Many people are very interested to know the origin of their surname. Some manage to do this without much difficulty, but someone has to seek help from knowledgeable professionals in such matters.
Origin of Kuznetsov surname
Many old Russian middle names were formed by naming the main occupation of the head of the family, whether he was a plowman or a baker. So the name of Kuznetsov came from one of the most important and revered occupations in Russia - blacksmithing.
Knowing the traditions of the old time, we can confidently say that the first person named after him was a blacksmith by profession, and since his blacksmith was supposed to be in every village - the prevalence of this surname is understandable.
This surname also has other derivatives. For example, Kuznechikhin’s middle name, which came from the word “blacksmith”, that is, the spouse of a blacksmith, or Kuznichenkov, Kuznetskaya or Kuznetsovskaya.
In Russia there is only one surname formed from the profession, which can boast of more popularity - Popova (derived from "pop" or "wife of the priest"). But, in fact, the name of Kuznetsov is known not only in Russia. So, analogues of this middle name are popular all over the world.
The Ukrainian surname Koval and its derivatives (Kovalchuk, Kovalskaya, Kovalevich, Kovalchik) are spread to varying degrees in Russia, Belarus and Poland. The American surname Smith has the same origin with the surname Kuznetsova and is the most common among the population of all English-speaking countries from Canada to New Zealand. The German counterpart Schmidt also originally belonged to those people who were engaged in blacksmithing. Of course, in the modern world this tradition no longer works, but if you live under this name, it means that one of your ancestors was a blacksmith.
History reference
One of the earliest references to this family name dates back to 1466. It was received by the Pskov blacksmith Clementi Sestorikov. It is this version of the origin of the name of Kuznetsov that is considered the most reliable.
In 1585, people lived under the name Kuznetsovs in the Sysola river basin, who belonged to a group of Komi peoples. It is not known whether the origin of the Kuznetsov surname is directly connected with this region, but some scholars believe that it was from this territory that the Kuznetsovs settled throughout Russia. Approximately the relocation began in 1646-1647, as evidenced by the increase in the number of mentions of this family name in historical sources after this year.
Later, in honor of people with this surname, they began to call villages and villages, streets and driveways. In December 1967, a monument to Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov, a Soviet intelligence agent and saboteur, who died in battle in Ukraine, appeared in the courtyard of an agricultural college. And in September 2009, a monument to another bearer of the name Kuznetsov, the writer Anatoly Vasilyevich, appeared in Kiev.
The prevalence of the name Kuznetsov
In 1917, Kuznetsova was the most popular surname in 17 volosts of the Penza province. In total, about 69 thousand people lived in that area and more than 1000 families carried this surname. It was also spread over a vast territory south and east of Moscow. So, in the Tula region, for example, for every thousand inhabitants there were up to forty Kuznetsovs. At that time only two other families - Ivanovs and Popovs - could boast more popularity.
According to data from 1964, 78 thousand people with this surname lived in Moscow alone, which makes it the second most popular. Only the Ivanovs were able to overtake the Kuznetsovs, of whom at that time there were more than 90 thousand people.
To date, the Kuznetsovs are in fifth place on the list of Russia's most popular surnames, from where they rose from the twenty-third (after the census in 2002).
