What do Slavic Last Names Mean?

K. T.   Wed Oct 14, 2009 9:56 pm GMT
In Japanese people often have names related to location. Murayama is Mura plus Yama, village plus mountain.

Tanaka-Looks like "In the Rice Field"

Mori=Forest.

Since the characters often look like what's being described, it's a great visual reminder of the name when seen with Chinese characters.

First names are a bear, though. Just the last names are easy.

In German, French, and English, the last names are sometimes related to profession-Kaufmann, for example. What about Slavic last names?
.....   Thu Oct 15, 2009 12:40 am GMT
Same in Slavic languages.
K. T.   Thu Oct 15, 2009 1:31 am GMT
Thank-you.
JPT   Thu Oct 15, 2009 3:28 am GMT
It varies, but in Czech most of them are descriptive terms, some of the most common names in the Czech Republic mean the following:

Novak - Newman
Svoboda - Freeman
Novotny - Newman again basically
Cerny - Black
Nemec - German
Polak - Pole
Cech - Czech
Sokol - Falcon
Skoda - pitiful
Nedved - Bear
Kovar - Blacksmith
Dvorak - owner of a courtyard
Horak - highlander, from the moutains
Vesely - funny

There are also numerous German surnames in the Czech Republic
K. T.   Thu Oct 15, 2009 3:52 am GMT
Thanks, JPT. I found a site for some Slavic names, but not all countries. I don't know any Czech, but I like Slavic languages, so I see some things and names I recognize. Nedved is really interesting-especially since it starts with "n", not "m" like in Ukrainian and Russian. I did not know that Dvorak meant that-also informative.

Interesting stuff.
russo turisto   Thu Oct 15, 2009 12:51 pm GMT
Russian surnames are usually the same, usually they are in Genitive case showing the belonging of something to something, or they can be adjectives made of nouns, verbs etc.

the most widespread Russian surname according to the Census is

-smirnov(a) - meaning son or daughter of a quiet person.

Putin - means someone belonging to the way/road, someone who goes along the way.

Stalin means a man made of steel

Tolstoy is an old Russian adjective for "fat".
K. T.   Thu Oct 15, 2009 8:02 pm GMT
Thank-you. I didn't realize that about Putin, but it makes sense because of the "put" part which has something to do with travel-like Sputnik. Stalin reminds me of "Stahl"; I just learned the meaning of "Tolstoy" yesterday-interesting.

Your post helped me to figure something out, so thanks again.
guest   Fri Oct 16, 2009 6:29 am GMT
I like Pavel Novotny
russo turisto   Fri Oct 16, 2009 12:29 pm GMT
K.T. you are right. sPUTnik and PUTin are related words. Moreover this is a common Indo-European root.
In English it's PATH, so Putin can be translated as "Paths" probably.
Guest   Fri Oct 16, 2009 1:28 pm GMT
Pathson.
K. T.   Fri Oct 16, 2009 9:25 pm GMT
Path, hmmm. That's interesting. I wonder if there is a dictionary of IE roots. I'll have to look for that. Thanks for the idea.
question   Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:23 pm GMT
what does the endings -ic´ means in Croatian and Slovenian? Do those endings occur in some other Slavonic languages or only in those two?
culo   Sat Oct 17, 2009 12:04 am GMT
<<what does the endings -ic´ means in Croatian and Slovenian? Do those endings occur in some other Slavonic languages or only in those two? >>


Russian has it also but it's included in the patronymic rather than the surname.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin = Vladimir, son of Vladimir, Putin
Dmitry Anatolevich Medvedev = Dmitry, son of Anatoly, Medvedev
culo   Sat Oct 17, 2009 12:07 am GMT
What do Russians do when they move to another country? How do they work the female/male surname changing?

For example, a husband and wife Dmitry Petrov and Anna Petrova???
Does Anna Petrova write her name in official documents as Anna Petrov, or does she still write it as Anna Petrova even though it then differs from the husband's surname?
K. T.   Sat Oct 17, 2009 12:18 am GMT
I used to live in an area where it wasn't uncommon for people to have "ik" as part of their last name. Is that Polish? A patronymic used as a last name? They weren't Russian.