New surnames for baptized natives
Upvote:1
In Russia or elsewhere, was it normal to get a surname at baptism?
Not neccessarily.
Did any rules guide selection of the surnames?
What sorts of surnames were used other than the officiator's own?
For example, in the territory of modern-day Republic of Latvia, surnames arrived gradually and in different ways:
[Note, as I am no historian I may mix up some of the terms such as "peasant", "farmer", "free tenant", especially since in Latvian they are sometimes also used in place of each other with the single name "zemnieks"(farmer). Please indicate corrections, where appropriate.] The following is translation from Latvian:
The first surnames appeared with German entry into Livonia. Initially only German baronial families had them, but later on also city-dwellers and free farmers (free peasants?). Serfs didn't have surnames. Usually serfs were identified by the name of their house, traits of character or occupation, and within borders of a single manor that was enough.
At the time of emancipation of serfs (after 1819), farmers could move freely between manors, and the problem of personal identification and entries in manor documents was raised. Therefore farmers were ordered to adopt surnames. The first "surnamings" took place in Vidzeme (part of Latvia) from 1822-1826.
The surname could be adopted only by the elder of the family (dzimta, in these terms a bit broader term than nuclear family of today), and the same surname had to be used by his sons and grandsons. If any of the sons had started an independent life, he could take his own surname. Brothers could take each their own surnames also if the father (the eldest of the family) was dead.
So as you can see, no direct linking to baptism -- territory of Latvia was Christianized centuries(12th-14th century) before surnames were adopted.
Choice of surname
The peasant had to choose surname by himself, and it was forbidden for it to be inappropriate to his class: he couldn't take a surname of German gentry, their family or surname of a famous person/family. It was advised to choose Latvian surnames.
The main types of surnames were based on:
Place names: name of house or closest place
Countryside and nature: Eg. Putniņš (Birdie), Žagata (Magpie), Ozoliņš(Oak-ie), Krūmiņš (Bush-ie) [-ie being my attempted translation of the denuminative form of -iņš)
Foreign names or father's name: Jēkabsons, Pētersons, Neilands, Lembergs…
Profession and occupation: Kalējs (Smith), Mūrnieks (Mason)
Double surnames: Dauge-Daugava, Rieksta-Riekstiņa
Human characteristics: Strups (Short), Resnis (Fat), Zilgalvis (Blue-head)
Human names: Valters (Walter), Miķelis (Michael)
Nationalities: Krievs (Russian), Lībis, Letis (Lett = Latvian)
Orthodox church members and Russians used also the patronymic.
Source: Blog of Latvian State History Archive, which in turn refers to a journal publication:
Andrejs Plakans, Charles Wetherell: Patrilinear geneology, surnames and family identity: Baltic governorate of the Russian Empire in 19th century, published in "Latvian Archives", 2003, #3. (Latvian)
PS. Note also, that the adoption of surnames happened under the rule of Russian Empire, so it is likely that everywhere in the Russian Empire serfs were given surnames at the time of emancipation. HOWEVER, it appears that not everywhere in Russia the emancipation happened at the same time.
More post
- 📝 Why does Romanian culture have Latin influences?
- 📝 How popular, or not, was the Mexican Goverment in the Cristero War (1927 - 1929)?
- 📝 Which were the most important ghettos during Holocaust?
- 📝 Abraham Lincoln Quote Background
- 📝 When has a sovereign state last given territory to another as a gift?
- 📝 How would Chess have been played in England in 1450-1600?
- 📝 Did the Diggers view property as a sin?
- 📝 What was the maximum percent of the Soviet territory that was under Nazi control?
- 📝 Why did Sweden not fortify Swedish Livonia along its eastern frontier, including the approaches to Riga?
- 📝 Was there a Princess of Wales between 1727 and 1736?
- 📝 Were there religious wars between two sects in Hinduism?
- 📝 In the Great Purge, how many purged military officers served in Tsarist times?
- 📝 Was World War I a war of liberals against authoritarians?
- 📝 How is the discipline of History differentiated from other disciplines in social sciences or the humanities?
- 📝 What is the basis for the argument that the true believers in Juche died in the N. Korean famine?
- 📝 Help identify this camouflage military style jacket?
- 📝 Are there any examples of European rulers with a rank lower than king to utilize a "throne" and a "throne room"?
- 📝 Why did Sparta turn on its ally Elis during the First Macedonian War?
- 📝 Why were helmets and other body armour not commonplace in the 1800s?
- 📝 Economic status of whites in the US South at the height of slavery?
- 📝 What would have happened had Stalin not had the Siberian forces help?
- 📝 Were Tipu Sultan and his father sultans or prime ministers?
- 📝 Where was the cultural inheritance of the Greco/Roman world/antiquity preserved?
- 📝 Did Nazi party members request exemption for their pre-war Jewish acquaintances?
- 📝 Did Herman Melville write the "textbook" chapters of Moby Dick?
- 📝 What is the origin of Rap?
- 📝 Under what circumstances did the Vikings leave for North America?
- 📝 Why were Hoplite shields circular?
- 📝 What is the reasoning behind these huge numbers for participants in the Battle of Grunwald 1410?
- 📝 What types of jobs did upper class Romans do?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 New surnames for baptized natives
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 Where can I find the original "On the New Rules for Destroying Countries" (1901) by Liang Qichao?
- 📝 Is there any science behind this graph that suggests we'd be exploring new galaxies if not for the dark ages?
- 📝 What is the corruption that John Winthrop mentions in "Reasons for the Plantation in New England" (1628)
- 📝 How long did it take for mail to get to London from New York in 1919?
- 📝 Was it normal for New York schools in the late 1960s to be desegregated?
- 📝 Did any U.S. states or cities (outside of New York) ever make a decision to construct nuclear fallout shelters for their population?
- 📝 Why did Native Americans die from European diseases while Europeans didn't catch serious diseases from the New World?
- 📝 Why Were Madagascar and New Zealand Discovered So Late?
- 📝 What were the reasons for the Renaissance / scientific revolution in Europe?
- 📝 Was murdering a slave illegal in American slavery, and if so, what punishments were given for it?
- 📝 What do the phone number suffixes J, M, R, W in 1940 New York phone book mean?
- 📝 What are the factors that caused the new world civilizations to be less technologically advanced than the old world?
- 📝 Why were there no internment camps for German-American citizens in USA during WW2?
- 📝 Has there ever been a case when a traitorous military commander took command again for the side he betrayed?
- 📝 Why did Britain not purchase Alaska when Russia had it up for sale?
- 📝 Why was it "acceptable" for Prince Charles to marry a divorced woman, when Edward VIII had to abdicate for marrying divorcee Wallis Simpson?
- 📝 Why is Christopher Columbus credited for "discovering" America?
- 📝 How did German unification affect existing sentences for criminal convicts?
- 📝 What is the logic for the map maker classifying the map this way, specifically in Canada?
- 📝 Was it militarily possible to "island hop" the Philippines if not for MacArthur?
- 📝 Earliest evidence of objects intended for future archaeologists?
- 📝 Were kamikaze pilots an effective strategy for Japan?
- 📝 What is the reason for the selections of gun caliber size in history?
- 📝 What is the historical basis for the Exodus?
- 📝 Does any country have an official celebration for the annexation of foreign territory?
- 📝 Did Roman unmarried men have a preferred hand and finger for wearing their seal ring?
- 📝 Did the end of the British Raj in India create an economic loss for Britain?
- 📝 What's the rationale for shipping coins back to Spain from its colonies?
