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Church families. Christian names

The first surnames among Russians appeared in the 13th century, but most remained “nicknameless” for another 600 years. Enough name, patronymic and profession.

The fashion for surnames came to Rus' from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. As early as the 12th century, Veliky Novgorod established close contacts with this state. Noble Novgorodians can be considered the first official owners of surnames in Rus'.

The earliest of known lists dead with surnames: “Novgorodets is the same pade: Kostyantin Lugotinits, Gyuryata Pineshchinich, Namst, Drochilo Nezdylov son of a tanner ...” (The first Novgorod chronicle of the senior version, 1240). Surnames helped in diplomacy and in accounting for the troops. So it was easier to distinguish one Ivan from another.

Boyar and princely families

In the XIV-XV centuries, Russian princes and boyars began to take surnames. Surnames were often formed from the names of lands. Thus, the owners of the estate on the Shuya River became Shuisky, on Vyazma - Vyazemsky, on Meshchera - Meshchersky, the same story with Tversky, Obolensky, Vorotynsky and other -skys.

It must be said that -sk- is a common Slavic suffix, it can be found in Czech surnames (Komensky), Polish (Zapototsky), and Ukrainian (Artemovsky).

The boyars also often received their surnames from the baptismal name of the ancestor or his nickname: such surnames literally answered the question “whose?” (meaning “whose son?”, “what kind?”) and had possessive suffixes in their composition.

The suffix -ov- joined worldly names ending in hard consonants: Smirnoy - Smirnov, Ignat - Ignatov, Petr - Petrov.

The suffix -Ev- joined the names and nicknames that have at the end soft sign, -y, -ey or h: Medved - Medvedev, Yuri - Yuryev, Begich - Begichev.

The suffix -in- received surnames formed from names with vowels "a" and "ya": Apukhta -Apukhtin, Gavrila - Gavrilin, Ilya -Ilyin.

Why Romanovs - Romanovs?

The most famous surname in the history of Russia - the Romanovs. Their ancestor Andrei Kobyly (a boyar from the time of Ivan Kalita) had three sons: Semyon Zherebets, Alexander Elka Kobylin and Fedor Koshka. The Zherebtsovs, Kobylins and Koshkins, respectively, descended from them.

After several generations, the descendants decided that the surname from the nickname is not noble. Then they first became the Yakovlevs (after the great-grandson of Fyodor Koshka) and the Zakharyins-Yuryevs (after the names of his grandson and another great-grandson), and remained in history as the Romanovs (after the great-great-grandson of Fyodor Koshka).

Aristocratic surnames

The Russian aristocracy originally had noble roots, and among the nobles there were many people who came to the Russian service from abroad. It all started with surnames of Greek and Polish-Lithuanian origin at the end of the 15th century, and in the 17th century they were joined by the Fonvizins (German von Wiesen), Lermontovs (Scottish Lermont) and other surnames with Western roots.

Also, foreign stems for surnames that were given to illegitimate children of noble people: Sherov (French cher “dear”), Amantov (French amant “beloved”), Oksov (German Ochs “bull”), Herzen (German Herz “heart ").

Born children generally "suffered" a lot from the imagination of their parents. Some of them didn't bother to invent new surname, but simply shortened the old one: so Pnin was born from Repnin, Betskoy from Trubetskoy, Agin from Elagin, and the “Koreans” Go and Te came out of Golitsyn and Tenishev. The Tatars also left a significant mark on Russian surnames. That is how the Yusupovs (descendants of Murza Yusup), Akhmatovs (Khan Akhmat), Karamzins (Tatar. Kara "black", Murza "lord, prince"), Kudinovs (distorted Kazakh-Tatars. Kudai "God, Allah") and other.

Surnames of servicemen

Following the nobility, simple service people began to receive surnames. They, like the princes, were also often called according to their place of residence, only with the suffixes “simpler”: families living in Tambov became Tambovtsevs, in Vologda - Vologzhaninovs, in Moscow - Moskvichevs and Moskvitinovs. Some were satisfied with a “non-family” suffix denoting an inhabitant of this territory in general: Belomorets, Kostromich, Chernomorets, and someone received the nickname without any changes - hence Tatyana Dunay, Alexander Galich, Olga Poltava and others.

Surnames of the clergy

The surnames of priests were formed from the names of churches and Christian holidays (Christmas, Assumption), and were also artificially formed from Church Slavonic, Latin and Greek words. The most amusing of them were those that were translated from Russian into Latin and received the "princely" suffix -sk-. So, Bobrov became Kastorsky (lat. castor "beaver"), Skvortsov - Sturnitsky (lat. sturnus "starling"), and Orlov - Aquilev (lat. aquila "eagle").

Peasant surnames

Surnames of peasants late XIX ages were rare. The exceptions were non-serf peasants in the north of Russia and in the Novgorod province - hence Mikhailo Lomonosov and Arina Rodionovna Yakovleva.

After the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the situation began to improve, and by the time of universal passportization in the 1930s, every inhabitant of the USSR had a surname.

They were formed according to already proven models: suffixes -ov-, -ev-, -in- were added to names, nicknames, habitats, professions.

Why and when did they change names?

When the peasants began to acquire surnames, for superstitious reasons, from the evil eye, they gave the children not the most pleasant surnames: Nelyub, Nenash, Bad, Bolvan, Kruchina. After the revolution, queues of those who wanted to change their surname to a more euphonious one began to form at the passport offices.

Initially, surnames did not exist in Rus'. What in the ancient chronicles looked like modern Russian surnames had a completely different meaning. So, for example, Ivan Petrov, translated into modern language meant Ivan son of Petrov (Ivan Petrovich). In addition, the frequently encountered forms - Shemyaka, Chobot and even Ghoul, were personal nicknames that were given to a person and quite rarely passed on to his descendants.

