Today’s Belarusian surnames were influenced by certain factors from past centuries. We will find out where they came from and which of them are considered the most popular.
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How were Belarusian surnames formed?
The family transformation began in Belarus in the XIV century. Serfs bore identical generic names depending on the house for which they worked. So, all the farmers of the feudal lord Kozlovsky had the surname Kozlovsky.
The roots of noble origin are indicated by the ending "-ich" (Khodkevich, Toganovich). An important role was played by the name of the settlement where the people lived.
Today there are surnames with the ending "-ovich", which speak of a Christian origin. Such nominal nicknames include Martsinovich, Petrovich, Demidovich, Dolidovich. The same applies to variants with the suffixes “-onok”, “-uk”, “-chik”. Common people wore the names Vaselyuk, Ivanchik.
The suffix "-ka" belonged to surnames that described the nature of man. The forgetful young man was called Zabudzko, the snoring of Sapotsk.
The main part of Belarusian surnames appeared in the XVII-XVIII centuries. True, they were not generally binding. Only in 1930 the family names became hereditary and were legally enshrined. In Belarus, as in Russia, a woman takes her husband's surname after the wedding.
A special role in the formation of generic names was played by the Russian people. Many lands were ruled by Muscovites, who remade surnames in their own way. Nicknames with the endings "-in", "-ov", "-ev" are quite popular in the east of Belarus. Some Belarusians chose them on their own initiative, so Sokolov, Borisov, Trofimov appeared.
Belarusian nicknames are very confused due to the influence of other peoples - Tatars, Russians, Poles and Lithuanians.People interested in the history of the origin of their surname should turn to the science of anthroponymy, which makes it possible to understand the affiliation of generic names for specific reasons.
List of surnames and their meaning
Earlier, the nicknames of Belarusians came from various objects, plants and natural phenomena. Later they became proper names and entrenched as surnames.
Beautiful
The following surnames sound noble:
- Demidovich;
- Vasilevsky;
- Romanovsky;
- Davidovich;
- Stefanovich;
- Ozersky;
- Markovsky;
- Barkovsky.
The beautiful name Abramovich is originally Belarusian.
Funny
Some Belarusian surnames cause a smile on his face. Their appearance was promoted by stormy imagination of peasants. Some of them have lost their significance and are very rare.
These are the following generic names:
- Beetle;
- Pear;
- Borscht;
- Nose;
- Kissel
- Tambourine;
- Goat;
- Pusik.
The generic nickname Borsch belongs to a person who was constantly engaged in empty chatter, and the surname Nose was assigned to someone who had a large organ of smell.
There are funny surnames Kishka, Toad, Wolf, as well as generic nicknames derived from various names throughout Belarus:
- animals (Beaver, Fox, Hare);
- plants (Cabbage, Gryb, Radzka, Bulba);
- birds (Karshun, Kazhan, Verabey, Chy);
- holiday (Kupala, Kolyada);
- objects (Book, Tambourine, Kacharga).
Thus, you can track the origin of the surname and learn about the ancestors of a person, their history, occupation.
Popular
Today, the list of popular generic names includes:
- Tretiak. The word is formed from the name of an old coin.
- Ozersky. The surname belongs to the person whose ancestors lived near the lake.
- Sverdlov. In the past, this generic name belonged to a carpenter or carpenter.
- Pozdnyak. They gave it to a man born late at night.
- Vanin. The surname was the children of Ivan.
- Gomel. The ancestor lived in Gomel.
- Krasik. Such a nickname was given to a person with a pleasant appearance.
- Gnatyuk. The surname came from the name of Ignatius.
- Kovalev. Belongs to people whose ancestors were engaged in the Kuznetsk affair.
- Avdeenko. It happened on behalf of Avdei.
- Yurchak. Such a nickname was given to a fast and sneaky person.
In a small territory of Belarus, the surnames “–enko” dominate; they belong to half of the population. We are talking about Mozyr-Rechitsky Polesie. This is the result of the influence of neighboring Ukraine. Almost all words with the suffix “-enko” in Russian do not differ from Ukrainian (Ostapenko, Onishchenko, Yanchenko, Semchenko). Each of these surnames has its own rich history and plays a huge role in the fate of the people.
Most common
Recognizable surnames of Belarusians end with the following syllables:
- -evich: Latyshkevich, Stasyukevich, Yanukevich, Artsukevich, Barankevich;
- -person: Mikulich, Akulich;
- -sky: Zhulavsky, Galonsky, Dombrowsky, Yablonsky, Rutkovsky, Alshevsky, Lisovsky, Zhukovsky, Kaminsky, Kulikovsky, Glinsky;
- -Yenya: Rudenya, Yaroshenya, Hanenya, Sushchenya, Kienya, Kravchenya, Kovalenya;
- -uk: Poleschuk, Shevchuk, Marchuk, Karpuk, Kuchuk, Melnichuk, Mikhalchuk, Abramchuk;
- -yuk: Semenyuk, Stepanyuk, Bliznyuk, Gavrilyuk, Panasyuk, Martynyuk, Matyuk;
- -ok: God, Checker, Tooth, Titus, Retouch, Zhdanok, Popok, Spinning top;
- -ets: Hawk, Stepanets, Ulasovets, Ivanets, Kapets, Yarets, Braginets;
- -ik: Ash, Matveychik;
- -enok: Gerasimenok, Cossack, Astashenok, Kukharenok, Savenok, Oilcloth, Mikhalenok;
- -onok: Tereshonok, Zaronok, Kitchen
The most common surnames among residents of Belarus are:
- Ivanov (more than 55,000 people);
- Kovalev (about 45,000 people);
- Kozlov (more than 40,000 people).
Among the generic names on "-co" the most common are:
- Bondarenko;
- Kovalenko;
- Marchenko;
- Larchenko;
- Nazarenko;
- Radchenko
- Sidorenko;
- Shevchenko;
- Goosebumps;
- Borisenko;
- Smartly.
Often there are people with the names of Novikov, Vanin, Zaitsev, Morozov, Volkov, Goncharov, Savitsky.
Correct declension
The possibility of declining a surname depends on its end.If the last letter of the word “o”, then it remains unchanged. For example, the surname Golovko is not inclined. If the words end with “-ich,” they will change in the masculine version, and will remain the same when these are female names: there is no Andrei Remizovich, there is no Elena Remizovich.
Generic names are not inclined to “-a”, “-ih”, “-enko”, “-ко”. If the household name is a common noun, then this is not considered an obstacle to changing the ending, for example, Hare, Hare, Hare. This rule applies to Belarusian male surnames. The female generic name in this case is not inclined.
Surnames with the suffix "-etz" are words with a fluent vowel. There are two types of declension of such generic names. Both of them are true.
| Nominative | Molokhovets | Molokhovets |
| Genitive | Molokhovets | Molokhovets |
| Dative | Molokhovets | Molokhovecu |
| Accusative | Molokhovets | Molokhovets |
| Instrumental | Molokhovets | Molokhovecem |
| Prepositional | About Molokhovets | About Molokhovets |
So that the surname does not sound too strange in the Belarusian language, linguists recommend keeping the letter “e”.
Thus, the generic names of Belarus were formed under the influence of many factors. The family system fully reflects the rich and difficult fate of the state and bears traces of various cultural influences. From neighboring countries, only the people of Latvia left the smallest imprint in the collection of family nicknames of Belarusians. Their main part is connected with the Russian, Polish, Tatar and Lithuanian languages.
