1000 Most Common Last Names in Belarus

Russian, Belorussian, and Bulgarian: patronymic from the personal name Ivan.

Jewish (from Belarus): habitational name from a village in Belarus called Noviki.

Ukrainian, Belorussian, Slovak, Polish, and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): nickname from the eastern Slavic word m(o)roz ‘frost’. Romanian: from Russian moroz ‘frost’ or Bulgarian moruza ‘grain’.

Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, and Croatian: patronymic from the personal names Pyotr (Russian), Petr (Bulgarian) and Petar (Macedonian, Serbian, and Croatian) (see Peter). It may also be a reduced form of Slovenian Petrovic, patronymic from the personal name Peter.

Ukrainian and Jewish (from Ukraine): patronymic from koval ‘smith’.

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): patronymic from Karp 1. Eastern Slavic: patronymic from Karp 2. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): habitational name for someone from the village of Karpovichi in Belarus.

Russian and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): patronymic form from Russian volk ‘wolf’. The Russian name is derived from a nickname or older male personal name. The Yiddish name is in some cases an ornamental name, while in other cases it is a habitational name from places called Volkovo or Volki, now in Belarus, which in turn are derived from the name of the animal.

Ukrainian: occupational name for a cooper, Ukrainian bondar, + -enko, patronymic suffix.

Belorussian: patronymic from Stanek or Stanko, pet forms of the personal name Stanislav (see Stanislaw).

Polish, Slovak, Czech, Belorussian, Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic), and German (of Slavic origin): from a personal name or nickname based on Slavic kot ‘tom cat’. As a Jewish name it is generally an ornamental name.

Belorussian and Ukrainian; Serbian and Croatian (Bogdanovic): patronymic from the personal name Bogdan. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): habitational name for someone from Bogdany in Poland or from the various places in Belarus called Bogdanovo, Bogdanovichi, or Bogdany.

Ukrainian: regional name from bojko ‘inhabitant of western Ukraine’.

Ukrainian: patronymic from the personal name Kuzma. Slovenian (Kuzmic, Küzmic): patronymic from the personal name Kuzma, Küzma (see Kuzma 2). The form Küzmic comes from easternmost Slovenia.

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): occupational name from Russian melnik ‘miller’ (from melit ‘to grind’). Polish: habitational name for someone from a place called Mielnik. Polish: occupational name from mielnik ‘miller’.

Ukrainian and Jewish (from Ukraine): Ukrainian nickname and Jewish ornamental name from Ukrainian korol ‘king’ (see Kral).

Ukrainian, Polish, and Jewish (from Ukraine and Belarus): occupational name for a cooper, Ukrainian bondar.

Croatian, Serbian (Pavlovic), or Slovenian (Pavlovic): see Pavlovic. Ukrainian and Belorussian: patronymic from the personal name Pavlo (see Paul).

Croatian and Serbian (Petrovic); Slovenian (Petrovic): see Petrovic. Ukrainian and Belorussian: patronymic from Petro, Ukrainian form of Peter.

Jewish (eastern Ashkenzazic), Russian, and Ukrainian: habitational name from any of various places named with koziol ‘goat’. Compare Polish Kozlowski. The Russian and Ukrainian names can also be directly derived from a nickname meaning ‘goat’.

Russian and Jewish (from Belarus): patronymic form of an occupational name meaning ‘smith’ in Russian.

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): patronymic from Abram, a reduced form of the personal name Abraham. In some cases it may be an Americanized spelling of Croatian Abramovic.

Russian, Belorussian, and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): patronymic from Russian sokol ‘falcon’. In some cases the Russian surname arose from a nickname. In other cases it represents an ornamental name assigned to pupils in ecclesiastical schools. As a Jewish name, it is generally a patronymic from an ornamental nickname meaning ‘falcon’.

Polish, Ukrainian, Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic), andnBelorussian: ethnic or regional name from Polish rusakn‘Ukrainian’, eastern Slavic rusak ‘Russian’. The name derivesnultimately from a Scandinavian term meaning ‘rower’, ‘oarsman’, thenRussian state having been first established in the 9th century bynVarangian (i.e. Norse) settlers who rowed up the rivers from thenBaltic. Polish, Ukrainian, Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic), andnBelorussian: nickname from an eastern Slavic word meaning ‘lightnbrown’, with allusion to the coloring of hair or skin (compare Polishnrusy, Ukrainian and Russian rusyj). Jewish (easternnAshkenazic): habitational name from Rusaki, in Belarus. AB

Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian; Serbian and Croatian (Slavonia) (Adamovic): patronymic from the personal name Adam.

