Unusual surnames: Russian and American

The word "surname" comes from the Latin word familia and means the generic name, which is inherited and indicates which kind of person that person belongs to. The surname, as a rule, indicates the belonging of an individual to one family and to a common ancestor.

Let's go through the history

An interesting fact is that in ancient Rome the word "surname" denoted a whole community, which consisted of a family of owners and their own, sometimes numerous, slaves. By the way, a similar situation was in Russia. So, for example, at the beginning of the XIX century, the serf peasants received their master's surname , when signing the "free". To date, the surname is that name, which is added to the personal, personal name of each person.

Where do the names come from?

Most surnames consist of a root (stem), which had a certain lexical meaning in the distant past. The already formed "middle name" can have prefixes, suffixes, endings. The very essence of each name determines the nickname or personal name of the ancestor from which it began its existence. Some unusual surnames to track can be quite difficult. However, with a strong desire to do the dismantling of the essence of this integral complement to his name is possible. Existing to date a variety of service departments that work in the study of pedigrees of customers, will help you understand the origin of your name. Such painstaking work is quite available for independent investigation, but it will require you to study many historical subtleties, turn over archival documents, translations and comparisons, and patience and free time.

In the original language, family prefixes and endings often mean the word "daughter" or "son". Some modern languages still retain a similar structure of names (for example, the Azerbaijani language). However, most cultures have as their last names already formed various adjectival forms. Often the surname is a peculiar, stereotyped identifier of some particular ethnic, national or racial identity.

How does the morphological rule work when forming surnames?

Due to the morphological rules of some languages (for example, Slavic), female and male surnames differ in form. And in some languages, such as Lithuanian, various forms of surnames define not only men and women, but also distinguish a married woman from a woman unmarried.
The acute need for the emergence of a surname (in its modern sense) has arisen because of the need to regulate the institution of the population and in connection with the constantly expanding economic ties of countries.

There are several common names, including Lee (more than 100 million people have this name), Van (more than 93 million people became happy owners of this family name), Garcia (10 million people), Smith (4 million people) and Smirnov (About 3 million people).

Fixed Surnames

The very first fixed surnames appeared in the 10th-11th centuries in the north of Italy, then in France, England, Germany, Denmark. In Russia there were nicknames, for example, Bychok, Kozel, Nenasha. They gradually evolved into permanent surnames. Such unusual surnames-nicknames were used to identify a person as a certain person, but they became common only at the end of the XIV century. Already in the XVI century in Russia, a law was introduced, according to which the name was first of all obliged to princes and boyars, and then to noblemen and eminent merchant families. For the poorest sections of the population - peasants - the names began to be used by the 18th century. But the final consolidation of names for peasants occurred only after the abolition of serfdom.

Russian surnames

Basically, in Russian the surnames are formed from names of church or non-ecclesiastical or, as already mentioned above, from nicknames. For example, on behalf of Peter, there is a surname Petrov (Petrov's son), and from the nickname Zayats, there is a surname Zaitsev (Zaitsev son). Very rarely, the root of the surname can be any names of objects of the terrain, for example, Belozersky (from the White Lake), etc. There is a scheme according to which the name is due to a certain kind of occupation or the sign of the person with whom it starts. For example, it is possible to explain the emergence of such names as Melnikov or Portnov. It is possible that such a scheme leads to the fact that very often in our country you can find unusual surnames.

In accordance with the traditions adopted in Russia, a woman, when marrying, takes the surname of her husband. However, this state of affairs is not mandatory, you can leave your maiden name or take a double for yourself . Children born in a marriage usually take the father's surname. However, this is not mandatory, because at the request of the parents, the child may have the surname of the mother.

Unaccustomed Russian names

Unusual Russian names can be listed for a very long time. It should be noted such unusual for the language, which consist of one letter: O, E, Y. Also very unusual for our country is a new direction in the formation of surnames from one syllable: To, Do, An. Surnames-toponyms, which can be said that they are by right the most unusual names - these are such as Kamchatka, Saransk, Moscow. To date, very few bearers of the legendary names, such as Gagarin, Crusoe, Chatsky, Onegin, Karenin. Perhaps, we should say about those with two roots: Hvataimukha, Golokhvostov, Shchiborshch. It is possible to note such unusual surnames as: Sometimes, Nekhay, Pokusai, Razdobudko, Chizh, Stove, Water. And many more such interesting names. Undoubtedly, unusual list names can make up an endless one. But even in such lists, surprises await us. Probably the most unusual name for a girl who exists in Russian is the name Muzhik.

American surnames

The United States of America is a country inhabited by emigrants. For this reason, the names of Americans are due to their origin to different cultural traditions, characteristics and nations. The main source of those for US citizens is the origin of English, French, German, Irish, Scottish surnames. Gradually mixing with Indian, Spanish, Polish, Norwegian, Jewish, Indian, African and others, American surnames are still in the way of their specific formation.

Education of modern names

Formed modern American surnames in many ways. The most common can be divided into the following types by their origin from:

• Features of this or that locality (Fountain, Mountain, Rock);
• Kind of occupation or profession (Smith, Forester);
• Names of names (Bush, Young, Rose);
• Father's name (Peterson, Williams, Watson, Johnson);
• Names of geographical (Lancaster, England).

Considering the multiple transformations of names and surnames in American culture, one might perhaps say that unusual American surnames are as common as they are in Russian culture. I want to note some interesting trend in the development of the formation of names on the American continent. It is an evolving process of replacing traditional American for unusual ethnic-type surnames, for example, with African-American ones.