including Russian peasants, but also the inhabitants of villages of later centuries. Falconry is our national fun. At the court of the tsar-father, as well as the richest noblemen (boyars), the falconer was a special post. Those who occupied it had to train and keep in proper form hunting falcons. Of the same number were the popular in Russia surnames of Orlov, Lebedev. And in general, the names of birds and animals - one of the main sources of our nicknames. Volkovs, Olenines, Lvovs, Medvedevs, Karpovs, Somovs, Ershovs, etc. - this is an obvious proof.
It's curious
Linguist Boris Henrikhovich Unbegaum at the beginning of the last century, having analyzed the metric data and address books of 1910, determined, as it is now customary to say, the top-hundred most common Russian names in the state. The list was opened, of course, the Ivanovs. Then came the Vasilievs and the Petrovs, Smirnovs and Mikhailovs. That is, the principle already described by us has worked: from name to surname.
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