Common Russian surnames of the upper class denoted either belonging to a royal or princely family (Rurikovichi, Gedeminovichi), or referred to the places where the family of a noble person came from (Vyazemsky, the city of Vyazma; Belsky, the city of Bely; Rzhevsky, the city of Rzhev).

The formation of generic names began due to the combination of the root stem of the name of the founder of the genus or his nickname and suffixes, prefixes, endings.

The basis of the surname of men and girls allows you to identify how it appeared. The most common suffixes involved in the creation of generic names are "-ov / ova", "-ev / eva", "-in / ina". Other popular suffixes are "-yn / yn", "-sky / ska", "-sky", "-tsky / tskoy / tskaya".

500 years of surname formation

The family was first given a name in the 15th century. The stage of assigning a generic name in XIX century. The history of the formation of surnames in Rus' is very similar to the process of the emergence of surnames in other states. The sources for creating the generic name were geographical names, professions of the founder of the family, crafts and others. First of all, they were awarded to representatives of the upper class, while the peasants and the poor received them last.

Many surnames are not subject to the simplest analysis and quick decoding. They require careful study of the nuances. This is mainly due to the history of a particular genus. All Russian surnames have a root and an additional particle. The root is always endowed lexical meaning. So, in the surname Ivanov, he is the name Ivan, Kuznetsov - the profession is a blacksmith. The bulk of family names have a clear answer to the question "Whose?" or “Whose will you be?”.

The most beautiful names of representatives of the clergy

Representatives of the clergy received beautiful male generic names in the second half of the 18th century. The root basis in this case was the name of the parish or church. Up to this point, the ministers of the church did not need a generic name. It was customary to call them Father Fedor, Father Alexander, and so on. From the 18th century, they were given surnames like Rozhdestvensky, Uspensky, Pokrovsky, Blagoveshchensky, and so on.

Many clergy received a family name when they graduated from the seminary. In this case, it could sound like Athensky, Kiparisov, Tikhomirov and others. Under such circumstances, the most thoughtful surnames were selected for the clergy. If the student had a bad reputation, he was awarded a name, the meaning of which was negative. Basically, they came from bad biblical characters.

Count's surnames or Orthodox

Women's surnames in Rus', as history tells us, were formed in the same way as men's - through suffixes and prefixes. The most popular generic names for girls come from proper names, as well as the names of birds and animals. Count's surnames sound good, but no less beautiful and neutral. Such beautiful generic names as Illarionova, Vladimirova, Romanova, Pavlova originated from proper names.

The list of Russian female surnames derived from birds and animals includes the most sonorous of them: Strizhenova, Sokolova, Orlova, Lebedev. Many popular endowed deep meaning, such as Generous or Wise, Slavic. Among them, unusual ones, such as the Motherland, can also be found. All beautiful generic names for girls are contained in the Dictionary of Russian Surnames, where they are presented alphabetically.

The most noble family names bear the Orthodox connotation - Resurrection, Preobrazhenskaya, Rozhdestvenskaya.

Strength and nobility, vocation and profession

Male surnames are of great importance in life modern man. Every girl strives to acquire a worthy surname after marriage. Of course, not only beautiful count family names are popular with men, but also those that carry a semantic load. Surnames based on the names of church parishes, geographical objects and proper names are recognized as excellent. It's hard to argue with that.

The surnames Makovetsky, otherwise the owner of Makovets and Bondarchuk, who are descended from a professional nickname, are quite famous today in cinematographic circles. Other well-known male generic names are Tikhonravov, Ilyin, Dobrovolsky, Pobedonostsev. As it is easy to see, in Russian history the cultural and politicians with great generic names.

Each generic name has its own history and meaning. An example of beautiful surnames based on a geographical name are Beloozerov, Shuisky, Gorsky, Vyazemsky. The origin of Russian surnames was initially associated with the laying in them of a meaning that will be passed down from generation to generation.

Orthodoxy gave many interesting surnames

The dictionary of Russian surnames contains quite interesting and unusual examples. Many of these generic names originally belonged to the Orthodox clergy. This includes such surnames as Gilyarovsky, Luminantov, Hyacintov, Ptolemy and Tsezarev. With each century, the number of unusual surnames increases. It can be seen that unusual generic names are of Muslim and Buddhist origin. Do not be surprised, since the emergence of such a phenomenon as surnames on the globe occurred at about the same time and in equal circumstances.

Such generic names are very beautiful and many of them are popular today. Of course, most often there are people with "professional" surnames - Rybnikov, Goncharov, Khlebnikov. A large percentage is occupied by Russian surnames of "nominal" origin - Ilyin, Sergeev, Ivanov, Vladimirov. Over time, surnames of Russian origin acquired foreign shades. So, the Russian Dobrovolsky turned into Benevolensky, and Nadezhdin into Speransky.

At the heart of the name - do not take away popularity

History decreed that male surnames become popular if the root stem is the name of the founder of the genus. Today you can count in Russia a considerable number of Sergeevs, Vladimirovs and Ivanovs. The most common surnames are Petrov, Sidorov, Alekseev and others. "Professional" generic names make up a considerable percentage of total number. Less "successful" are surnames based on the names of animals and geographical objects.

Selected individuals, successors of the clans, bear count and boyar surnames, like Pobedonostsev, Godunov, Tikhonravov, Novgorodtsev, Stroganov or Minin. Of course, the most beautiful of the surnames still have a church or parish origin. The dictionary of Russian surnames contains a great variety of them, from the most incredible and single to the most famous.

Video: Russian surnames

Every person on earth has their own personal name, each person receives it at birth and goes with it through life. Together with the name at birth, we get and proud right to be called the son or daughter of his father and, of course, a surname - a hereditary family name. However, this was not always the case. In various social strata, surnames appeared in different time. One of the first to appear princely surnames- Tverskoy, Meshchersky, Zvenigorodsky, Vyazemsky, Kolomensky, denoting localities. Over time, nobles, merchants, single-palace residents, and philistines received surnames. A large stratum of the population of Russia was also made up of ministers of the church. The clergy began to receive surnames en masse only in the first half of the nineteenth century. Prior to this, priests were usually called simply Father Alexander, Father Vasily, Father, or Priest Ivan, with no surname implied. In the Registers of Metrics of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, we see the signatures of priests: Alexei Ivanov, Ivan Terentiev or Nikita Maksimov, this is a first and middle name, not a first and last name. The children of the clergy, as needed, were given the names of Popov, Protopopov, Dyakonov, Ponomarev. However, as theological schools and seminaries appeared, a large number of priests appeared who acquired surnames upon graduation from the seminary. Artificial surnames in the seminary were given not only to those who did not have surnames, but often to those who already had them. The playful formula of the received surnames was as follows: “Across churches, over flowers, over stones, over cattle, and as if His Eminence will rise.” Surnames could change at the decision of the management, for example, there are examples of changing the surname from euphonious to more offensive, because the student did not answer well in class. There is an example of siblings who received in the seminary different surnames. The children of Alexei (Novospassky), a priest of the Storozhevskaya Church, Theodore, Ivan (graduation of 1842), Arkady (graduation of 1846) received the surname Oransky, and his son Nikolai (graduation of 1854) received his father's surname - Novospassky. The son of the Archpriest of the Intercession Cathedral Church in the city of Kozlov, Nikolai, in September 1830, entered the lower class to study at the Tambov Theological District School, not with the family name of Protopopov, but with the name of Evgenov. Here is how he himself describes the process of obtaining a surname: “It depended on the arbitrariness of the rector of the school. Such arbitrariness, the change of paternal surnames, was before my entry into the school, and continued after, for example, the father rector, examining the boy presented for registration at the school, notices his quick glance, and immediately gives him the name Bystrovzorov or Bystrov. It often happened that the sons of the same father had different surnames. This example is not far off. The former Tambov Cathedral Archpriest Nikifor Ivanovich Telyatinsky had five sons, of whom only one inherited family name Telyatinsky, and the remaining four had other names: Pobedonostsev, Blagoveshchensky, Preobrazhensky and Topilsky. There were cases when the arbitrariness to change surnames also depended on the teacher, for example, there was a student named Landyshev, and a student from very decent ones; he somehow inappropriately answered the teacher, the teacher punished him by changing his surname: “Be it for this instead of Landyshev Krapivin!” Landyshev did not like the name Krapivin, he was ashamed of her and was especially ashamed to appear to his father as Krapivin. Before leaving for the holidays, he begged the teacher to return his former surname to him. 1 Obtaining a surname was limited only by the imagination of the person who gave it. And there was no end to the imagination of seminary teachers. And yet, they adhered to certain certain traditions.

A large group of both the surnames of priests and seminary surnames is made up of "geographic" surnames. When entering a religious school, children were often given surnames according to the area where they were from, according to the name of the city, village or river. Examples of geographical seminary surnames: the son of deacon Vasily of the village of Churyukov, Kozlovsky district, Gabriel (graduation of 1844) received the surname Churyukovsky. The son of a sexton in the village of Yurkova Sureny, Kozlovsky district, Vasily Vasily (graduation of 1860) received the surname Surensky, Lamsky - the village of Lamki, Tarbeevsky - the village of Tarbeevo, Ozersky - the village of Ozerki, Kadomsky - the city of Kadom, Krivolutsky - the village of Krivaya Luka, Taptykovsky - the village of Taptykovo

New surnames given by the future priest most often had to be correlated with religion and the church. Many priests, and especially their children, received surnames from the names of the churches where they or their fathers served: a priest who served in the Church of the Trinity could receive the surname Troitsky, and one who served in the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin - Uspensky. According to this principle, the surnames Arkhangelsky, Ilyinsky, Sergievsky were formed. The son of the sexton of St. Nicholas Church, Isidore Athanasius (graduation of 1848), received the surname Nikolsky.

A number of surnames are associated with the name of the icons: Znamensky (the icon of the Sign Mother of God), Vyshensky (Vyshenskaya Icon of the Mother of God). The names of the icons are associated with the names Derzhavin and Derzhavinsky (the icon "Derzhavnaya"), Dostoevsky (the icon "It is worthy to eat").

And among the priests, and among those who received a surname in the seminary, there were surnames formed from the names of all the most important holidays: Annunciation (Annunciation), Epiphany (Epiphany), Vvedensky (Introduction), Vozdvizhensky (Exaltation), Voznesensky (Ascension), Voskresensky (Resurrection), Vsesvyatsky (All Saints), Znamensky (Sign), Pokrovsky (Pokrov), the son of the deacon of the Ilyinsky Church, Paul Alexander (graduation of 1840) received the surname Preobrazhensky (Transfiguration), Rozhdestvensky (Christmas), Soshestvensky (Descent of St. Spirit), Sretensky (Candlemas), Trinity (Trinity), Assumption (Assumption). The surname Pokrovsky could be given both in honor of the feast of the "Holy Intercession", and the priest who served in the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God. The surname Subbotin was often given in the spiritual environment, since several Saturdays a year were days of special commemoration of the departed.

Seminar surnames were formed from the baptismal male and female names of saints or from the church in honor of this saint: Annensky, Anninsky, Varvarinsky, Catherine, Georgievsky, Savvinsky, Kosminsky, Sergievsky, Andreevsky, Ilyinsky, Nikolaevsky, Dmitrievsky, Konstantinovsky, Petrovsky, Zosimovsky, Lavrovsky, Florovsky.

Surnames combining two baptismal names are associated with saints whose feasts are celebrated on the same day or with churches named after them. Examples: Borisoglebsky (Boris and Gleb), Kosmodamiansky (Kozma and Damian), Petropavlovsky (Peter and Paul).

