In the Russian Federation, every 10th marriage is mixed. This is due to demographic reasons and the fashionable tendency to enter into an alliance with a foreign citizen. Often ethnic relations are legalized between Russian and visiting students. But such mixed marriages are often doomed to short-lived. As a result, the owners of a “specific” surname may not always know their true roots, especially if the parents categorically do not want to raise the topic of kinship.
You can find out your nationality by last name. But this is a painstaking and long process that is best trusted by specialists. However, the origins can be established by general rules.
History of the name
In past centuries, only aristocrats possessed a pedigree. Ordinary people were not supposed to know their origin, which means they have a surname. Only during the reign of Basil the First, peasants began to receive nicknames that resembled a real name: Semyon Cherny, monk Rublev and others.
The study of the pedigree is of great importance. It not only allows you to find out how to determine nationality by name, but also conveys the historical past.
Since ancient times, the official surname has been used to identify a person and his family. Many marriages have been and are interethnic in nature. The surname allows you to establish the degree of kinship, because it takes into account not only linguistic features, but also a territorial attribute with historical factors.
How to analyze?
To determine the nationality of a person by last name, you should recall the school course of the Russian language. A word consists of a root, a suffix, and an ending. National origin allow you to calculate the first two points.
- In the surname, you need to highlight the root and suffix.
- Establish nationality by suffix.
- If this is not enough, analyze the root of the word.
- Rate the name by degree of belonging to European sources.
Many surnames take into account not only the morphological features of the word, but also the person’s belonging to a certain group: by specialty, personal qualities, the name of the animal or bird.
Nationality by suffix and root
Belonging to the Ukrainian sources confirms the presence of suffixes:
- enko;
- yuko;
- point;
- to;
- ovsky.
Tatar surnames contain suffixes:
- s;
- ev;
- in.
It is not so easy to find out the nationality by name from people with Jewish roots. Its origin is influenced by many factors.
The surname may be based on the name of the profession, animal or bird. For example, Cooper, Potter are Ukrainian designations of a working specialty. Gorobets is a Ukrainian sparrow. Just later, this word was transformed into a surname.
Often you can see surnames consisting of two words, such as Ryabokon, Krivonos and others. They testify to the presence of Slavic roots: Belarusian, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian.
How to identify Jewish roots
Not always the suffix and root of the word help establish nationality by last name. This also applies to Jewish sources. To establish kinship, 2 large groups are distinguished here:
- The roots are "cohen" and "levy."
- Men's names.
The roots of "cohen" and "levy" testify to the belonging of the owner of the family name to the Jews, whose ancestors had the rank of priest. Among them you can meet such: Kogan, Kagansky, Kaplan, Levita, Levitin, Levitan.
The second group contains male names. These include the names of Solomon, Moses and others.
The Jewish people have one feature: during prayer, a person is called by the name of his mother. And nationality is also given here on the maternal side. This interesting historical fact led to the formation of surnames that are based on the feminine. Among them, Sorinson, Rivkin, Tsivyan, Beilis.
Human qualities and a working specialty can answer the question of how to determine nationality by last name. This also applies to Jewish roots. For example, the surname Fayn translated from Hebrew means “beautiful” and characterizes the appearance of a person. And Rabin means "rabbi", that is, professional activity.
European roots
In Russia, you can often find English, French, German sources. To learn a specific nationality by last name certain rules of word formation help.
French origin confirms the presence of De or Le prefixes in the surname.
German formed in three ways:
- from personal names - Walter, Peters, Werner, Hartmann;
- from nicknames (e.g. Klein);
- related to a particular profession (the most common - Schmidt).
Surnames of English origin also have several ways of education:
- depending on the place of residence - Scott, English, Irish, Welsh, Wallace;
- from professional activities of a person - Spooners, Carver, Butler;
- taking into account human qualities - Bad, Sweet, Good, Moody, Bragg.
A separate group is formed by Polish surnames: Kovalchyk, Senkevich, Novak. As a rule, they have the suffixes -chik, -vich, -vak.
Lithuanian surnames have the suffixes -kas, -kene, -kayte, -chus, -chene, -read.