Polish, Czech, Slovak, and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): nickname for someone thought to resemble a thrush, from Polish and Czech drozd ‘thrush’. As a Jewish name it is mainly ornamental.

Ukrainian, Belorussian, Czech, Slovenian, and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): from Slavic kozel ‘buck’, ‘billy goat’, hence a nickname for someone thought to resemble a buck or a goat, or else a metonymic occupational name for a goatherd. Americanized form of Slovenian Koželj or Kožel, a nickname or occupational name from koželj ‘upper part of a spindle’ (part of a spinning wheel).

Variant spelling of Kissel.

Russian and Bulgarian: patronymic from pop ‘priest’, from Greek pappas (compare English Pope). The name may sometimes derive from a nickname, but celibacy was not enjoined on priests of the Orthodox Church and so the name can indeed mean ‘son of the priest’. In many cases, however, the Russian name means no more than ‘of the priest’ and designates a servant of a priest. Jewish (American): most likely a shortened form of Popovski, a habitational name for someone from a place called Popovka, of which there are several examples in Ukraine.

Russian and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): variant spelling of Orloff.

Polish, Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic), and German (of Slavic origin): nickname from Slavic kulik ‘curlew’. Czech (Kulík): from a short form of the personal name Mikuláš, Czech form of Nicholas. Jewish (from Belarus): habitational name from Kuliki, now in Belarus.

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic), Ukrainian, and Belorussian: variant of Holub. German: from Sorbian golub ‘dove’, a metonymic occupational name for someone who bred or looked after doves, which were reared for food in the Middle Ages. See also Holub.

Russian and Croatian (Dalmatia): patronymic from the personal names Pavel (Russian) or Pavao and Pavle (Croatian) (see Paul).

Polish, Czech, and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): from Polish and Czech dialect lis ‘fox’, a nickname for a cunning person or, in the case of the Jewish name, an ornamental name. Czech: nickname for a man with a bald pate, from a variant of Czech lysý ‘bald’. Dutch: metronymic from a short form of the personal female names Alice or Elisabeth (see Lies). Dutch (van Lis): habitational name from Lixhe in Belgium or Lieze in the Netherlands. French: perhaps a habitational name for someone who lived at a house distinguished by the sign of a lily, Old French lis.

Ukrainian, Belorussian, Polish, and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): from Slavic burak ‘beet’. Polish: nickname from bury ‘dark brownish gray’, probably denoting hair or eye color. Czech: nickname for someone with dark hair, dark eyes, or a swarthy complexion, from Old Czech burý ‘dark’.

German: from a medieval personal name, a short form of various Germanic personal names with the first element folk ‘people’. Compare Foulkes. Czech: variant of the personal name Volek. Slovenian: nickname from volk ‘wolf’.Ukrainian: Russianized form of Ukrainian Vovk, a nickname meaning ‘wolf’. Jewish (western Ashkenazic): ornamental name from German Volk ‘people’. English: variant of Foulks.

Ukrainian, Belorussian, Czech dialect, and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): occupational name for a blacksmith, from the vocabulary word koval.

Americanized spelling of Babic or Babic (see Babic). Ukrainian: metronymic from babich ‘old woman’, ‘grandmother’ (see Babin).

Ukrainian, Belorussian; Serbian and Croatian (Davidovic); and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): patronymic from the personal name David.

Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, and Slovak (Komár), Slovenian, and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): from komar ‘gnat’, ‘mosquito’, hence a nickname for a small, insignificant, or annoying person.

Ukrainian and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): from the nickname Soroka ‘magpie’, denoting a garrulous or thievish person, or someone with a streak of white among black hair. In the case of the Jewish surname it is normally an ornamental name, one of the many taken from bird names.

Ukrainian and Jewish (Ashkenazic): patronymic from the personal name Marko, a variant of Marcus.

Polish and Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname (Polish) or ornamental name (Jewish), from Polish kruk ‘raven’. Dutch: variant spelling of Kruck.

Ukrainian: patronymic from Karp 2.

Polish (Sokól), Czech, Slovak, Belorussian, and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): from Belorussian and Czech sokol, Polish sokól ‘falcon’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a falconer, or a nickname for someone thought to resemble a falcon in some way. As a Jewish name it is generally ornamental.

Polish and Czech: from sobol ‘sable’, a type of marten with handsome black fur; possibly a nickname but more often an occupational name for a fur trader. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): variant of Sobel.

Russian and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): patronymic from the ethnic name Polak ‘Pole’.

Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Jewish (from Ukraine and Belarus): habitational name for someone from any of the villages in Ukraine and Belarus called Pavlovka, from the eastern Slavic form of Paul. Czech (Pavlovský): from a possessive derivative of the personal name Pavel (see Paul), i.e. someone who is a member of Pavel’s household.

