?“????????????́?? ?¤???€????́?·????: Mr. Handsome
In my mailbag I found a question about Russian surnames — a simple query about the prevalence of “directional” last names, like West and North in English. And like all simple queries, it took a book, several monographs and dozens of Internet forums to conclude that I’m not too sure about ?“?????????????? ?—?°???°?????? (Mr. West), or his buddies ???µ???µ?€???? (North), ?®?????? (South), and ?’?????‚???????? (East). I couldn’t figure out how common these names are, but I did find a ?“?????????¶?° ?—?°???°???????° (Ms. West) who was a ???????‚?????????µ?? (Eastern scholar), which made me very happy.
Actually, many of the ways in which surnames were formed in Russian are very similar to the ways English speakers got their names. The most common names in Russian are “son of” — like Jackson or Johnson: ?‘???€???????? (son of Boris) and ???‘?????? (son of Syoma, or Simeon).
Interestingly, there are also matriarchal surnames in Russian, like ???°?‚???? (son of Katya) and Olin (son of Olya or Olga). Let’s give a cheer for matronymics!
And then there are lots of professional names, the Russian equivalents of Smith and Fowler (bird catcher). These are common names like ?????·???µ?†???? (from ?????·???µ?† — smith), ?“?????‡?°?€???? (from ???????‡?°?€ — potter), ???????†???? (from ???????µ?† — merchant) and ?????????? (from ?????? — priest). The last one, ??????????, is one of the most common Russian surnames — in ninth place.
Some people got names from where they lived, like ???µ?‡???€????, who lived near the Pechora River, or the ?’???»?????? family, who lived on or near the Volga. Some got names based on their national, non-Russian origins, like ???µ???†???? (German), ?????µ?????? (Swede), ?????»???????? (Polish), or ???€?°?????? (Negro). Or they got them from a distinguishing feature. These names are fun, because you get a sense of what some long-lost ancestor looked like: ???????€?????†?µ?? (had curly hair); ?‘?µ?»???????€???? (had blonde hair); ?????°?‡?‘?? (had spectacular mustaches). One side of my family is ???€?µ?????±?µ??????, so we know that a distant ancestor had ?‚?€?? ?????±?‹ (three lips), or in more common parlance — a harelip.
Some names came from Latin, through the influence of Polish Catholicism and Ukrainian on Russian. These names include the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of ???°?????€???????? (Mr. Major) and ?????????€???????? (Mr. Minor), the completely deceptive ?????????????†?????? (Mr. Pinguis — fat) who is not a penguin after all, and ?¤???€?????·???? (Mr. Formosus — Mr. Handsome).
One of the most interesting etymological stories is about names ending in -???… and -?‹?… that are found in the northeast of Russia, from the Urals through Siberia. The tale is that local people gave their neighbors names that were adjectives characterizing the families, like ?”???»?????µ (tall), ?????€???‚?????µ (short), ?‘?µ?»?‹?µ (fair), ???µ?»?????µ (tiny). And when they’d meet people, they’d ask “?§?????… ?‚?‹ ?±?????µ?????” (Whose would you be?) And then — tiny drumroll — the people would answer, say, “?”???»?????…” (literally “of the tall ones”). And that’s how all those genitive plurals of adjectives became surnames.
Does that sound like armchair etymology to you? It does to me, but I’m open to all options. With Russian, you never know.
And then sometimes you might have a surname that sounds fine in Russian, but turns out to have quite unfortunate connotations in other countries. Take this poor guy, an emigrant who decided on a military career in the U.S.: ???‹ ???°?¶?µ ???µ ???€?µ?????‚?°???»???µ????, ???°?? ?‚???¶?µ?»?? ???»???¶???‚?? ?? a???µ?€?????°?????????? ?°?€?????? ?? ???€?????‚???? ?€???????????? ?„?°?????»???µ?? ?¤????????! (You just can’t imagine how hard it is to serve in the American army with the simple Russian surname of Fokin!)
Michele A. Berdy, a Moscow-based translator and interpreter, is author of "The Russian Word's Worth" (Glas), a collection of her columns.