How to know how happened your last name

Name – from the Latin, familia – family – generic family name to be assigned to each person. Since ancient times, the name served as a distinctive human trait: the name of the father or ancestor, or profession of its ancestor, some traits or appearance.

Instruction

1. The majority of modern occupations are associated with the names of the founders of the genus in the broad sense. A striking example – the famous Trinity Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov. Removing characteristic for the middle band with the suffix "s" (in a soft option – "EB") obtained the name of one of their ancestors. More accurate information can tell the accent in the last name. For example, the peasants with the last name Smith, it was decided to put the accent on the last syllable, the nobility, and eminent birth right to the second. The clergy changed the name to "Johns".
2. Speaking of clergy. The names with the suffix "sky" can be not only Polish, but also clerical: Epiphany, sign, exaltation of the Holy cross. If you wear such a surname, your ancestor served in the Church dedicated to the Theophany (Baptism, broadnets January 19, new style), icon of the Theotokos "of the Sign" (10 December) or Krestovozdvizhenie (October 14).
3. Slavic names are formed with the diminutive suffix "POC" ("enk"), "PAA", "MC", "Huc": Osipenko, Kovalchuk. In the first case we can speak about the name of the ancestor – Osip (Joseph), the second is about the kind of activities (farrier, blacksmith). Such names are typical for Ukraine.
4. Another suffix is considered to be wrongly attribute names Russified Jews – "in" ("Eun"): Fokin, Fomin, Ivashkin. Doubts about the "Russian-ness" of these names will disappear, if you look at their roots. These are the names: Fock, Thomas, Ivan (dismissive Ivashka). However, these two names are of Jewish origin.
5. It is worth noting that the institution of surnames for the common people was established in Russia only in the Soviet Union. At this time began the active formalization; in particular, if the name was dissonant (and there were many), citizens were able to replace it within the law.
6. Known cases when people from the villages (teenagers 14-15 years) received the names along with the passport. For example, the police officer asked the boy a question: "whose are You?" - "Papanin!". In the passport the name and wrote, and later the young man became an actor.