That's archaic and is common in greeks of pontiac descent er also have "poulos" or most commonly in cyprus just the genitive case of the name which mean pretty much the same. Many greeks have the turkish -oglu which means son too and cretan -akis might be the same
@@legocitykilldozerI would say -idis -adis is almost exclusively pontian (there are some exceptions, such as with the naturalisation of people of eastern Thrace who were assigned -idis if the person doing the paperwork was pontian, long story), with -poulos -poulou being perhaps the most prevalent as it means "child of." Cypriot is a curious case because it was greatly affected by British rule.
I heard they had a king who they loved and whose name was ending in Ian. So to honour him, they all added the ian at the end of their names when he died.
@@egg_2705Do you have any source on the claim that pontians might have assigned some surnames to Thracians? Or could you elaborate? I myself am a Greek originally from Didimotichon, Western Thrace and my surname ends with -idis. My famils is not Pontian but instead claims to have centuries long roots in Thrace. I'm very keen to learn more about the history of my surname.
From the linguistic perspective, it’s very interesting to me how, across the board, humanity in different places and times of history pretty much came up with the same general kinds of surnames: family ties, filial descent, occupation or phisical quirks. I like to remind myself of that when I risk slipping into thinking less of a different ethnic or national/linguistic group than mine ❤️
My thoughts exactly, it's so fascinating to learn about common linguistic themes! Especially Armenian because it's rare to learn much about Armenian culture and history in the West.
Also interesting when you consider that many cultures traditionally don't even have surnames. In fact, where I'm from people are given two names, usually a religious one and a cultural one but no surnames. This means that members of the same family will usually all have different names with no shared family name.
Slavic languages incorporate also diminutives into the surnames, often to distinguish generations in the village - like in Czech, you have Kovář (meaning blacksmith, turned from profession into a surname), his son may become Kovařík (it's actually a pretty common surname, meaning literally a small blacksmith) and there is even Kovaříček (even smaller blacksmith :D ). To add some fun into it, there are also surnames like Nekovařík (prefix ne- meaning the same as non- in English, so now you have someone who is not a small blacksmith :D). I do understand most of the surname origins, but one type that confuses me is naming people bird names, like how did that became a thing? :D
I love the Ukrainian subset of last names which belonged to Kossaks that described them in a funny way. I had a teacher with the last name Nepeipivo which means (don't drink beer)
A fun game I like to play is “spot the Armenian” whenever film or tv credits play and I look for people whose last names end with -ian, but sometimes they end up not being Armenian but that’s pretty rare
-ian and -yan doesn't mean son of, it means the same as the -ian suffix in English. Also, Armenians from Iran have -ian last names, even though they're Eastern.
@@janesays1278 Many people said it's most likely a family lore that alot of White people like to use in the south(but it is possible, especially if their from the south) but she has zero connections and older relatives that are, and Cher even said that she isn't and just launched onto it for her Celeb imagine, and even if she had a tiny bit of Cherokee in her ancestry, she didn't know shit about it and would wear headdress(which is meant for leaders and people highly admired in the tribe) the wrong way and in my opinions she sexualized it not because she was showing skin but the way she presented it, not to mention that she influenced alot of people to wear Native american costumes and headdresses, not entirely her fault but u get me. And ik she apologized(which many Native american did not like and accept)
I love learning more about Armenia's culture, I'm Iranian so there are a few similarities since Armenia shares a boarder with the north of Iran. Armenians have a very rich and underrated culture that isn't talked about enough, so thank you for videos like these 🫶
Same thing with Scottish and Irish surnames, with the prefix Mc/Mac. MacManus = son of Magnus, McGowan = Smith's son, MacKenzie = Son of the white haired guy, etc.
Yea,Bagratuni,Arcruni,Arshakuni etc. It's great to see armenian culture on youtube ,and it's talked about by nit armenian or russian,but romani! Our cultures are underrated,seding love to all of us❤
Reminds me of Icelandic! In Icelandic (and other Scandi countries too, though most prevalent, from what I remember, in Iceland) there is are two common suffixes in surnames, -son (“son”) and -dottir (“daughter”). So the surname “Magnusson” would literally be “son of Magnus”, and a “Hermansdottir” would be “daughter of Herman”! :DD Edit: -son, not -sson 😅
Small correction: the suffix is -son, not -sson. The reason for the first 's' is that it's possessive. The way you say "the son of Sven", or "Sven's son" in most nordic languages is "Svens son". "Svens son" as one word => Svensson We're litterally just explaining who the person is 😅 "Yeah, that's Erik, Sven's son"
Iceland does not use surnames. Over there that IS actually who they are the son or daughter of. Example: Anna Freyjadottir has a parent named Frei And Anna could name her daughter Emma and it would be Emma Annadottir. Some people go the extra mile and cite both parents like for example Emma Annadottir-Jondottir. Emma Annas daughter and Jons daughter. Heck one girl was literally just called the icelandic word for GIRL in her official identity documents because her name was not approved until a few years ago. Iceland is the oddesr example you could have chosen.