Ukrainian; Serbian and Croatian (Martinovic): patronymic from the personal name Martin.

English: ethnic name from Old French germain ‘German’ (Latin Germanus). This sometimes denoted an actual immigrant from Germany, but was also used to refer to a person who had trade or other connections with German-speaking lands. The Latin word Germanus is of obscure and disputed origin; the most plausible of the etymologies that have been proposed is that the people were originally known as the ‘spear-men’, with Germanic ger, gar ‘spear’ as the first element. English (of Norman origin): from the Old French personal name Germain (see Germain). Americanized spelling of Spanish Germán or Hungarian Germán, cognates of 2. German: from the saint’s name German(us). See also Germann. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): Russianized variant of Hermann. Greek: reduced form of Germanos, a Greek personal name, bestowed in honor of saints of the Eastern Church distinct from St. Germain: in particular, St. Germanos in the 8th century, liturgical poet and patriarch of Constantinople. The Greek surname can also denote someone associated with Germany or someone with blond hair.

Ukrainian and Belorussian: patronymic from Mikula, Ukrainian and Belorussian form of Nicholas.

Ukrainian: patronymic from the personal name Roman.

Serbian and Croatian (Filipovic); also Ukrainian: patronymic from the personal name Filip, a vernacular form of Greek Philippos (see Philip).

Polish and eastern Slavic: nickname from korsak ‘steppe fox’, a Turkish loanword in various Slavic languages. Belorussian (Kóršak): nickname for someone thought to resemble a hawk, from kóršak ‘kite’.

Ukrainian: patronymic from the personal name Petr (see Peter).

Russian and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): from eastern Slavic litvin, an ethnic name for someone from Lithuania. Compare Litwak.

Polish and Ukrainian: occupational name for a stallholder, budnik, a derivative of buda ‘stall’.

Polish, Ukrainian, German, and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic):noccupational name for a fisherman, an agent derivative of ryban‘fish’ (see Ryba). AB, AC

Russian and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): patronymic name from the personal name David.

Americanized spelling of Polish Jarosz or Czech and Slovak Jaroš (see Jaros), or from a Russianized form of these names.

Americanized spelling of Polish Kuczynski (see Kuczynski) or Kucinski (see Kucinski). Jewish (from Belarus): habitational name for someone from Kuchin, now in Belarus.

Russian and Jewish (from Belarus): patronymic from the nickname soroka ‘magpie’, denoting a garrulous or thievish person, or someone with a streak of white among black hair. In the case of the Jewish surname it is normally an ornamental name, one of the many taken from the names of birds.

Ukrainian and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): from a diminutive of Tkach.

Russian, Bulgarian, and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): patronymic from the personal name Marko (see Mark).

Ukrainian, Polish, Sorbian, Czech, Slovak (Kozák), and Hungarian (Kozák): ethnic name for a Cossack, a member of a people descended from a group of runaway serfs who set up a semi-independent military republic in Ukraine in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Cossacks became noted for their military prowess. The word Cossack is of Turkic origin, but most European languages borrowed it from eastern Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian kazák, kozák). This term also came to be used as a nickname for a pert fellow, a devil-may-care blusterer. Polish and Czech (Kozák): metonymic occupational name for a goatherd, from a diminutive of Koza. Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname from Yiddish kozak ‘warrior’, ‘brave man’ (a Ukrainian loanword), a derivative of 1.

Russian: patronymic from the personal name Dmitri, from Greek Demetrios (see Demetriou).

regional name for someone from the medieval province of Masovia (Polish Mazowsze), which includes modern Masuria. Polish: nickname from Polish mazur ‘rustic’.

Serbian and Croatian (Stefanovic, Štefanovic): patronymic from Stefan or Štefan, Latin Stephanus (see Steven).

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic), Ukrainian, and Belorussian: nickname from Ukrainian shostak, Belorussian shastak ‘someone with a six-fingered hand’. Compare Polish Szostak.

Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Hungarian (Rák), and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): from Slavic rak ‘crab’, ‘lobster’, or ‘crayfish’. This was applied as an occupational name for someone who caught and sold crayfish, crabs, or lobsters, or as a nickname to someone thought to resemble such a creature. In Polish, the word is found in several idioms, for example, czerwony jak rak ‘red as a lobster’. In Slovenian, it only means ‘crayfish’.

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic) and Polish: altered form of Nowicki.

Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Dutch, and German: from the personal name Gil, from French Gille(s), from Latin Aegidius (see Giles). German: from Slavic gil ‘bullfinch’, probably a nickname for a simpleton.