There are a large number of surnames formed from epithets given to certain saints: Areopagite (Dionysius the Areopagite), Theological (Gregory the Theologian), Damascus (John of Damascus), Zlatoust (John Chrysostom), Hierapolis (Averky of Hierapolis), Catan (Lion of Catan), Corinthian ( martyrs of Corinth), Magdalen (Mary Magdalene), Mediolan (Ambrose of Milan), Neapolitan, Neapolitans (January of Neapolitan), Obnorsky (Paul Obnorsky), Parian (Basil of Pariah), Persian (Simeon of Persia), Pervozvansky (Andrew the First-Called), Forerunner ( John the Baptist), Radonezhsky (Sergius of Radonezh), Thessalonitsky (Grigory of Fessalonitsky), Pobedonostsev (George the Victorious), Savvaitov, Savvaitsky (Stephan and John Savvaity), Startilatov (Fedor Stratilat), Studitov, Studitsky (Theodore Studit). The surname Pitovranov arose in honor of the prophet Elijah, who was "fed by the vrans."

From the names from the Old Testament came the names: Absalom (Avvessalom), Jericho (Jericho), Israel (Israel), Livanov (Lebanon), Maccabees (Maccabees), Melchizedek (Melchizedek), Nemvrodov (Nimrod), Saul (King Saul), Sinai (Mount Sinai), Sodomov (Sodom), Pharaohs (Pharaoh), Faresov (Phares). From the names from the New Testament came the surnames: Bethlehem (Bethlehem), Gethsemane (Gethsemane), Calvary (Golgotha), Olivet (mountain of Olives), Emmaus (Emmaus), Jordanian (Jordan), Nazareth (Nazareth), Samaryanov (Samaritan), Tabor (Mount Tabor).

The surnames based on Christian traditions are: Angelov, Arkhangelsky, Bogoroditsky, Pravoslavlev, Pustynsky, Raysky, Seraphim, Spassky, Iconostasov, Ispolatov, Ispolatovsky, Kondakov, Krestov, Krestinsky, Krestovsky, Metaniev, Mineev, Obrazsky, Triodin, Temples, Lambs, Vertogradov , Vertogradsky, Desnitsky, Desnitsyn, Glagolev, Glagolevsky, Zertsalov, Zlatovratsky, Izvekov, Chariotsyn, Novochadov.

Many surnames are associated with church terms: Iconostasis (Iconostasis), Obraztsov (Image), Krestov, Krestinsky, Krestov (Cross), Khramov (Temple), Kolokolov (bell).

In the names of the Russian clergy, the Church Slavonic language left its mark: Desnitsky (right hand), Glagolev, Glagolevsky (verb).

However, the most common Church Slavonic two-basic surnames were most common, one way or another reflecting the character traits of the seminarian: Blagonravov, Bogoboyaznov, Ostroumov, Myagkoserdov, Prostoserdov, Blagovidov, Blagonravov, Blagonadezhdin, Bogodarov, Blagosklonov, Bogolyubov, Bogolyubsky, Dobrovolsky, Dobrolyubov, Gromoglasov, Zlatoumov, Lyubomudrov, Mirolyubov, Ostroumov, Song-singers, Prostoserdov, Slavolyubov, Sladkopevtsev, Smirennomudrenny, Tikhomirov, Tikhonravov. The son of the priest of the Trinity Church Theodore Ivan (graduation of 1840) received the surname Spesivtsev.

From the names of the plants, the seminary surnames Hyacintov, Landyshev, Levkoev, Lileev, Lilein, Narcissov, Rozov, Rozanov, Tuberozov, Fialkov, Fialkovsky, Tsvetkov, Tsvetkovsky, Abrikosov, Jasminov, Ancharov, Vinogradov, Vinogradsky, Kedrov, Kedrin, Kiparisov, Mindalev, Mirtov, Palmov, Pomerantsev, Shafranovsky. The son of the deacon of the Ilyinsky Church, Ilya Vasily (graduation of 1846), Peter received the surname - Rozanov. The children of the watchman of the Kozlovsky spiritual board Leonty Ivan (graduation of 1846), Peter (graduation of 1852) received the surname Jasminov.

Surnames could be formed from the names of animals and birds: Golubinsky, Orlovsky, Kenarsky, Lebedev, Lebedinsky, Sokolov, Pavsky, Barsov, Panterovsky, Zverev, Shcheglov, from the names of minerals: Amethysts, Diamonds, Corals, Kristalevsky, Margarites (Greek equivalent of Russian names of pearls) or Zhemchuzhnikov, Smaragdov, from the names of natural phenomena: North, East, South, West, Northeast, Sunsets, Vetrinsky, Horizons, Skylines, Zarnitsky, Zephyrs, Sources, Klyuchevsky, Krinitsky, Months, Solntsev, Efirov.

All these surnames could be translated into Latin. Some of them correlated with the physical capabilities of their carriers: Albov, Albovsky, Albitsky (albus - white), Grandilevsky (grandilis - tall, important), Mayorsky, Minorsky, Robustov (robustus - strong), Formozov (formosus - beautiful). However, more often for the surname, words were chosen that characterize the temper or behavior of their carriers: Speransky, Speransov (sperans - hoping). The children of the priest of the Trinity Church Vasily Pavel (graduation of 1848), Konstantin (graduation of 1850), Vasily (graduation of 1856) received the surname Gilyarevsky (hilaris - cheerful), but from the documents we see that this surname was given to their father. The son of the deacon of the Storozhevsky Nicholas Church, Ivan Gavriil (graduation of 1868), received the surname Melioransky (melior - the best). The children of the deacon of the Ascension Church John Michael (graduation of 1840), Nikolai (graduation of 1852) received the surname Celebrovsky (celeber - famous).

Surnames of Greek origin: Aristov, Aristovsky (the best). A number of clergymen's names, translated into Greek and Latin, existed in three forms: Bednov - Pavperov - Peninsky (Greek poverty), Nadezhdin - Speransky - Elpidin, Elpidinsky (Greek hope).

In addition to surnames of Latin and Greek origin, there are surnames that do not carry personal characteristics. They are based on ancient realities, mostly Greek, including some Greek geographical names: Athenian, Trojan, Macedonian. In addition, the names of ancient philosophers and poets are presented in the names of the Russian clergy: Homers, Democrites, Orpheus. The prestige of the classical tradition was so high that Orthodox priests did not consider it shameful to wear surnames derived from the name of a pagan deity - Greek, Roman or Egyptian: Trismegistov (Hermes Trismegistus). Some surnames came from the names of poets, writers and scientists who were studied in theological schools and were known to those who gave surnames: Ossianov (Ossian - legendary hero Celtic folk eros, which gave its name to the great cycle poetry, the so-called poems of Ossian).

I would like to note that the children of priests and archpriests most often had surnames, and therefore received either a family surname or a new one. The children of deacons and sextons, most often, did not have surnames, and therefore, after graduating from a college or seminary, they received a new surname.

In addition to the surnames considered, we note that there are surnames that were given to illegitimate children. In particular, the surname Bogdanov (given by God) is found among the Kozlovsky clergy. It can be assumed that people bearing this surname in the family had an illegitimate ancestor.

In addition, in order to study family ties, one should know that in the 18th century the practice of inheriting church parishes was established in Russia, when the diocesan bishop, when leaving the parish priest “to retire”, secured, at the request of the latter, a place for his son, who often served in the church along with father, or in the absence of male offspring for the son-in-law. There will be similar cases in the book where a claimant could gain a parish by marrying a priest's daughter. To do this, lists of brides were kept in the spiritual consistories and recommendations were given to everyone who wished.

If not determined, then at least it is possible to assume the class affiliation of their ancestors only if they passed on spiritual surnames to their descendants. Most other Russian surnames, in general, are all-class, including the "loud" noble ones. For example, the Gagarins are both representatives of an ancient princely family and Smolensk peasants. It was their descendant that Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin was.

Or another example: Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin (1878‒1942), a remarkable Russian writer abroad, wrote under pseudonym. His real name was Ilyin, and the Ufa nobles of Ilyin were descendants of Rurik. So the “simple” surname Ilyin could be worn by Rurikoviches, as well as merchants, philistines and peasants.

But among the Orthodox clergy there were few Ilyins. This is explained by the fact that at the end of the 18th - the first third of the 19th century, a unique “surname-forming” process took place in the clergy: everywhere, when a student entered the Theological School or the Theological Seminary, he was assigned a new sonorous or original surname.

An interesting description of this era was left in his memoirs, published in 1882 in the journal "Russian Antiquity", professor of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy Dmitry Ivanovich Rostislavov (1809-1877)

“At the time that I am describing, and even for a long time, the family names of most clergy were of little use ... My father, despite his deanery position, signed all the reports of the consistory and to the bishop Ivan Martynov. Later, siblings who studied at spiritual and educational institutions often had different surnames, for example, from grandfather's children, my father was nicknamed Tumsky, uncle Ivan - Veselchakov, and uncle Vasily - Krylov.

... On the basis of this custom, the clergy, sending their children to the school, gave them such surnames or nicknames that for some reason they liked. Simple people, not inventive, not scientists, in this case took into account either:

1) the name of the village: for example, from the fourteen villages of the Kasimovsky district belonging to Meshchora, only Cherkasovo and Frol, as far as I remember, did not give nicknames to the children of their clergy, and the well-known Tumskys and Tumins, Birenevs, Leskovs, Palinskys came from the others , Peshchurovs, Kurshins, Verikodvorskys, Gusevs, Parmins, Palishchins and Prudins;

2) temple holidays: hence the multitude of Voznesensky, Assumption, Ilyinsky;

3) the title of father: hence the Protopopovs, Popovs, Dyachkovs, Dyakovs, Ponomarevs; it is remarkable that the words "priest" and "clerk" were not popular; I don't remember a single seminarian with the surname of Priests or Clerks;

... Those who studied in seminaries and generally showed a claim to learning or wit, gave surnames to their children, in accordance either with the qualities that were noticed in them, or with the hopes that were counted on them. Hence the multitude of Smirnovs, Krotkovs, Slavskys, Slavinskys, Pospelovs, Chistyakovs, Nadezhdins, Nadezhins, Razumovs, Razumovskys, Dobrynins, Dobrovs, Tverdovs, and so on. Here, however, surnames made up of two words were very loved, especially those that included the words God, good and good. Hence the countless Tikhomirovs, Ostroumovs, Mirolubovs, Peacemakers, Milovidovs, Bogolyubovs, Blagosvetlovs, Blagonravovs, Blagoserdovs, Blagonadezhdins, Purehearts, Dobromyslovs, Dobrolyubovs, Dobronadezhdins, Dobrokhotovs, Dobrotvorskys, and so on.

... But the Russian language seemed insufficient for many, or, perhaps, it was necessary to show off knowledge of Latin or Greek; hence the Speranskys, the Amfiteatrovs, the Palimsestovs, the Urbanskys, the Antizitrovs, the Vitulins, the Meshcherovs.

The authorities themselves did not want to not declare their participation in this matter either; some because the fathers themselves provided them with naming their sons, while others even took away the right of the fathers to do so. In this regard, the superintendent of the Skopinsky school, Ilya Rossov, was remarkable. For the names of his students, he used all the sciences, especially natural sciences and history: he had the Orlovs, the Solovyovs, the Volkovs, the Lisitsyns, the Almazovs, the Izumrudovs, the Rumyantsevs, the Suvorovs, and so on. and so on. Once he decided to distinguish himself before the board of the seminary and draw his attention to his ingenuity. He sent lists in which the students were included, so to speak, in separate groups, according to the nature of their surnames, i.e. the Rumyantsevs, Suvorovs, Kutuzovs, then Orlovs, Solovyovs, Ptitsyns, then Volkovs, Lisitsyns, Kunitsyns were written to the series. But the board of the seminary returned the lists with a stern reprimand and ordered them to be compiled according to the success of the students, and not according to the meaning of their surnames.

... Many fathers-rectors, academicians, masters liked to be witty about surnames. If for some reason they liked a student, then they changed his surname and gave another one that seemed better to them. The rector of the Ryazan seminary, Iliodor, was distinguished by this intricacy ... He baptized my comrade Dmitrov into Melioransky, the student of theology Kobylsky into Bogoslovsky, and so on.

When I was already at the academy, the Synod somehow guessed that it was necessary to put an end to this disorder, which was the cause of many misunderstandings in inheritance matters. He issued a decree, which ordered that all clergy and clergy be named and signed by name and surname, so that their children would have the surnames of their fathers. At this time, my father decided to act in a rather original way. He already had four children: I was in office, and the rest were still studying, but they all had my last name. He submitted a petition to the bishop, so that he himself would be allowed to be called Rostislavov. My uncle Ivan Martynovych did exactly the same thing: he became Dobrovolsky from Veselchakov, because that was the nickname of his eldest son, who was still studying then, I think, in a seminary. I was very sorry that I did not know about the intention of the priest to change his surname. I don’t know why he wanted to call me Rostislavov, but I didn’t like this surname, it would be more pleasant for me to be Tumsky.

Some spiritual or seminary surnames are known - "tracing paper". When Petukhov turned into Alektorov (from the Greek "alektor" - rooster), Solovyov - into Aedonitsky, Belov - into Albanov, Nadezhdin - into Speransky, and so on.

There were cases when the surname was chosen in honor of a famous or respected person. In the 1920s, the memoirs of the church historian Yevgeny Evsigneevich Golubinsky (1834 - 1912), who was born in the Kostroma province in the family of a village priest E.F. Peskov. “When I was seven years old, my father began to think about taking me to school. The first question for him at the same time was what name to give me a surname ... he wanted to give me the surname of some famous in spiritual world person. used to winter evening let's lie with our father on the twilight stove, and he will start sorting out: Golubinsky, Delitsyn (who was known as a censor of spiritual books), Ternovsky (meaning the father of the famous teacher of the law of Moscow University in his time, doctor of theology, the only one after Metropolitan Filaret), Pavsky, Sakharov ( meant the father of our Kostroma and his peer Yevgeny Sakharov, who was the rector of the Moscow Theological Academy and who died in the rank of Bishop of Simbirsk), ending his enumeration with a question to me: "Which surname do you prefer?" After a long deliberation, my father finally settled on the surname Golubinsky.

One more amusing episode can be cited from the memoirs published in 1879 in the Russian Starina magazine (the name of their author, a village priest, was not named). In 1835, his father brought him to the Saratov Theological School.

“Several hundred students crowded in the yard ... Some of the newcomers, clinging to the wall, with a piece of paper in their hands, memorized their last name. We spirituals, as everyone already knows, have funny surnames. Where did they come from? It was like this: some father brings his boy to the school, puts him in an apartment, certainly in an artel. Some giant syntaxist, who has been working on Latin and Greek conjugations for 10 years, certainly already dominates in the artel apartment. Sometimes such gentlemen gathered several at a time in one apartment. The father turns to someone and asks: what, my dear sir, should I give my boy's surname? At that time, he was hollowing: tipto, tiptis, tipti ... What surname should I give?! .. Tiptov! Another, the same athlete, is sitting at this time, somewhere astride a hayloft or cellar and hammering: diligenter - diligently, male - badly ... He hears what they are asking and yells: "No, no! Give your son the nickname Diligenterov, Hear: Diligenterov!" The third, the same beast, sits astride a fence and yells a lesson from geography: Amsterdam, Harlem, Sardam, Gaga ... "No, no," he interrupts, "Give a nickname to the son of Amsterdam!" Everyone runs, advice is made, i.e. shouting, swearing, and sometimes with jagged teeth, and whoever takes it, that surname will remain. The wild kid can't even pronounce what these Urvants have christened him. They write to him on a piece of paper, and he goes and memorizes sometimes, really, almost a month. For at least a month, it was like asking someone for a teacher, and ten people would rush into their pockets for a note to ask if he was being called. This is the reason why we, the spiritual, formed the names of the Higher Bells! I have witnessed such scenes more than once. I was already in the last class of the seminary in 1847, when the order of the Synod followed that the children should bear the surname of their fathers. But for that, the Higher Bells were entrenched forever.

The originality of surnames in the clergy often became the subject of jokes. So, in the story of A.P. Chekhov's "Surgery" deacon has the surname Vonmiglasov (from the Church Slavonic "wonmi" - hear, listen); deacon in the story "Gimp" - Otlukavin.

On September 27, 1799, by decree of Emperor Paul I, an independent Orenburg diocese was established. At the same time, the place of residence of the bishop was not the then provincial Orenburg, but the city of Ufa. In June 1800, the Orenburg Theological Seminary was opened in Ufa. In this vast region, it was the first spiritual educational institution. And it can be assumed that, as elsewhere, it was within its walls that active “surname creation” began. But it is worth noting that even in the 18th century (that is, in the pre-seminary era) clerics with unusual surnames: Rebelinsky, Ungwitz, Basilevsky.

In 1893, in the "Ufimskiye Provincial Gazette" local historian A.V. Chernikov-Anuchin published an article about the ancestor of the Bazilevskys, and thanks to his work, the history of the emergence of this surname is known. Archpriest of the Sterlitamak Cathedral Feodor Ivanovich Bazilevsky (1757‒1848) was the son of the priest of the Zilair fortress, Fr. John Shishkov. In 1793, the deacon Theodore Shishkov was ordained a deacon by the Archbishop of Kazan, Ambrose (Podobedov), at the Intercession Church in Sterlitamak. At the same time, Vladyka “ordered the newly appointed deacon to be written everywhere henceforth no longer by Shishkov, but by Bazilevsky.” Probably, the surname was formed from the title of the ancient Greek, and then the Byzantine emperors - basileus. The future millionaire gold miner and the most famous Ufa philanthropist Ivan Fedorovich Bazilevsky (1791‒1876) was one of the first students of the Orenburg Theological Seminary opened in Ufa in June 1800, but he received his surname not there, but from his father, to whom it was assigned during ordination.

Nevertheless, it can be assumed that most of the "indigenous" Ufa spiritual families appeared in the seminary. Sometimes it is possible to trace the process of their formation. So, in the 1880s, the priest Viktor Evsigneevich Kasimovsky served in the Ufa diocese, his brother Vasily Evsigneevich (1832‒1902) was a teacher at the Ufa Theological Seminary. In the revision tales of the village of Kasimov, Ufa district, information has been preserved that in 1798 the deacon Pyotr Fedorov died. In 1811, his fifteen-year-old son Evsigney Kasimovsky studied at the Orenburg Seminary. Thus, Evsigney received his surname from the name of the village where his father served.

In 1809, the pupils of the Orenburg Theological Seminary (recall that it was located in Ufa) had such surnames as Adamantov, Aktashevsky, Alfeev, Albinsky, Amanatsky, Bogoroditsky, Boretsky, Bystritsky, Vysotsky, Garantelsky, Geniev, Golubev, Gumilevsky, Derzhavin, Dobrolyubov, Dubravin, Dubrovsky, Evladov, Evkhoretensky, Yeletsky and others.

It can also be noted that some of the seminarians at the very beginning of the 19th century bore simple surnames formed from given names. There were also those who retained their ancient family ancestry. So, for example, Kibardyny. Back in the 1730s, in the palace village of Karakulin (now in the territory of Udmurtia), Vasily Kibardin was a sexton. In the next more than 200 years, many Kibardins served in the Orenburg-Ufa diocese.

In the 19th century, clerics from the European part of Russia were transferred to the Orenburg region. They translated and brought new spiritual surnames from their homeland. The first one is enough full list Ufa clergy (priests, deacons, psalm readers) was published in the reference book of the Ufa province for 1882-1883. Among them, of course, were the Andreevs, Vasilievs, Makarovs; there were also those who bore "not quite" spiritual surnames: Babushkin, Kulagin, Polozov, Uvarov, Malyshev. But, nevertheless, for the majority of clergy and clergy they were "seminary". After the family "disorder" was stopped in the 1830-1840s by the decrees of the Synod, their share began to gradually decrease, but even in the first third of the 20th century it remained quite high. So, according to information from the Address-calendar of the Ufa province for 1917, more than half of the priests had obviously spiritual surnames.

One may wonder why something similar did not happen, for example, among the merchants? Why were the nobles in no hurry to part with sometimes very dissonant surnames, whose heads were Durovs, Svinins, Kuroyedovs?

In his "Little Things of Bishop's Life" N.S. Leskov wrote about Oryol’s “spiritual” people, who had been unusually interested in him since childhood: “they won me over ... class originality, in which I sensed incomparably more life than in those so-called“ good manners ”, the suggestion of which tormented me by the pretentious circle of my Oryol relatives. In all likelihood, the "class originality" stemmed from the fact that the clergy were the most educated class of Russian society.

If in 1767, when drawing up an order to the Legislative Commission, more than half of the Ufa nobles (due to ignorance of the letter) could not even sign it, in the Rebelinsky family of priests already in the middle of the 18th century, and possibly earlier, a home commemorative book was kept, in which events were recorded, which they were witnesses. In the future, several Rebelinsky led personal diaries wrote memoirs and memoirs. The priest of the Zilair fortress, Ivan Shishkov, since there were no theological schools or a seminary in the region, in the 1770s was able to give his son only a home education. At the same time, the future respected and very enlightened Sterlitamak archpriest Feodor Ivanovich Bazilevsky learned to read and write, count, the Law of God, church charter and singing according to church use.

The very first secondary educational institution in the vast Orenburg-Ufa province was the Theological Seminary, opened in Ufa in 1800. The first men's gymnasium began its activity almost thirty years later - in 1828.

Until the 1840s, the main subject in the seminaries was the Latin language, which was studied to the degree of fluency in it. In the middle classes, pupils were taught to compose poetry and make speeches in Latin. In higher education, all lectures were given in Latin, seminarians read ancient and Western European theological and philosophical writings passed the exams in Latin. As early as 1807, classes in medicine and drawing were opened in the Ufa Seminary, in 1808 - French and German. Since the 1840s, Latin has become one of the general educational disciplines. In addition to theological and liturgical subjects, the Ufa Seminary studied: civil and natural history, archeology, logic, psychology, poetry, rhetoric, physics, medicine, Agriculture, algebra, geometry, land surveying, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German, French, Tatar and Chuvash languages.

The main part of the graduates became parish priests, but there were also those who later served in various secular institutions (officials, teachers). Some seminarians entered the highest spiritual and secular educational establishments- spiritual academies, universities.

In 1897, according to the data of the first general population census in the Ufa province, 56.9% were literate among the nobles and officials, 73.4% in the families of the clergy, and 32.7% in urban estates. Among the nobles and officials of those who received an education above the primary level, there were 18.9%, among the clergy - 36.8%, urban estates - 2.75%.

Especially in the 19th century, the clergy regularly supplied the intelligentsia Russian state, and among the names of famous scientists, doctors, teachers, writers, artists there are many "spiritual" ones. It is far from accidental that the embodiment of talent, civilization, originality and common culture is Bulgakov's hero Philip Philippovich Preobrazhensky, the son of the cathedral archpriest.

Each person on earth has his own personal name, each person receives it at birth and goes with him through life. Together with the name at birth, we also receive the proud right to be called the son or daughter of our father and, of course, the surname - the hereditary family name. However, this was not always the case. In different social strata, surnames appeared at different times. One of the first to appear were princely surnames - Tverskoy, Meshchersky, Zvenigorodsky, Vyazemsky, Kolomensky, denoting localities. Over time, nobles, merchants, single-palace residents, and philistines received surnames. A large stratum of the population of Russia was also made up of ministers of the church. The clergy began to receive surnames en masse only in the first half of the nineteenth century. Prior to this, priests were usually called simply Father Alexander, Father Vasily, Father, or Priest Ivan, with no surname implied. In the metric books of the end 18th early 19th century we see the signatures of the priests: Alexey Ivanov, Ivan Terentiev or Nikita Maksimov, this is the name and patronymic, not the name and surname. The children of the clergy, as needed, were given the names of Popov, Protopopov, Dyakonov, Ponomarev. However, as theological schools and seminaries appeared, a large number of priests appeared whoacquired surnames upon graduation from the seminary. Artificial surnames in the seminary were given not only to those who did not have surnames, but often to those who already had them. The playful formula of the received surnames was as follows: “Across churches, over flowers, over stones, over cattle, and as if His Eminence will rise.” Surnames could change at the decision of the management, for example, there are examples of changing the surname from euphonious to more offensive, because the student did not answer well in class. There is an examplesiblings who received different surnames in the seminary. The children of Alexei (Novospassky), a priest of the Storozhevskaya Church, Theodore, Ivan (graduation of 1842), Arkady (graduation of 1846) received the surname Oransky, and his son Nikolai (graduation of 1854) received his father's surname - Novospassky. The son of the Archpriest of the Intercession Cathedral Church in the city of Kozlov, Nikolai, in September 1830, entered the lower class to study at the Tambov Theological District School, not with the family name of Protopopov, but with the name of Evgenov. Here is how he himself describes the process of obtaining a surname: “It depended on the arbitrariness of the rector of the school. Such arbitrariness, the change of paternal surnames, was before my entry into the school, and continued after, for example, the father rector, examining the boy presented for registration at the school, notices his quick glance, and immediately gives him the name Bystrovzorov or Bystrov. It often happened that the sons of the same father had different surnames. This example is not far off. The former Tambov Cathedral Archpriest Nikifor Ivanovich Telyatinsky had five sons, of whom only one inherited the family name of Telyatinsky, and the remaining four had other surnames: Pobedonostsev, Blagoveshchensky, Preobrazhensky andTopilsky. There were cases when the arbitrariness to change surnames also depended on the teacher, for example, there was a student named Landyshev, and a student from very decent ones; he somehow inappropriately answered the teacher, the teacher punished him by changing his surname: “Be it for this instead of Landyshev Krapivin!” Landyshev did not like the name Krapivin, he was ashamed of her and was especially ashamed to appear to his father as Krapivin. Before leaving for the holidays, he begged the teacher to return his former surname to him. 1 Obtaining a surname was limited only by the imagination of the person who gave it. And there was no end to the imagination of seminary teachers. And yet, they adhered to certain certain traditions.

A number of surnames are associated with the name of the icons: Znamensky (icon of the Sign of the Mother of God), Vyshensky (Vyshenskaya icon of the Mother of God). The names of the icons are associated with the names Derzhavin and Derzhavinsky (the icon "Derzhavnaya"), Dostoevsky (the icon "It is worthy to eat").

Many surnames are associated with church terms: Iconostasis (Iconostasis), Obraztsov (Image), Krestov, Krestinsky, Krestov (Cross), Khramov (Temple), Kolokolov (bell).

In the names of the Russian clergy, the Church Slavonic language left its mark: Desnitsky (right hand), Glagolev, Glagolevsky (verb).

Surnames could be formed from the names of animals and birds: Golubinsky, Orlovsky, Kenarsky, Lebedev, Lebedinsky, Sokolov, Pavsky, Barsov, Panterovsky, Zverev, Shcheglov,from the names of minerals: Amethysts, Diamonds, Corals, Kristalevsky, Margarites (the Greek equivalent of the Russian name for pearls) or Zhemchuzhnikov, Smaragdov,from the names of natural phenomena: North, East, South, West, Northeast, Sunsets, Vetrinsky, Horizons, Skylines, Zarnitsky, Zefirov, Sources, Klyuchevsky, Krinitsky, Months, Solntsev, Efirov.

In addition to surnames of Latin and Greek origin, there are surnames that do not carry personal characteristics. They are based on ancient realities, mostly Greek, including some Greek geographical names: Athenian, Trojan, Macedonian. In addition, the names of ancient philosophers and poets are presented in the names of the Russian clergy: Homers, Democrites, Orpheus. The prestige of the classical tradition was so high that Orthodox priests did not consider it shameful to wear surnames derived from the name of a pagan deity - Greek, Roman or Egyptian: Trismegistov (Hermes Trismegistus). Some surnames came from the names of poets, writers and scientists who were studied in theological schools and were known to those who gave surnames: Ossian (Ossian is the legendary hero of the Celtic folk eros, who gave his name to a large cycle of poetic works, the so-called poems of Ossian).

In addition, in order to study therelations, you should know that in the 18th century the practice of inheriting church parishes was established in Russia, when the diocesan bishop, when leaving the parish priest “to retire”, secured, at the request of the latter, a place for his son, who often served in the church with his father, or in the case lack of male offspring for the son-in-law. There will be similar cases in the book where a claimant could gain a parish by marrying a priest's daughter. To do this, lists of brides were kept in the spiritual consistories and recommendations were given to everyone who wished.

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