What exactly is in a name? Significantly more than you might expect! Household labels holds clues to children’s source or family members affairs, appeal, occupations, places, plus relationships to royalty. For those who have Armenian heritage, recognition Armenian surnames will allow you to connect with your loved ones because find the Armenian genealogy and family history. See details on Armenia inside FamilySearch wiki to help you continue your quest!
Armenian Surname Framework
Most Armenian surnames contain a root and something or even more suffixes. The main vel, or it could be a title, private quality, career, or place-name. Examples of root and their significance include the following:
- Kade (magistrate, assess, cadi)
- Kabasakal (having a rough or bushy mustache)
- Baghdasar (a€?Balthasara€? in English, indicating guard in the king)
- Zeytounts (a city in historic Armenia)
Armenian Surname Suffixes
The most frequently used suffix is -ian as well as its modifications, such -yan, -jan, ians, yet others. This suffix implies a€?issued froma€? or a€?family of.a€? Including, anybody using surname Zakarian is the youngsters or descendant of Zakar.
- -li, which indicates
a spot identity. Eg, the surname Sivaslian suggests an association toward city of Sivas. (observe that this surname possess two suffixes: a€?li,a€? talking about the place-name, additionally the modified a€?ana€? for a€?ian.a€? Which means this surname show a person who could be the kid or descendant of a person regarding Sivas.)
- -tsi, which things to a place of origin. Including, the surname Shirakatsi suggests children beginnings of Shirak.
- -ji or -chi, which indicates a business.
- -ter or -der are a name of value for a priest. A surname for example Ter-Petrosyan indicates that the person got an ancestor who was a priest.
- -uni suggests children link with Armenian nobility. Examples include Pahlavuni and Mandakuni.
Patronymics in Armenian Surnames
The -ian and similar suffixes result from the patronymic naming system used in several years in Armenian surnames. Within this program, the surname in the son or daughter lies in the very first term in the father. Very, for instance, a man called Samvel Petrosian would be the child of Petros. And Samvel’s daughter Alex could well be known as Alex Samvelian.
Patronymics gradually decrease of utilization in the first 1900s as Armenians, like others, started utilizing the same surname over multiple generations.
A brand new Secure, a brand new Identity
If you have ancestors whom immigrated on the U . S ., you might have read stories about immigration officials assigning brand-new surnames to immigrants. Perhaps it just happened on occasion. However, researcher parece on millions of ship manifests, and then he discover a€?no proof that any individual of Armenian ethnicity ended up being arbitrarily designated an a€?American’ term about ship manifest.a€?
Instead, the guy discovered other grounds immigrants chose to alter their own labels. Frequently they wished to adjust to a new customs and code. In addition to that, some chose to shorten her long surnames. Samourkashian might be Samour, or Aznavourian might be Aznavour. Occasionally Armenian surnames are simply translated-Ohannisian might being their English counterpart, Johnson. In other cases, surnames were altered to a similar-sounding English keyword without linguistic link with the original-for sample, Buyukian (Buyuk ways a€?large persona€?) might become Bacon.
Dictionary of Armenian Surnames
Probably the most useful info for learning about Armenian surnames could be the Dictionary of Armenian Surnames, a labor of really love by C. K. Garabed. By his personal membership, Garabad isn’t a linguist or philologist; the guy began documenting Armenian surnames as an interest. Over the years, the guy gathered over 10,000 brands and it has mentioned definitions for a number of with the origins. The dictionary includes very long databases of Armenian surnames, planned alphabetically. It is fascinating also to look through this dictionary.