I never realized that’s what the last names Rodriguez and Gonzales meant despite being surrounded by people with them. You really learn something new everyday 😯.
Sindhi people have the suffix ‘ani ‘ To mean descending from a man, for example Mukesh Ambani, is descended from a male in his line who had the name Amba or smthng similar.
Oh please Mukesh Ambani is Gujrati not Sindhi. He doesn't even look Sindhi. Yes 98% of people with ending name "aani" are Sindhis but 2% could be from elsewhere.
In Russian most surnames end with either ‘ov’/‘ev’ or ‘in’/‘en’. Generally they derive from the occupation of an ancestor in the past or a name of an ancestor. Like, one of the most popular surnames in Russia is Ivanov - son of Ivan (pronounced not Ivan but more like Evan actually). Or Kuznetsov would be son of a smith, basically like the surname Smith in English.
@@dhuejshsiwnxjw WHAT does that have to do with anything lmao. People can be talking about bears living in Siberia and the replies will be ‘let’s not forget the fact that y’all are using bears to kill natives’. nobody is forcing Russian last names on Ukrainians, we don’t need to do that. We don’t have time or resource to do that. We won’t do that because it makes no sense. 2) our last names aren’t gross. In fact, many Ukrainians have Russian last names because we have been part of one country for centuries and even when that wasn’t the case, we were close neighbours. The fact that the Russian government invaded Ukraine does not make Russian culture gross.
@@Fijkast who even mentioned ukranians? Shows u dont know ur own country. idgaf about ukraine, i wasnt talking about ukraine i wasnt even thinking about ukraine in the slightest. i have a russian last name even though i have nothing to do with russians or the russian language so yes you most definitely have the time and resource to do it to people if you want to. Ukranians are basically ethnic russians anyways. Genetically, culturally, ur language is similar and u share the same religion so you dont feel the need to russify them, Also, russian culture is literally just fragments of other cultures put together. Take that how u will ig. Maybe read up on ur history before assuming everyones some salty ukranian. Lol i can tell you grew up in the west. Good for you.
My Russian great grandmother’s last name was Constantinofskya or ovskya. Does anyone know what this name means/ translates to? She was from Elizabethgrad if that helps.
It is the same in Ireland. We have "Fitz" which gives us Fitzgerald (son of gerald) and "Mac" which gives us any of the names starting with "Mac". "Mac" means son in irish gaelic, but I'm not sure if "Fitz" is originally Irish or if it came over with the Normans.
And some royals used the fitz to add to a bastards last name as a way of acknowledging that they were his child but not in the line of succession. Usually Fitzroy. Bastard of royalty
I normally keep commenting to a minimum on here but… So glad I found you; I have been learning so much from you. I fell in love with Disney’s Esmeralda when the movie came out (I was 7) and wanted to be her for Halloween but a lovely woman my mother worked with helped make me a costume that was appreciative of Romani culture. I am learning so much from you and your beautiful culture.❤
in finland you can kinda tell if someone's family comes from the west or the east of the country because -nen surnames are common in the east and -la surnames are common in the west
this is so interesting and cool to learn, thank you!! I'm half arab and we have a similar concept for last names, at least where my family is from (tunisia). my dad's last name used to be Ben Hedi, which basically means "son of Hedi", his father. I love learning about other languages and cultures and seeing the similarities as well as differences!!
