Few people think about the origins of their surname, although interesting roots and forms of the latter are often found among Russians. Novikov is a common and familiar surname that modestly hides as many as four versions of its appearance.
The origin of the name of Novikov: version one
Historians most often associate the appearance of a surname with the fact that every newcomer in ancient Russia was called Novik. Literally - this is a "new man." That could be called anyone who had just begun to try himself in any business, had recently come to work in a brigade, an artel. They called “Novikov” a “cross”, a believer who came to Orthodoxy from another religion. It is no coincidence that this surname is in the fortieth place in the hundred most common.
Then the nickname "grew" to its owner and already became its permanent name. We will find evidence of this in the old metric books: "Slonim (alien) earthling Dogil Novik", for example.
Various derivatives of the word were also formed, which later also became someone's surnames: Novichkov, Novak, Novinsky, Novakovich, Novosiltsev, Novoselov, Novoselsky, Novodvorsky, Novodvortsev, Novichikhin, Novichenko, Novozhilov, Novozhenov, Novozhenov.
In the list of all-Russian surnames by prevalence, the Novikovs occupy eighth place, behind Smirnov, Ivanov, Kuznetsov, Sokolov, Popov, Lebedev and Kozlov.
Second version
Where else could the surname Novik (Novikov) come from? The origin is associated with the name of a young warrior, a rookie who recently entered the service. Could name so and the young nobleman, the princely servant. In other words, Novik is an old Russian synonym for “page”. It is possible that the young man who received his first officer rank could be nicknamed Novikov.
Third version
There is an opinion that the origin of the name of Novikov is derived from the name of the settlement where the first nickname carriers lived. It is worth noting that ancestors could again endow a surname with a toponym to a person who had just appeared in their society. She talked about the place where the newcomer came or came from.
Novikovs are natives of the settlement of Noviki, located in the Mogilev province. It is believed that this surname is Jewish. In 1806, an imperial decree was issued ordering the eviction of Jews from the villages. People moved to neighboring cities and villages, where, according to tradition, they were given nicknames and place names.
According to pre-revolutionary reports, Noviks settled in the Vitebsk and Mogilev lands.
Fourth version
According to the latest version, the origin of the name of Novikov has something in common with the second - the nickname of a young nobleman. According to genealogy books, there were several ancient noble branches of the Novikovs. Moreover, to emphasize nobility, the emphasis on pronunciation was on the last syllable. Ordinary people with that name emphasized the former.
It is known that one of the genera came from Novgorod, moving in the Uglich and Ryazan lands in the 1600s. Another name of the Novikovs, first mentioned in the XVII century, is "boyar children patriarchal". Its founder is the clerk Danilo Novikov from the Vladimir province. Later, twenty-two clans of Novikov appeared, living in the Yaroslavl, Tambov, Ryazan, Penza, Oryol, Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow provinces.
Thousands of wonderful people glorified the name of Novikov in all spheres of life. Among them are the military, and the Heroes of the Soviet Union, and politicians, and outstanding athletes, and designers, and musicians, and writers, and artists, and leaders, and scientists ...
The exact version explaining the origin of the name of Novikov can no longer be found under the dust of centuries, but we hope that this article helped you learn more about Novikov.