Explaining Ukrainian Surnames Part Two

17 March, 10:46 38737 0

This post continues the summary of Grey Gressa's article, "Origins and Meaning of Ukrainian Surnames"

Many Ukrainian surnames originates from the occupation or profession of an ancestor at the time when surnames began to be recorded, which covers a time period of over five hundred years--1300-1800. Please read the previous post from March 9, 2016, "Explaining Ukrainian Surnames Part One".
Part Three will cover suffixes and other grammatical structures that add meaning to surnames.

Surnames from Occupations and Professions

Surnames from Administrative and government terms

Starosta                                        village elder
Viitenk, vdichenko                       village mayor, also known as the Viit
Pysar                                            scribe, official recorder
Desyantnik                                   foreman
Voyevoda                                     governor
Vozniak, Wozniak                        bailiff

Ukrainian Village

Surnames that indicate social class

Bachach                                 wealthy man
Kripak    serf
Panych gentleman, noble
Holota    poor man/person
Shliakhta    gentleman/gentry

Surnames from military terms

Hetman Cossack leader/chief (still used during World War I)
Kozak     cossack, soldier who fought on horseback
Ulan lancer
Soldat     soldier
Zhovnir    soldier

Surnames from the arts

Spivak singer
Malyar                                 painter
Kynzhnyk                            scribe, writer
Dudar    piper

Painting by Ukrainian painter Ivan Honchar

Surnames relating to religion or the church

Palamar sacristan
Vladyka                            archbishop
Diak    clerk, cantor
Tytar     church warden

Surnames relating to economic life, the trades and rural occupations

Melnyk                               miller
Tkach, Tkachuk                 weaver
Kylymnyk    weaver or maker of rugs
Vynnk                                 vinter, winemaker
Pyvovar                               brewer
Rudnyk                               miner
Hutniak                               glass maker
Bodnar, bodnaruk     cooper, a person who made barrels
Honchar    pottter, maker of pottery and crockery
Koval, kovalchuk               blacksmith
Kolodiy                               cartwright, built carts
Kolisnyk                             wheelmaker
Kravets, kravetsiv               tailor
kravchenko, kravchuk
krawchuk
kushnir     tanner
Pekar                                    baker
Orach                                   plowman
Chaban, vivchar                   shepard
Kosar                                   made/grew hay
Kupets, kupechenko            merchant, shopkeeper
Kramar                                 shopkeeper
Shynkar                                innkeeper
Ptashnyk                               person who raises fowl
Rybalka                                fisherman
Bobrovnyk       trapper
Shevchenko, shevts     shoemaker, cobbler
Volovyk, wolowyk    oxherder

Mykola Pymenenko "Gathering Hay"

Surnames derived from Individual's Physical Characteristics

These names may have come from nick-names and some have had unflattering connotations.

Surnames from parts of the body

Nis nose
Zub teeth
Noha foot
oko eye

Scene from Shostakovich's opera, "The Nose", based on a story by Gogol.

Surnames from physical characteristics of an ancestor

Kutsyi                                               short
Holynastyi, holinaty                         long-legged
Bezushko                                          missing an ear
Hlukh                                                deaf
Rudiak                                              red headed
Borodayko                                        Has a beard
Kryvonis                                           crooked nose
Dziuba, dzioba    beak-nose
Horbatiuk                                          humpbacked
Sostak                                               Has six fingers
Balan                                                 blond
Bilyi, Bilyk                                       light complexion

painting by Mykola Hlushchenko

Surnames from character or psychological traits of an ancestor

Dobrun a good and kind person
Duma    thoughtful
Balaken talkative
Zaderii    argumentative
Brekhun    a liar
Hulei person who deceives
Hladka                                             overweight, fat or stout
Hergot, hergota    person who sound like quacking ducks
Svystun    person who whistles
Mandrusiak    person who wanders
Dervak first born
Tretiak third one, probably third child
Burchylo unfriendly
zakhodho                                         a loner, rarely visits others
Odynets person who keeps to him/herself

Zhurba sorrowful
Plaksa                                              crier, crybaby
Zabudko                                          forgetful