Ethnonymic surname
Ethnonymic surnames are surnames or bynames that originate from ethnonyms. They may originate from nicknames based on the descent of a person from a given ethnic group. Other reasons could be that a person came to a particular place from the area with different ethnic prevalence, from owing a property in such area, or had a considerable contact with persons or area of other ethnicity. Also, they may reflect the fact that a given person matched a particular ethnic stereotype.
In some research ethnonymic surnames are grouped together with toponymic surnames into "surname by origin", because many ethnonyms may be viewed as demonyms as well; e.g., Litwin is either a person of Lithuanian ethnicity or one from Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Etnnonymic surnames/nicknames may give rise to patronymic surnames: Arnaudov, Crnogorčević, Horvatović, Grković.
Latvia
A number of bynames were derived from the ethnonyms, usually from ethnic minorities, e.g., from "Liv"/"Livonian": Lībietis, Libete, Libes, Lybete, Libeth.... Kursis Curonians, Leitis, Prūsis.Laimute Balode and Laura Grīviņa noted that during the process of Latvianization many surnames relating to ethnonyms were replaced, despite their Lithuanian etymology, due to their perceived negative connotations. These include Krievs ‘Russian’, Žīdiņš < žīds ‘Jew’, Čigāns
‘Roma person’, Svede ‘Swede’. Pusvācietis ‘Half-German’ has the pejorative meaning of ‘a Latvian pretending to be German’.
Balode and Irvina remarked that the 1929 book by Latvian linguist about the ancient surnames of the 16th century notes that the Latvian word vācietis was not recorded as a surname, because Germans did not mix with Latvians. However in modern times the Latvian surname Vācietis does exist.
Lithuania
Ethnonymic surnames constitute about 1.2% in Lithuania. Čigonas, Žydas, Vokietis/Vokietys, Turkas, Gudas, Lenkas, Latvis, Maskolius, Rusas, PaliokasNames of ancient Baltic tribes also used as surnames: Aistis, Jotvingas, Notangas.
Yulia Gurskaya recorded a considerable number of ethnonymic surnames in historical documents of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
A significant number of ethnonymic surnames originated from the ethnonym "Lithuanian" in various languages.
Great Britain
English surnames, such as Scot/Scott, Welsh/Wallis, Dane, Dutch, or Irish most probably mean that the ancestors of the surname moved to England at some time, and they have these nicknames accordingly.Brannick is anglicized of Gaelic Breathnach (Breithneach, "Briton Also Fleming, Galbraith, Cornish.
Hungary
There are several dozen names of ethnonymic origin among Hungarian surnames. the constitute about 0.5% of all different Hungarian surnames, however people with these surnames are about 7-8% of the whole population. Three of them, Tóth, Horváth and Németh are among the 10 most frequent surnames in 2007. Compared to other European countries, ethnonymic surnames in Hungary constitute a relagively significant category.Other most frequent ethnonymic surnames are Oláh Romanian, Rácz Serb
Török Ottoman, Turkish
Magyar Hungarian
Orosz Rusyn, Russian
Lengyel Polish
Székely Sekler
Kun Cuman
Cseh Bohemian, Czech
Szász Saxon
Polák Polish
Bajor/Beyer Bayer Bavarian
Olasz Italian
Tatár Tatar Görög Greek Rusznyák Rusyn Unger Hungarian, Böhm Bohemian, Czech, Czigány Gypsy Szlávik Slavic Móré Romanian, Gypsy Uhrin Hungarian.
Some Hungarian ethnonymic names may have originated from nicknames associated with the secondary meaning of the term: görög, oláh, orosz, tatár also used to mean "pagan", bat later acquired the meaning of a violent person.
The ethnicity gave rise to surnames in various European cultures:
Mađar/Maďar/Madžar
Magyar
Ungar
Ungaro
Ungaretti
Unger
Ungerman,
Ungur
Ungureanu
Vengerov
Romania
Romanian philologist Ioan Bilețchi-Albescu specifically dealt with this subject. He classified the origins of Romanian ethnonymic surnames in four categories: ethnic affiliation, either immediate or distant; place of origin; ethnic stereotypes; sympathies towards a particular ethnicity. He gave an example of the last category: the nickname/surname Cazacul/Cazacu, "Cossack", may refer to the ethnicity of the person, but may also be given to a Romanian who admired the bravery of Cossacks.South Slavic provenance
There was an unusually high number of people with surnames/nicknames Sârbul/Sârbu or Sârbescu. It was explained that South Slavs fleeing the Ottoman Empire were indiscriminately called "Serbs" regardless their actual ethnicity. Another surname related to Serbs is Rațiu, which derives from the Hungarian-language term rác .In 2013, 14,719 persons had the surname Sârbu, and 1,333 had the surname Bulgaru.
Nomadic/itinerant peoples
Coman : 579 persons; Tătaru: 3,350; Calmâș : 664, Calmăș: 1. Nogai : 455; Nohaiu: 1,774.Also Țiganu, Comănescu.
Other
Armenians functioned as a "middleman minority" and tradespeople in many places of Europe, as well as in the Ottoman Empire. In particular, in Romanian records of the 18th century there were many Armenians without surname and identified by the ethnicity, e.g., "David, arman, cafegiu ". Eventually there references turned into the Romanian surname Arman/Armanu. In 2013 Romania the surnames Arman had 442 persons, Armanu 367 persons, and more contemporary form Armeanu from armean, Armenian, had 36 persons.Russians/Rusyns/Ruthenians: Rusu: 23,589; Russu: 7,250; Rus: 86, Russo: 50; Ruso: 3. Other older and rarer surnames include Rusan, Rusoi, Rusuleț. Maria Cosniceanu notes that in documents of 14th-16th centuries the appellation "Rus" sometimes was not an ethnonym but from an archaic adjective meaning a darker shade of blond hair.
The nickname Turcul meant not only a person of Turkish ethnicity, but also to a person who had traits stereotypically attributed to Turks: stubborn, arrogant, disregardful, etc. Also 'turcul' was synonymous to "pagan". Turcu: 1,023; Turculeț: 1,156.
Cerchez appeared in Romania as a nickname because Circassians were common in the cavalry of the Ottoman Empire. In 2013 there were 877 persons with the surname.
Arnăut,
Ceh,
Frâncu/Frîncu,
Grecu,
Leahu,
Neamțu,
Muscalu,
Ungur, Maghiar
Other languages
In many languages there are surnames derived from the ethnicit "German":Finnish language:
Suomalainen Ruotsalainen Venäläinen Virolainen
French language:
Lallemand/Lallemant, Langlois, Breton, Lenormand/Lenormant.
Greek surnames:
Albanian: Alvanos/Albanos, Arnaoutis, Arvanitis; Bulgarian: Voulgaris, Vlachs : Vlachos; Serb: Servos; Montenegro: Mavrovouniotis; Armenis, Livanos, Frangos, Maltezos, Roussos
In Russia, 2% of Don Cossack surnames are ethnonymic, most common being Gruzinov, Nemchinov, Tatarinov Grekov, Kalmykov, Litvinov, Lyakhov. Also Mordvinov, Polyakov
Turkish language: Türkmen Türkmenoğlu (surname)
South Slavic-language surnames
Crnogorac.Croatian language: Srb, Tot, Čeh, Mađar, Bošnjak
Slovak language:
Slovák, Nemec, Polák, Rusnák, Chorvát