The word "surname" comes from the Latin word familia and means a generic name, which is inherited and indicates to which family this or that person belongs. The surname, as a rule, indicates the belonging of an individual to the same family and a common ancestor.
Let's go through history
An interesting fact is that in ancient Rome the word "surname" meant a whole community, which consisted of a family of masters and their own, sometimes numerous, slaves. By the way, a similar state of affairs was in Russia. So, for example, at the beginning of the 19th century, serfs received the surname of their master, when signing "free". Today, the surname is the naming that is added to the personal, proper name of each person.
Where do last names come from?
Most surnames consist of a root (base), which had a certain lexical meaning in the distant past. An already formed "second name" may have prefixes, suffixes,endings. The very essence of each surname determines the nickname or personal name of the ancestor from which it began its existence. Some unusual surnames can be quite difficult to trace. However, with a strong desire to disassemble the essence of this integral addition to your name, you can. The various services that exist today, working in the study of the pedigrees of customers, will help you understand the origin of your surname. Such painstaking work is quite accessible for independent investigation, but it will require you to study many historical subtleties, leaf through archival documents, translations and comparisons, as well as patience and free time.
In the original language, family prefixes and endings often mean the word "daughter" or "son". Some modern languages have retained a similar structuring of surnames to this day (for example, the Azerbaijani language). However, most cultures have already formed various adjectival forms as surnames. 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 from each other in form. And in some languages, such as Lithuanian, different forms of surnames define not only men and women, but also distinguish a married woman from a woman.unmarried.
The urgent need for the emergence of a surname (in its modern sense) arose due to the need to regulate the institution of the population and in connection with the ever-expanding economic ties between countries.
There are several most common surnames, including: Lee (more than 100 million people have this surname), Wang (more than 93 million people have become happy owners of this surname), Garcia (10 million people), Smith (4 million people) and Smirnov (about 3 million people).
Fixed last names
The very first fixed surnames appeared in the X-XI centuries in northern Italy, then in France, England, Germany, Denmark. In Russia, there were nicknames, for example, Bull, Goat, Nenash. It was they who gradually grew into permanent surnames. Such unusual surnames-nicknames were used to identify a person as a certain person, but became generally used only at the end of the 14th century. Already in the 16th century, a law was introduced in Russia, according to which it was obligated to have a surname first of all for princes and boyars, and then for nobles and eminent merchant families. For the poorest segments of the population - the peasants - surnames began to be used by the 18th century. But the final assignment of surnames to the peasants occurred only after serfdom was abolished.
Russian surnames
Basically, in Russian, surnames are formed from church or non-church names, or, as mentioned above, from nicknames. For example, on behalf of Peter, the surname Petrov (Petrov's son) comes from, and fromnicknames Hare, the surname Zaitsev (Zaitsev's son) comes from. Very rarely, some names of local objects can be considered the root of a surname, for example, Belozersky (from White Lake), etc. There is a scheme according to which a surname owes its formation to a certain occupation or sign of the person from whom it originates. So, for example, the emergence of such surnames as Melnikova or Portnov can be explained. It is possible that such a scheme leads to the fact that very often unusual surnames can be found in our country.
In accordance with the traditions adopted in Russia, a woman, entering into marriage, takes the name of her husband. However, this state of affairs is not mandatory, it is quite possible to leave your maiden name or take a double surname. Children born in wedlock usually take the father's surname. However, this is not mandatory, since at the request of the parents, the child may have the mother's surname.
Unusual Russian names
Unusual Russian surnames can be listed for a very long time. It should be noted such unusual for the language, which consist of one letter: O, E, Yu. Also very unusual for our country is a new direction in the formation of surnames from one syllable: To, Do, An. Surnames-toponyms, about which we can say that they are rightfully the most unusual surnames, are such as Kamchatka, Saransk, Moscow. To date, there are very few carriers of legendary surnames such as Gagarin, Crusoe, Chatsky, Onegin, Karenin. Perhaps it should be said about those with tworoots: Khvataymukha, Golokhvostov, Shchiborsch. You can also note such unusual surnames as: Sometimes, Nehai, Bite, Razdobudko, Chizh, Stove, Water. And many, many more such interesting names. Undoubtedly, the list of unusual surnames can be endless. But even in such lists, surprises await us. Probably the most unusual surname for a girl that exists in Russian is the surname Muzhik.
American last names
The United States of America is a country that is populated by immigrants. For this reason, the names of Americans owe their origin to different cultural traditions, features and nations. The main source of such for US citizens is the origin of English, French, German, Irish, Scottish surnames. Gradually mixing with Native American, Spanish, Polish, Norwegian, Jewish, Indian, African and others, American surnames are still on the way of their specific formation.
Formation of modern surnames
Modern American surnames are formed in many ways. The most common can be divided into the following types according to their origin from:
- features of a particular area (Fountain, Mountain, Rock);
- occupation or profession (Smith, Forester);
- common nouns (Bush, Young, Rose);
- paternal name (Peterson, Williams, Watson, Johnson);
- place names (Lancaster, England).
Given the multiple transformations of names and surnames in American culture, perhaps one can say that unusual American surnames are as common as they are in Russian culture. I would like to note some interesting trend in the development of the formation of surnames on the American continent. This is an evolving process of replacing traditional American surnames with unusual ethnic-type surnames, such as African-American ones.