For Levantine and Iraqi Arabs, we do the Ibn/bin as the middle name. So my name is Ramsey Ibn Nabil Keilani, or 'Ramsey, son of Nabil, Keilani', with Keilani being the family name. In the gulf, they sometimes write Ibn as bin
@@ramseykeilani9569Yeah, and even though it's rare in my country (I'm not Arab but people commonly use bin formally), sometimes people write their ancestry
In a way, it works similarly to how Polish surnames work. With suffixes like "ski/ska", "czyk" "iak", "owicz/ewicz", "arz". (Although if you are a woman and have a surname like Kowalski, it would be Kowalska). For example: Matusiak - That's son of Mateusz, which is the equivalent to Matthews. I've also met someone with the surname Matuszewski, that would also be Matthews if that were anglicised too. Kowalczyk - This would be "son of a blacksmith", the English equivalent would probably be Coleman or something like that. Bartoszek - Son of Bartosz, which would be something akin to that of Bartholomew when that gets anglicised. Bednarz - This is an occupational surname, meaning "cooper" someone who makes buckets and troughs. Rzeznik - This would be "butcher" (similar to how French has boucher and German has metzger). Wiśniewski/Wiśniewska - Son or daughter of someone who lived in a town called Wiśniewo, also derives from the word wiśnia which means "cherry". Also, Welsh does a similar thing. In old Welsh surnames we would have "ap". For example: Griffiths, that is an anglicised version of the Welsh surname ap Gruffudd, son of Gruffudd/Griffith. Then there's Powell, originally from "ap Hywel", son of Hywel/Howell. Ending with the surname: Pritchard - From the old Welsh surname of ap Richard, similar to Richards or Richardson. That would be son of Richard. For English surnames anything ending in -ton can denote a place where someone lived by. Milton/Millington - This is a habitational surname for someone who lived in a town with a mill in it. Felton - Another habitational surname, this would mean a bearer of the surname would've had a descendant who would have lived in a town by a field. Partington (my surname) - My surname descended from an Anglo-Saxon name meaning "Pearta's town", and is a place formerly in Cheshire but is near Manchester.
I’m so glad I found this Channel . I had no idea about any Romani culture. Now that I seen your videos I can see just how important facing history is. Keep doing what you’re doing! You’re educating so many people!❤❤❤
I found my birth mom (who is of English/American descent) married an Armenian man. I have 3 half brothers who are half Armenian. They live in Fresno, California. Which has a sizable Armenian population. I saw there were actually two Armenian Orthodox churches is Fresno. I look forward to visiting them.
Love learning something new. It is the same in Icelandish. Dottir meaning daughter and sson meaning son. I always noticed ian indicated Armenian. Just like ic indicates Yugoslavian (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian/K) Like Jokic, Danilovic, etc. Of course this is not 100% of the time. Somehow neglected to see the commonality in Johnson and Jackson😮 I had no clue about Gonzales and Rodriguez. You are bringing such informative videos. Thank you little Brother
It's fascinating to see all the languages that do this. Here in Ireland, quite famously, the 'O' prefix means son/descendant of, and in Scotland the 'Mc' prefix means son/descendant of
This is why we need to learn about other cultures. Because once the myster is removed, you start seeing the similarities and realize we can be diverse but also have cornerstones of understanding.
@@meia1855 actually stone cutting in ancient days was a fancy job. Specially with the Armenians. Most of Irans stone work was done by Armenians. But you’re right they would be really happy 😊
I'm Brazilian and there's a large Armenian community in my state. Some famous Armenian Brazilians are Aracy Balabanian, Denis Derkian, Fiuk and Stepan Nercessian (actors), Marcelo Dijan (short for Kiremitdjian, formar football player and Brazilian national), Serpui Marie (fashion designer), and Antônio Kandir (former politician), among many others.
This is so interesting. In Arabic, we also use "son of" and "daughter of." But not as a suffix in the name, but as word after the name. Bin for son and bint for daughter. I also want to point out that I have grown to love Romani culture as I learn about it from your channel. It resembles in some ways my tribal Arab roots. ❤
Another variation of last name ending for Armenians is "-unc" like "Bakunc" or "Tokhunc". Same meaning as -yan, but is widespread in state of Syunik. Another ending is '-anc' like "Masnavoranc" which is spotted in state of Lori. These are less common but still exist.
