Nowadays it is difficult to imagine that a few centuries ago, not every person had a family name. Our generation takes the generic name as something commonplace and taken for granted. We don’t think about where our surname came from, what its history is, how it was formed. And she can tell a lot about our distant ancestors: these are customs, culture, place of residence, nickname, character traits. Each generic name has its own interesting, amazing and unique story. The article will reveal the secrets of the origin of the surname Nechaev.
The origin of the family name
The origin of the surname Nechaev is connected with the secular Slavic name Nechay. Names of this kind were added to baptismal names; they were, as a rule, used more often and assigned to a child for his whole life. The secular name was a tribute to the ancient tradition among the Slavs - the dual-name. The main purpose of this method and form of the name was to hide the church name of the child from evil spirits and demons.
Worldly names were replaced by Church Orthodox even in official documents. For example, in the annals there are records: "the son of Fedor was born to the prince, whose name was Yaroslav." The surname Nechaev is formed from the secular masculine name Nechay, which arose from the verb “did not expect, ” that is, “did not wait.”
In ancient Russia, there were a huge number of names that were associated with the circumstances of the birth of the baby. For example, the children were numbered in order, called Old Russian or Latin terms. There were names that were formed from the names of the days of the week. But a special group was made up of naming conventions, which were formed directly from the conditions and reasons for the birth of a child. For example, Nenarok, Bogdan, Pozdneev, Nechay. That is, the origin of the surname Nechaev is also associated with this group of naming.
Thus, an accidental, unexpected child in the family could get the nickname Nechay. Parents did not expect his birth (did not expect). The nickname after a while formed the basis of the family name.
Noble family
The family name is formed from the so-called popular name of the people, which was supposed to hide the true baptismal naming from the evil spirits. According to superstitious custom, in order not to tempt fate, parents gave the children names with the exact opposite meaning of what they wanted for the children. Hoping to have a healthy and beautiful baby, many parents called him Nechay.
Some representatives of the Nechayev surname were untitled Russian nobles who started from the Moskotinyevs and Plescheevs. The Nechayevs clan is included in parts 4, 2, and 3 of the genealogy book of the Saratov, Moscow, Kostroma, and Simbirsk provinces. There are several tribal branches of the Nechaevs, the occurrence of which date back to the 17th century, and 33 genera of a later origin.
Toponymic version
There is another version of the origin of the surname Nechaev - toponymic, that is, associated with the name of a geographical object. For example, in the Orichevsky district there is the village of Nechaevy, in the Kirov region - the village of Nechaevschina. The surname is quite common and is found everywhere throughout Russia.
Sergey Nechaev: revolutionary and nihilist
He was the leader of the People’s Reprisal group, a representative of revolutionary terrorism. Sergey was born in 1847 in a poor family. Mother died when he was 8 years old, his father remarried, and Sergey soon had brothers. From an early age, he knew what social injustice and inequality were. At age 18, Nechaev moved to the capital, where he got a job as assistant historian Mikhail Pogodin. A year later, he passes the exam and begins to teach at the parish school. Three years later, he becomes a free listener at St. Petersburg University, where he gets acquainted with literature of a revolutionary nature. He learns about the Decembrists, Petrashevists. A year later, he fully formed his goal - the social and political revolution.
It is known that people follow the leader, therefore, he needed to gain authority, and for this he needed to serve a prison sentence, as he believed. In 1869, he organized the murder of his friend and ally, student Ivanov I.I., the reason was the refusal of Ivanov to carry out his order. The crime was uncovered in a few months, all the perpetrators were arrested and put on trial, however, the main culprit - Nechaev managed to escape abroad. But on a denunciation, he was arrested and sent to Russia, where he was sentenced to 20 years of hard labor and civil death penalty. However, Nicholas II abolished the punishment and sentenced him to life imprisonment in the fortress. After 13 years, the revolutionary died in prison from illness, loneliness and malnutrition.
