In our time, there are many people who are interested in their ancestry. Often, they are helped to make new discoveries by studying the history of the names of their close and distant relatives.
The famous philologist V. A. Nikonov compiled a huge dictionary of Russian surnames. The scientist's work is evidence of how rich and diverse the world of this category of anthroponyms is.
Time of appearance of surnames
The very first carriers of surnames were the inhabitants of northern Italy, they appeared with them in the X-XI centuries. Then the active process of assigning hereditary names to people captured France, England, Germany. The European population, primarily the noble feudal lords, gradually acquired their own family name.
In Russia, before the abolition of serfdom, many peasants did not have surnames, although already in the 16th century. the law prescribed their compulsory receipt for the princely and boyar families, then this extended to the noble and merchant class. By a decree of the Senate in 1988, it was noted that having a specific surname is the duty of every Russian person. The final process of the formation of family names was completed already under Soviet rule, in the thirties of the XX century.
How people were called in Russia before the appearance of surnames
Before the appearance of surnames in Russia, people had only personal names, at first non-canonical, which in the modern sense should be attributed to nicknames: for example, Nezhdan, Guban, Zayats, Nenasha. Then, in the second half of the XVI century. the Slavic names were replaced by the new names of people recorded in the Mesyatslov who were numbered as saints or became venerable church leaders. Non-Christian names finally fell out of use in Russia after a century.
To distinguish between people, they began to come up with middle names, mentioning the father (in our opinion, patronymic): for example, Ivan Petrov's son, later - Ivan Petrovich.
Sources of occurrence
The nobility who owned the lands received surnames, depending on the names of the specific principalities that belonged to them (Rostov, Tverskoy, Vyazemsky), many boyar surnames came from nicknames (Lobanov, Golenishchev), and later there could be double names that combined both a nickname and a name lot. Among the first noble families were those borrowed from other languages: for example, the Akhmatovs, Yusupovs, Lermontovs, Fonvizins.
The surnames of the representatives of the clergy most often ended in -th and indicated the place of parish (Pokrovsky, Dubrovsky), but sometimes they were simply invented for euphony.
The peasant population of Russia began to receive surnames everywhere after the abolition of serfdom. But in the north of the Russian state, the Novgorod lands, they arose earlier (suffice it to recall the great scientist MV Lomonosov). This is explained by the fact that there was no serfdom in these territories.
Most of the peasants acquired their family name, thanks to the creativity of officials, who were assigned by the tsar's decree to give the entire population of Russia surnames. As a rule, they were formed by the name of the father or grandfather. Many came from nicknames (Malyshev, Smirnov), were associated with the occupation (Goncharov, Melnikov) or place of birth and residence. Serfs who became free sometimes received the names of their former owners (usually with minor changes). It was not uncommon that generic names were simply invented by smart officials.
The last "nameless" people
In 20-40 years of XX century. in the northern territories of the Soviet Union there were still "no surnames". Receiving the main document proving the identity of a citizen, a passport, the Chukchi, Evenks and Koryaks became Ivanovs, Petrovs, Sidorovs - thus the imagination of Soviet officials was manifested, on whose shoulders the duty to "formalize" these nationalities lay.
