By the 18th century, almost all Ukrainian had family names. Most Ukrainian surnames (and surnames in Slavic languages in general) are formed by adding possessive and other suffixes to given names, place names, professions and other words.
Surnames were developed for official documents or business record keeping to differentiate the parties who might have the same first name. By the 15th century, surnames were used by the upper class, nobles and large land owners. In cities and towns, surnames became necessary in the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1632, Orthodox Metropolitan Petro Mohyla ordered priests to include a surname in all records of birth, marriage and death.
After the partitions of Poland (1772–1795), Western Ukraine came under the Austrian Empire, where peasants needed surnames for taxation purposes and military service and churches were required to keep records of all births, deaths and marriages.
The surnames with the suffix -enko are the most known and common Ukrainian surnames. Due to migration and deportations of Ukrainians during the history, they are also present in Belarus and Russia, especially in the Kuban region, where many ethnic Ukrainians historically lived.
Suffixes
Common suffixes in Ukrainian names are:
-enko (-енко) (Шевченко, Гордієнко, Ковалененко, Зінченко, Бондаренко, Кравченко, Войтенко, Ткаченко, Порошенко), distinctively Ukrainian, first recorded in the 15th century.[1]
-chuk (-чук) or -chak (-чак) (Поліщук, Паламарчук, Баланчук, Максимчак) or its simplified versions -iuk/-uk (-юк/-ук) or -iak (-як) and -ak (-ак) (Палагнюк, Мочуляк, Романюк). The suffixes -uk/-iuk are considered to be patronymic.
-yshyn (Панчишин, Костишин, Романишин). Such suffixes are simply added to Ukrainian given names. These are considered patronymic.
-skyi (-ський) (Тарновський, Зеленський), originally from aristocratic usage but then generalized. Ukrainian version of surnames ending in -ski, common in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita).
-vych (-вич) (Шухевич, Петрушевич, Андрушевич, Шушкевич, Горлукович). Common with neighboring Belarus, descending from the common Rzeczpospolita culture (-wicz).
-ko (-ко), a diminutive ending often with patronymic meaning (Сірко, Павличко, Бойко).
-iv (-ів), an old-Ruthenian/Rusyn type surnames (Тимків, Василів, Григорів)
Less common suffixes that may identify Ukrainian origin are -ra (-ра), -ha (-га) or -ho (-го), -ukh (-ух), -un (-ун), -ash (-аш), -la (-ла) or -lo (-ло) (Ванжура, Вервега, Андрух, Ковтун, Кайдаш), series of -aba (-аба), -yba (-иба), and -uba (-уба), also -iush (-юш) (Плюш) and -ii (-ій) (Вертій).
Some names have differing masculine and feminine forms, meaning a brother and sister's surname will be inflected with different suffixes (such as Zelenskyi/Зеленський and Zelenska/Зеленська). Others (such as the distinctively Ukrainian names ending in -enko) do not change with grammatical gender.
First elements
The first elements of Ukrainian surnames are most commonly given names (patronymics and matronymics), place names (toponyms), and professions.
Patronymic surnames
From the first name Ivan (John in English), over 100 different surnames can be formed. The most common variations of Ivan in Ukrainian are Ivas, Jan, Vakhno, and Vanko. The surnames based on Ivan include: Ivaniv, Ivankiv, Ivasiv, Ivashchenko, Ivanyshyn, Ivankhiv, Janiv, Jankiv, and Ivaniuk. More examples of surnames based on a first name:
Andrii (Andrew): Andriiash, Andriiets, Andrusyshyn and Andrukhovych
Hryhorii (Gregory): Hryniuk, Hryniv, Hryhoruk
Mykhailo (Michael): Mykhailuk
Pavlo (Paul): Pavlovych, Pavliuk, Pailiuk, Pavluk
Stepan (Steven): Stefaniuk, Stefanyk
When a woman married, she was known by a form of her husband's first name or her father's. From the name Petro, she was Petrykha, (wife of Petro). From these forms, matronymic surnames ending in -yshyn were created. Petryshyn came from Petrykha, Romanyshyn from Romanykha and Ivanyshyn from Ivanykha. Surnames based on women's names are rare (Marunchak from Marunia, a form of Maria).
Toponymic surnames
Some Ukrainian toponymic surnames can be identified as from the Galicia region. Those surnames often contain the suffixes -ets or -iets (Kolomiets, Korniets, Romanets, Baranets).
Names that show ethnic, national or tribal origins other than Ukrainian.
Nimchuk, from Germany (Nimets means German in Ukrainian).
Tataryn, from Tatar, the Turkic people of the "Golden Horde".
Voloshyn, from Volokh, a medieval generic name for Romanians and Moldovans.
Cossack names
There are also old Cossack names that derive from military occupations, such as Kompaniiets or Kompanichenko. There are also surnames derived from monikers based on personal characteristics. Those are considered to derive directly from the usage of monikers instead of actual names due to nature of occupation. These compounds, usually consisting of a second person-singular-addressed imperative verb or an adjective coupled with a noun, can often be somewhat comical such as:
Such surnames are primarily derived from a funny memorable situation or a phrase coined by the person, who eventually received such a name, and supposedly originated in the 15th–16th centuries with the start of the Cossack movement.
Among Cossacks were also much simplified nature-derived last names such as Hohol (topknot), Orel (eagle), Bakai/Bakay/Bakaj (pothole), Horobets (sparrow), Syromakha (orphan), Rosomakha (wolverine), Vedmid' (bear), Moroz (frost), Kulish (Cossack soup), Mara (wraith), Skovoroda (frying pan), Harbuz (pumpkin), Vovk (wolf), Chaika (seagull or type of Cossack boat) and many more that are common nouns of the Ukrainian language. Other Cossack last names were based on personality characteristics, e.g. Babii (womanizer), Dovhopiat (long foot), Dryhalo (twitchy person), Nudylo (tedious person), Plaksa (crying person), Pribluda (fornicate child, bastard), Prilipko (sticky person), Sverbylo (itchy person), Vereshchaka (shrieking person), Vytrishchaka (goggling person), etc.
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