This ancient surname was carried by representatives of various nationalities, from Russian princes to the Israeli composer. The origin of the surname Yusupov is undoubtedly Turkic. And now most of its representatives come from this ethnic community and from non-Turkic Muslim peoples.
Origin
Most of the names from ancient times were formed from nicknames or the names of one of the distant ancestors. Yusuf is an Islamic prophet who is identified with the Christian biblical prophet Joseph (in the Russian connotation it sounds like Yusup). The surname came from the distorted name of the legendary character.
Of course, many are interested in what the surname Yusupov means. The name Joseph is translated from Hebrew literally as "will be added" or "will be added." The name Yusuf is often translated from Arabic as "God's reward." From the Tatar language, from where this word came to Russian, the name Yosyf translates as “addition from the divine side” or “graceful, beauty”. According to legend, the prophet Yusuf was extraordinarily beautiful.
Surnames
The ancient biblical name can sound differently, for example, in Tatar - Yosyf. In other languages, dialectical development occurs - Yusuf, Yostyk, Yosyk.
On the territory of the Eurasian continent, in the ancient states of the Golden Horde and the Volga Bulgaria, in addition to the canonical form, in everyday life there were folk morphemes (Yusup, Yusuf), later adapted to Slavic phonetics - Esif, Esip and completely Russian Osip. Now few will identify the name Osip with Joseph, if this happens in an out-of-church context.
The origin of the name Yusupov on behalf of Yusup with the addition of the Russian ending "o" shows the Turkic-Tatar roots. The often encountered Belarusian surname Yusufovich comes from the distorted Arabic name Yusuf with the addition of the national suffix "ovich".
Most famous
The ancient Russian princely family originates from Abubekir (about 570-632), the father-in-law of Muhammad and other Muslim rulers of the ancient world. About this in a treatise about his origin wrote one of the last representatives of the genus on the male line. It is only known for certain that the founder of the Yusuf clan was the son of Musa - Murza, the great-grandson of the founder of the Nogai Horde, and his elder wife. It is from him that the name of the Yusupovs originates.
The sons of Murza arrived at the court of Ivan the Terrible and began their service to the Russian sovereigns, while remaining Muslims. To the descendants of the Nogai khans, the city of Romanov (now Tutaev), located on the banks of the Volga, was granted by Tsar Fedor Ioannovich.
In the history of the Yusupov family, there were many military leaders who became famous on the battlefields. The great-grandson of Murza Yusuf Abdullah distinguished himself in battles with the Ottoman Empire and the Commonwealth. In 1681, he was baptized into Orthodoxy, receiving the name Dmitry and the surname Yusupovo-Knyazhevo. He was granted the Russian title of prince, which corresponded to the Muslim Murza. His son Grigory Dmitrievich (1676-1730) - one of the faithful associates of Peter the Great, rose to the rank of general-general, was a senator and head of the Military College. The origin of the Yusupov surname can also be traced from him, since it was he who became the first prince with the surname Yusupov instead of Yusupovo-Knyazhevo. So ordered him to be called Tsar Peter.
National composition
The origin of the Yusupov surname is reliably established, the nationality of the carrier can be very different. Surprisingly, according to some sources, now almost half of the carriers of the ancient surname are of Russian origin. Probably many of them are Russified over the thousand-year history of the Yusupovs. Others simply lived in villages belonging to the richest princely family, whose estates were in almost all regions of Russia. The former include, for example, Boris Grigorievich (1695-1759), the former Moscow governor and chamberlain, or Grigory Dmitrievich (1676-1730) - the general-general.
About 5% are of Ukrainian origin, 10% are Belarusian, 5% are Bulgarian or Serbian. About 30% of the surname bearers are Turkic peoples (Tatars, Bashkirs, Uzbeks) or Muslim (Chechens).
For example, the famous Tatar Yusupovs: Arthur Mayakovich (born 1960) - German, formerly Soviet chess player, and Arthur Rimovich (born 1989) - Russian football player. Many Chechens, including Yusupov Ilman Movsurovich (born 1951), who lives in Sweden, are a poet, writer and journalist. There are generally rare nationalities for this family name, for example, Yusupov Benjamin (born 1962) - an Israeli composer, pianist and conductor. The surname is often found in all Turkic peoples of the North Caucasus and Central Asia. For example, it was worn by the representative of the small Lak people, living mainly in Dagestan, the poet Nuratdin Abakarovich (1931–2000).