Or in Celtic languages like Scots Gaelic and Irish, Mac means son so McDonald is son of Donald, and O’ means grandson of. So O’Driscoll means grandson of Driscoll
Thank you very much for your video but there are some inaccuracies. 1. First if all, "-ian" does not necessarily mean "son of", it just works like a genitive suffix. 2. The difference between "-ian" and "-yan" is non-existant in Armenian itself and it has nothing to do with the Eastern and Western dialects actually. Armenians born in the Republic of Turkey mostly spell their names with "Y" because of Turkish orthography. The difference between diasporan Armenians and citizens/recent migrants of the Republic of Armenia is the Armenian orthography reform of the 1920s, when the Soviets replaced the Classical Armenian orthography (of Mesrob Mashtoc) with a simplified version. The surname suffix "-եան" got replaced with "-յան". This affected the transliteration of the Armenian language and is one of the reason why transliterating Armenian is horrible. 3. Regarding your claim that noble families generally used the "-uni" suffix: This was actually very rare and the only examples I can think of are Bagratuni, Yervanduni, Arshakuni and maybe Syuni. Other noble last names were Artashesyan, Mamikonian, Rubinyan, etc. In the case of the Meliks (Armenian princes with the most notable being the Meliks of Karabakh) just used the "Melik-" prefix, like in Melik-Israelyan, Melik-Haygazyan, etc.
These aren’t inaccuracies, it’s just extra context for a 1 minute long video lol. 1. -yan/ian indicates relation, so it does mean son of/descent of a person, place or geographical region just like many other surname endings like oglu, ez, escu, son etc. 2. That’s just explaining why Eastern Armenian dialects use yan spelling and western Armenian dialects used ian spelling. 3. There were a lot more royal families who had the -uni ending, Melik is different as that means they come from a Melik family which is different than traditional Armenian nobility.
@@florida.florian I'm aware of the fact that it's impossible to paint a complete picture. Again, thank you for informing your audience about Armenian culture; this is invaluable. 1. You are right about it noting descendance; I just didn't like the wording as "son of" implies it's gendered. 2. If that is the case, you are right of course. A layman would probably not understand that this is about transliteration and not the spoken langauge itself but that would've taken too long to explain, yes. 3. Yes, there are other names ending in "-uni" (now Kajaznuni, Pahlavuni and Artsruni come to mind) but I still don't think claiming that noble names generally ended in "-uni" is accurate. But you are right, on second thought they are a lot more common than I stated. As a descendant of a melikakan (princely) family, they were mostly divisions of other noble dynasties and in the case of the Melikdoms of Karabakh pretty much all families are directly related to the Hasan-Jalalyan family which in turn is related to most other Armenian noble houses. Okay, this is enough jibber-jabber about Armenian nobility.
So across the world the most popular Suffix is :"son of"? ..... "-son" (carlson), "-ian", (Kardashian) "-orlov,-off" (Romanoff) ,"-ez" (Dominguez.) ,"-bin"(Bin Laden)
as far as I know, -ov and -off doesn't mean "son of...", but rather "belonging to...". this surnames were given to dependant peasants after their owner's name. for example - romanoff - belongs to roman. similar surnames might also originate from a place the person lived in, such as novgorodskiy - someone who comes from novgorod city. i might be mistaken tho😅
I love how common this is across languages! In Irish/Scottish all the names like O'Brien or McDermot also have the same origin; in Irish ó means from, and mac means son, so you're saying "from Brian" or "son of Dermot" :)
I just wanted to take a quick moment to tell you that I love your videos! You provide a lot of interesting and useful insight into different cultures. It means a lot since I’m mixed (white and Indian) and I’ve struggled with my racial identity and not feeling like I belong. Your videos about different cultures, including my own, help provide insight into not only the different types of people I may encounter in life, but also more insight into myself.
Surnames are fairly recent phenomenon. It wasn’t until the plagues that killed huge swaths of the population, forcing people to move to other places to work the land that we came up with a system to differentiate people with the same first name.
@@alenlivai That’s inaccurate. Surnames had not been invented until a thousand years after Christ. What people confuse surnames with are titles. The patronymics used in traditional Armenian last names weren’t linguistically “invented” until like the 1300-1600s, which aligns with the bubonic plague taking place in the 1300s.
I have been wondering this for so long as I worked in Glendale CA and it’s basically little Armenia 😂 i really enjoyed working with them. Super hard working and driven. I learned a lot from them.
*Edited due to a ridiculous amount of typos* Very interesting information. I absolutely love this Romani babe and his generosity in educating us about his culture and other cultures
Hey, I have a question. So, obviously, the "g*psy" slur is often used as a way to racially profile Roma, right? So, has any group of Romani people tried to reclaim the slur, like with the LGBTQIA+ community with the word "queer" because it's so common?
