To determine nationality by last name, you need to remember the morphemic analysis from the Russian language school curriculum. A direct indication of nationality is contained in the root of the surname and its suffixes. For example, the suffix "yuko" in the name Shumeyko is proof of the Ukrainian origin of the family.
You will need
A sheet of paper, a pen, the ability to do morphemic analysis of a word, an etymological dictionary of the Russian language, a dictionary of foreign words.
Instruction manual
1
Take a piece of paper and a pen. Write your last name and select all morphemes in it: root, suffix, ending. This preparatory phase will help you determine what nationality your family name belongs to.
2
Pay attention to the suffix. Since Ukrainian is more often found in Ukrainian than other foreign surnames, it can be the following suffixes: "enko", "yuko", "ovsk / evsk", "ko", "point". That is, if your surname is Tkachenko, Shumeyko, Petrovsky or Gulevsky, Klitschko, Marochko, distant relatives should be sought in Ukraine.
3
Look at the root of the word if the suffix did not answer the question of what nationality is your last name. Often its basis is a particular profession, subject, animal, bird. An example is the Russian surname Gonchar, Ukrainian Gorobets (translated into Russian - Sparrow), Jewish Rabin (which means "rabbi").
4
Count the number of roots in a word. Sometimes a surname consists of two words. For example, Ryabokon, Beloshtan, Krivonos. Similar names belong to the Slavic peoples (Russian, Belarus, Ukrainians, Poles, etc.), but are found in other languages.
5
Rate your surname in terms of belonging to the Jewish people. Common Jewish surnames include the roots “Levi” and “Cohen”, found in the names Levitan, Levin, Kogan, Katz. Their owners descended from the ancestors who were in the rank of priests. There are also surnames that originated from masculine (Moses, Solomon) or feminine names (Rivkin, Beilis), or were formed from the merger of the masculine name and suffix (Abrahams, Jacobson, Mandelstam).
6
Remember if Tatar blood flows in your veins? If your surname consists of a combination of Tatar words and the suffixes "in", "s" or "ev", then the answer is obvious - there were Tatars in your family. This is especially clearly seen on the example of such surnames as Bashirov, Turgenev, Yuldashev.
7
Determine which language the last name belongs to, based on the following tips:
- if it has the prefix "de" or "le", look for roots in France;
- if the surname hears the English name of the territory (for example, Welsh), the quality of the person (Sweet) or profession (Carver), relatives should be sought in the UK;
- The same rules apply to German surnames. They are educated from the profession (Schmidt), nicknames (Klein), name (Peters);
- Polish surnames can be found out based on the sound - Kovalchyk, Senkevich.
Look in the dictionary of foreign words in case of difficulties with assigning a surname to a particular language.
note
If your surname is of Jewish origin, it can determine the territory of the ancestors. So, Slavic Jews bear the names Davidovich, Berkovich, Rubinchik. In sound they are very similar to Russian middle names and diminutive names of objects. Surnames of Polish Jews are distinguished by suffixes. For example, Padva.
Useful advice
In order to compose a family tree or find distant relatives, but not to make a mistake in interpreting the surname by nationality, one should rely not only on the root and suffix, but also on the environment of life. After all, the most common name Ivan has a Hebrew past, and the names formed from him are found among Russians, Maris, Mordvinians, Chuvashs — Ivanaev, Vankin, Ivashkin, Ivakin, etc. Therefore, do not be too lazy to look into the etymological dictionary.
- what nationality does the name have
- If your last name ends in ov, then I’m you
