How to learn about the origin of the names

Latin familia means family, but for centuries it meant not only a community of people United by a close relationship, joint residence and housekeeping, but also of slaves, of serfs, belonging to the owners. Thus, the name is not only a sign of inherited kinship, but an indication of what sort of belonged to its carrier.

Probably each of us at least once thought about how to learn about the origin of their names. Of course, it's safest to learn the secret of their last names, making family tree, learning the history of his family. However, it is quite expensive, besides requiring considerable expenditure of time and effort.

I would like to warn against attempts to use the services of many paid services, widely available on the Internet. For a small fee they propose to be allegedly your family tree, it's blatant cheating.

It is much easier to perform the most private methods of education the names and draw conclusions as to the origin of their own names.

Thus, present methods of forming surnames:
1. from a person's appearance: Ryzhov, Krivoshein;
2. personal qualities: Bystrov, Smirnov;
3. from events in a person's life: Nadenichek;
4. from the profession of the person: potters, blacksmiths;
5. from place names, usually names, places of residence: Vyazemskiy, Shuya, Ozerov;
6. from the names of historical events: Nevsky;
7. from the names of religious holidays: Christmas;
8. names: Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov;
9. from the names of animals, birds, plants, fishes, Smorodin, Medvedev;
10. from the nickname: Krivoshchekov.