It is usually difficult to establish exactly where the name of a particular person came from if the story is not preserved in family traditions and documents. The origin of the surname Cherkasov is mostly carried out on behalf of the founder of the clan. Although it is also possible variants of origin from the name of the area and even the surname of the master, if the distant ancestors were serfs.
Main version
The origin of the surname Cherkasov usually comes from the old Russian nickname Cherkas. This is a fairly common and possibly basic version. So called the inhabitants of the right-bank part of modern Ukraine (meaning the right bank of the Dnieper River). The city they founded was called Cherkasy, although it may well be that the toponym was primary. According to a preserved old legend: "Cherkasy crossed the Don and, settling there, built the city of Cherkassky."
People often ask: is the origin of the Cherkasov surname related to the Circassians? There is no definite answer. It is possible that someone in the ancestors had representatives of this Caucasian nationality, whose name later began to be used as a surname.
The ancient origin of the surname Cherkasov
The ancient settlement was founded during the time of Kievan Rus and is located 180 km south of Kiev. The first written records in the ancient Russian chronicles and letters of the Crimean Khan Mengli I Giray belong to the XII century.
Therefore, the Cherkasovs can be proud of the antiquity of their surname, many of which left a noticeable mark in Russian history. The great Russian poet Pushkin in his poem "Poltava" calls the Ukrainian beauty Maria Kochubey "the beauty of Cherkasy daughters", in the sense of beauty from the right-bank part of Ukraine.
Last name
After the baptism of Rus, the distant ancestors of the East Slavic peoples had a practice in addition to giving the baptismal name a nickname. Since there were a relatively small number of church names, and even in those days they were often repeated, nicknames were given by characteristics, profession or locality, where new residents came from. Therefore, it is obvious that immigrants from the right-bank part of the Dnieper received the nickname Cherkas. It could be both residents of the city of the same name, and Cossacks from the Dnieper region (as they began to call them from the XV-XIII century). The origin of the surname Cherkasov indicates with a high probability that the ancestors once lived in the territory of modern Ukraine.
Around the same time, first among the aristocracy, and then just rich people, generic names began to appear and be passed on from generation to generation. This was due to the need for identification in the inheritance of titles and estates. Usually for this, suffixes -s, -ev, -in were simply added to the father’s nickname. The origin of the surname Cherkasov in this case indicates a noble and wealthy founder of the clan nicknamed Cherkas.
Spread
The main population of the country for a long time continued to do with nicknames and nicknames. The clergy, which was involved in the registration of newborns, marriages and the dead, contributed in particular to the common people.
The mass receipt of surnames by peasants, who made up the majority of the population, occurred after the abolition of serfdom. In 1888, a special Senate decree was issued obliging each full person to receive a surname. During this period, many former serfs received surnames by the name of the estate or their owner. Their origin of the surname Cherkasov they could be obliged to a nobleman with the same surname.
Among the bearers of the surname there were many loyal defenders of the fatherland, scientists, statesmen. But for many, the most famous Cherkasov is an actor who played Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible.