ВОПРОСЫ ОНОМАСТИКИ | PROBLEMS OF ONOMASTICS

Andrey V. Matison
Central State Archive of the City of Moscow
Moscow, Russia

Personal and Family Names of Orthodox Clergymen and Members of Their Families in the 18^th Century (with Reference to the Clergy of Rzhev and Ostashkov Cities)

Voprosy onomastiki (Problems of Onomastics), 2014, Issue 1 (16), pp. 50–62 (in Russian)

Received 27 October 2013

Abstract: The article deals with the personal and family names of clergymen of two cities of Tver eparchy, Rzhev and Ostashkov, in the 18th century, the analyzed materials being retrieved from state archives (materials of censuses of clergymen and documents of Spiritual Consistory), pre-Revolution publications in the local press, etc. The first part of the article presents a statistic analysis of the name stock of clergymen and members of their families, both men and women, of Rzhev and Ostashkov. Then, these tabled statistic data are compared with similar data on the names of inhabitants of Tver, Bezhetsk and some other cities of Central Russia. The comparison of clergymen’s names with those of other classes, in particular, district and capital nobility, reveals that local traditions in giving personal names possessed a greater significance than social ones. The second part of the article focuses on the inventory, origin and functioning of clergymen’s family names. As opposed to the trades people who, by the 18th century, already had hereditary family names, the process of family names formation within clergy had not been finished at that time yet. The most numerous family names of clergymen are those formed from nicknames. The author also marks out family names derived from the names of churches where members of one or another family served, from the names of clergy positions they had, from place names and personal names as well as family names artificially created in seminaries.

Key words: Russian language, regional historical anthroponymy, personal name, family name, clergy, Tver eparchy, Rzhev, Ostashkov

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