"What is in my name to you ..." Pushkin once wrote in the album of Karolina Sobanskaya, a beautiful Polish woman known in noble circles, addressing her with one of her best lyric works. To paraphrase the words of a famous poet, let’s say differently: what do our names and surnames mean, why do some seem attractive, harmonious, while others, on the contrary, cause a negative reaction?
Business card
About which is the most popular surname in Russia, one can argue for a long time. After all, how many people, so many tastes, and therefore opinions, are about the same amount. But if we analyze the statistical data and remember that the personification of all Russian is “Ivan”, then there is nothing surprising in another fact. All derivatives of it are also high-frequency and widespread.
From this it is clear that the most popular surname in Russia, a business card, so to speak, of domestic anthroponymy is Ivanov. It has been worn for many centuries by peasants - the largest class of the country's population. Even this saying has developed: "We have Ivanov, like a grebes-mushrooms." What is noteworthy: in order to “ennoble” the common origin of the surname, some of its owners in the late 19th and early 20th centuries began to change the stress from the last syllable to the first, from the sound “o” to “a”. For example, one of the brightest poets of the Silver Age, Vyacheslav Ivanov, did this. Such a substitution did not affect the fact that this was the most popular surname in Russia, and it remains to this day.
Smirnov from Smirny
Probably, now many will be surprised that once among the common people there was the name Smirny. So parents in large, noisy and noisy families, where the children had peas in the field, and they did not differ in special obedience, distinguished calm, silent, non-obstinate offspring. Later, as usual, a nickname was formed from the name. And from it already turned out one more most popular surname in Russia - the Smirnovs. She became famous for her numerous representatives in the Northern Volga region, in the Kostroma and Yaroslavl, as well as in other neighboring regions and regions.
When a profession defines a surname
Often nicknames (the initial names of surnames) were given to people depending on what
kind of occupation they were engaged in. For example, blacksmiths in Russia were valued almost worth their weight in gold. This profession was considered very prestigious, honorable, respected. Not a single village could do without a blacksmith. Therefore, the most popular surname in Russia, along with those already listed, is the Kuznetsovs. At first, that was the name of the children whose father worked in the forge. Then the nickname received the status of a full name of its own. By the way, there are many similar analogies in foreign anthroponymy. We see especially vivid examples among the Germans. The surname Müller, which means the miller, was worn by almost half of the inhabitants of Germany, and it is as revealing as the Kuznetsovs or Ivanovs. But Fisher (remember the great chess player?) Is a fisherman, Schmidt is also a blacksmith.
Feathering
Popular Russian surnames, of course, do not end there. The Romanovs are widely known, the “high-frequency” Popovs, Morozovs, Ermakovs, Tikhonovs.
Entire clans take the origins of their nicknames from the settlements where their ancestors first settled. And here is another phenomenon of onomastics: the most popular Russian surname of "bird" origin is Sokolov. There is nothing to surprise here. Hunting is not only one of the main means of obtaining food from the ancient Slavs, including Russian peasants, but also from the inhabitants of villages of later centuries. Falconry is our national fun. At the court of the king-father, as well as the richest noblemen (boyars), there was a falconer - a special position. Those who occupied it had to train and keep in proper form hunting falcons. Of the same series were the names of Orlov and Lebedev, popular in Russia. Anyway, the names of birds and animals are one of the main sources of our nicknames. The Volkovs, Olenins, Lvivs, Medvedevs, Karpovs, Somovs, Ershovs, etc., are clear evidence of this.
It's curious
Linguist Boris Genrikhovich Unbegaum at the beginning of the last century, having analyzed metric data and address books of 1910, determined, as they say now, the top hundred of the most common Russian surnames in the state. Opened the list, of course, Ivanov. Then came the Vasilyevs and Petrovs, Smirnovs and Mikhailovs. That is, the principle already described by us worked - from name to nickname.