As a mass phenomenon, the surname became widespread relatively late - after the fall of serfdom, when there was an urgent need to identify a large number of formerly bonded people. Surnames were given arbitrarily, often formed from a patronymic, locality, the name of the former owner or the name of the estate, as well as the type of activity and even nicknames.
Origin of surnames
The word "surname" itself, translated from Latin, means "family", in the public sense, a surname is a designation of belonging to one large family, common roots. In this sense, the surname existed even among the ancient Romans in the form of a second or third generic name added to the personal (Gaius Julius Caesar - a man named Gai from the Julian clan, nicknamed Caesar).
In Russia, surnames were given on several grounds.
From the middle name - most of the popular Russian surnames were formed in this way (Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov, Stepanov, Antonov, Siluyanov, Andrianov, Anisimov, Prokhorov and Prokopov, Pavlov, Ilyin, Vasiliev and many others). The right of inheritance through the male line ("from the father") has also formed the habit of calling the child by his paternal name, ie. Petrov is the son of Peter and so on. This played an important role in the distribution of inheritance between children from different fathers.
By occupation, this variant of the formation of surnames is characteristic of most European countries: the use of the father's profession for naming offspring has become especially widespread (Kuznetsov, Kovalev, Shvetsov, Portnov, Popov, Stolyarov, Ponomarev, Konovalov, Kazakov and others).
From the names of animals and birds - obviously, in the appearance or behavior of a person there was something from living creatures that gave them their name (Gusev, Petukhov, Ptitsyn, Kurochkin, Zyablikov, Volkov, Medvedev, Lisitsyn, Zaitsev, Surkov, Korovin, Kozlov and etc.).
According to the name of the area - originally the names of the estates were given to noble people, and only then their serfs. Or by cities or villages aliens were named (Moskvin, Pskovsky, Bolshakov, Kazansky, Selyanin, Vladimirov).
The colors are reflected in the surnames Belov, Belyaev, Bely, Chernov, Chernyaev, Krasnov, Serov, Zeleny.
Associative surnames were often given to people forcibly, for example, when issuing passports to illiterate peasants, who could be called Prorekhovs, Odnodvorsky, Dark, Bednov and so on, for "Russified" foreigners - Swedes, Tartars, Polyakov, foundlings and street children - Homeless, Unknown, and after the revolution, many surnames appeared associated with the place where the child was found - Leningradsky, Kursky, Rabotnikov, Proletarsky, Chanov, Naydenov.
The prevalence of surnames
In terms of the frequency of distribution of surnames in Russia, Kuznetsov and derivatives are most often used, this is due to the great importance of the profession of a blacksmith in the life of society, as well as Ivanov - from the most popular name in Russia Ivan. We are talking about surnames of Russian origin, and since the country is multinational, there are many options associated with other Slavic languages.
