Most people often wonder what a surname means. Some are just out of curiosity, while others want to find a connection with their ancestors and important historical events. The surname of each person indicates his belonging to a certain genus, family - this is a historically formed family name. However, not always and not everyone had a similar name - everything started a little differently.
In Russia, the process of the emergence of surnames took quite a decent period of time - from the end of the XIV to the XIX century. This is due to the fact that at that time only representatives of the upper class had the privilege to belong to a certain family, the specific princes and boyars were assigned surnames according to the names of those volosts they owned (for example, Vitebsk, Smolensk). Here it becomes clear what the surname means. The princes were very proud of this, defended and won back their lands.
The next owners of family names were rich, famous merchants and nobles who deserved something, and often just bought this right. They were called by the type of activity or by their nicknames (Tkach, Rybnik, Likhachev). Merchants intended with the help of the received surnameto expand the customer base, customers preferred to work with registered houses that have their own trademark. The clergy had special rights. By the name of the clergyman, it was possible to determine in which parish he served (Nikolsky, Kazansky, etc.). The rest of the population are commoners. They were familyless, had only a first and middle name. In the archives there are often entries: "Peter, Ivanov's son." Obviously on
based on this differentiation, a modern surname was obtained, the origin of which goes far into the past. In addition, ordinary people also had nicknames that were given to them according to their professional affiliation or according to some individual characteristics. Such a surname could easily be lost by changing one's trade or character traits, because of which the nickname was obtained. Later, surnames were also given to former serfs. At first glance, it is not entirely clear what the surname means in this case. But, having figured it out, it becomes clear that they were given the surname of the former owner, because of which there could be many namesakes in the same area who had no family ties at all. In 1888, a decree was issued that obliged everyone to have a surname for inclusion in documents. Many peasants were given a patronymic as the last name.
What does the last name mean? It has an ambiguous meaning. Someone could get it because of the possession of the territory or because of their craft, and someone because of their short stature, clubfoot or other external signs. Thenits informativeness was much greater than now, because by the available surname one could learn a lot about a person. Today it doesn't do much for us. Some carriers themselves do not know what the surname of their family means, how it was obtained, who their ancestors are. Although there are those who dive into the depths of genealogy in search of information, trying to find their roots.