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): habitational name from the city of Cherkassy in Ukraine.

Polish (Manko) and Ukraininan: from a pet form of the personal name Emanuel. Americanized spelling of Slovak Manko, from the personal name Mána. Hungarian (Mankó): from mankó ‘crutch’, hence a nickname for a lame person.

English, French, German, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Hungarian (Urbán), and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): from a medieval personal name (Latin Urbanus meaning ‘city dweller’, a derivative of urbs ‘town’, ‘city’). The name was borne by a 4th-century saint, the patron saint of vines, and by seven early popes. The Jewish surname represents an adoption of the Polish personal name.

Americanized spelling of Polish and Ukrainian Bogus.

Czech and Slovak, Croatian and Serbian, Slovenian, Hungarian (Novák), and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): from Slavic novy ‘new’, denoting a newcomer to a place. Compare English Newman. Slovenian: also a topographic name for a peasant who settled on newly cleared land.

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic) and German: variant spelling of Kaminski.

Jewish (from Belarus): habitational name for someone from the village of Gury in Belarus. Russian: patronymic from the personal name Gury (variant of Yuri) or Georgi, derivatives of Greek Georgios (see George).

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): occupational name from Belorussian kushner ‘furrier’, a word of German origin (see Kurschner).

Polish (Karas); Hungarian (Kárász); Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Slovenian (Prekmurje), and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from Slavic karas ‘crucian carp’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a carp fisher or possibly a nickname for someone with a fishlike appearance. As a Jewish name it is mainly an ornamental name. Greek: from a nickname meaning ‘black’ (see Caras). Hungarian: topographic name for someone living by the Karas river, a tributary of the river Danube, named with Turkish kara ‘black’ + sug ‘water’. German: from a short form of the personal name Zacharias or of the Greek saint’s name Makarios, meaning ‘blessed one’.

Polish (Kulak): nickname from an eastern Slavic word meaning ‘fist’. Jewish (from Belarus): habitational name from Kulaki, now in Belarus.

Jewish and Ukrainian: variant of Soroka.

Americanized spelling of Serbian and Croatian Jankovic or Slovenian Jankovic (see Jankovic).

Czech: nickname from the vocabulary word mnich ‘monk’.

Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant spelling of Lipski.

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic) and Russian: patronymic from Abram, an Eastern Slavic form of the personal name Abraham.

Korean: there is one Chinese character for the surname Kim. Kim is the most common Korean surname, comprising about 20 percent of the Korean population. According to some sources, there are over 600 different Kim clans, but only about 100 have been documented. Kims can be found in virtually every part of Korea. The two largest Kim clans, the Kim family of Kimhae and the Kim family of Kyongju, are descended from semi-mythological characters who lived two thousand years ago. According to legend, the Kimhae Kim family founder, Kim Suro, came in answer to a prayer offered by the nine elders of the ancient Karak Kingdom. In 42 ad, these elders met together to pray for a king. In answer to their prayer, they were sent a golden box containing six golden eggs. From the first egg emerged King Su-ro, Karak’s first king. The other five eggs became the five kings of Karak’s neighboring kingdom, Kaya. The founder of the Kim family of Kyongju, Kim Al-ji, had similar origins. In 65 ad the king of Shilla, T’alhae, heard a strange sound from a forest near the Shilla capital, Kyongju. On investigation he found a crowing white rooster standing next to a golden egg. From this egg emerged Al-ji, founder of the Kyongju Kim family and subsequent king of the Shilla Kingdom. Because Al-ji emerged from a golden egg, King T’alhae bestowed upon the child the surname Kim, which means ‘gold’. It is estimated that about half of the one hundred or so Kim clans of modern Korea are descended from the Kyongju Kim clan. Swiss German: unexplained.

English and Scottish: occupational name for a miller. The standard modern vocabulary word represents the northern Middle English term, an agent derivative of mille ‘mill’, reinforced by Old Norse mylnari (see Milner). In southern, western, and central England Millward (literally, ‘mill keeper’) was the usual term. The American surname has absorbed many cognate surnames from other European languages, for example French Meunier, Dumoulin, Demoulins, and Moulin; German Mueller; Dutch Molenaar; Italian Molinaro; Spanish Molinero; Hungarian Molnár; Slavic Mlinar, etc. Southwestern and Swiss German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Müller (see Mueller).

Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian (Bárány): nickname from baran ‘ram’, borne by either a forceful, lusty man or else by a shepherd. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): ornamental name from the same word, baran ‘ram’.

Ukrainian: patronymic from a pet form of the personal name Demjan (see Damian) or Dymitr (Latin Demetrius; see Demetriou).

Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): habitational name for someone from any of many places in different parts of eastern Europe named Ostrov, from Eastern Slavic ostrov ‘island’, ‘water meadow’.

Polish and Ukrainian: probably a derivative of a reduced form of the personal name Dominik (Latin Domenicus).

Ukrainian and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): occupational name for a weaver, Ukrainian tkach, a derivative of tkaty ‘to weave’.

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): habitational name for someone from Shumsk in Ukraine or Shumskas in Lithuania.

Americanized spelling of German Bartosch, Hungarian Bartos, or Polish Bartosz. Ukrainian: from a pet form of the personal name Bartolomij, Ukrainian form of Bartholomew.

Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): occupational name from Ukrainian and Belorussian kravets ‘tailor’, a derivative of Old Slavic kravati ‘to cut’.

Jewish (from Ukraine): habitational name from Kardash, a village in Rovno district, Ukraine. Americanized spelling of Slavic Kardas 1.

Polish (Górski) and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): variant of Gorski.

German: presumably a topographic name from Middle High German nest ‘nest’, ‘hideout’, ‘home’, or possibly a nickname for a surly person, from a derivative of Middle High German nast ‘knot’ (see Nast). German: habitational name for someone from Nest, a place near Köslin in eastern Germany. Possibly an altered spelling of Nestor.

Russian and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): elaborated form of Orlov (see Orloff). Jewish (from Poland): variant of Orlowski.

Polish and Ukrainian: from a derivative of pop ‘priest’ (see Popek).

French (Séverin), Italian (Venice), German, Swedish, etc.: from a personal name, Latin Severinus, from the same root as Severus (see Severe). This was borne by several early Christian saints, including bishops of Trier (2nd century), Cologne (4th century), Bordeaux (5th century), and Santempeda (6th century), and hermits of Paris (6th century) and Tivoli (8th century), as well as a 5th-century apostle of Austria. Reduced form of Ashkenazic Jewish Severinovsky, a habitational name for someone from Severinovka in Ukraine.

Ukrainian: nickname for a taciturn individual, from molchat ‘to be silent’.

Chinese : from a character meaning ‘minister’. This was part of the title of Gao Yao, a great-grandson of the legendary emperor Zhuan Xu, who became famous as a minister under the model emperors Yao and Shun in the 23rd century bc; he was the first to introduce laws for the repression of crime. His descendants adopted this part of his title as their surname. The use of this name continued for over a millennium to the twelfth century bc, down to the rule of the last king of the Shang dynasty, the despotic Zhou Xin. Li Zhi, the head of the Li clan at that time, displeased Zhou Xin and was executed, leaving the rest of the clan facing imminent disaster. They fled, and nearly starved to death, surviving only by eating a fruit called mu zi. When the characters for mu and zi are combined, they form the character for plum, pronounced Li. In token of this salvation, the clan changed their name to the current character for li ‘plum’. Li is now the most common surname in China. Among the many famous bearers are Lee Kwan Yew, prime minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990; Lee Teng-hui, president of Taiwan from 1988; Li Peng, prime minister of China from 1988; and Bruce Lee (1941–73), movie actor. Chinese : from the name of a state of Li (in present-day Shanxi province), which existed during the Shang dynasty (1766–1122 bc). Descendants of the state’s rulers adopted the name of the state as their surname. Chinese : this character for Li is an altered form of 1 above. Norwegian: habitational name from any of numerous farmsteads named Li, from Old Norse hlíð ‘mountain slope’, ‘hillside’.

Ukrainian, Belorussian, Slovak (Medved’), Czech (Medved), Slovenian, Croatian, and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): from the nickname Medved ‘bear’, applied to a large, strong, or clumsy person. In some cases this name may be a reduced form of Ukrainian or Belorussian Medvedev, a patronymic name of the same origin.

Czech and Slovak (Vaško): from a pet form of the personal name Václav (see Vacek). South Slavic: from a pet form of Váso, a pet form of the personal name Vasil, Slavic form of Basil. Ukrainian: from a pet form of Vasyl, Ukrainian form of Basil.

Catalan: probably a topographic name from tur ‘tufa’, ‘porous limestone’. This name is very common in the Pitusses (Eivissa and Formentera) and Balearic Islands (Majorca and Minorca). Polish, Belorussian and Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): from the nickname Tur meaning ‘aurochs’, ultimately cognate with Latin taurus ‘bull’ (see Toro). The Jewish surname is generally ornamental in origin. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): habitational name from Tury in Belarus.

Ukrainian: from a pet form of the personal name Vit (see Vitek).

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic) and Hungarian (Polyák): variant of Polak ‘Pole’.