What is the reason why most of our last names end in "ian"???

[xBaron Dants]

I'll let Che Ka handle this from now on.

[Che_Ka]

chigh mu tba?

seriously though, my post wasn't supposed to sound as condescending as it did! gu neres!

[xBaron Dants]

No no, I'm serious. I completely trust your abilities in handling this situation. Linguistics is YOUR thing, not mine.

[Che_Ka]

LOL My keraganootyoon book is coming in handy already.

[EYYBABA23]

-IAN does probably originate from Persian since most of the Persian kingdoms and their families had the -ian ending in their names such as Hakhamaneshian, Samanian, Solukian, Sassanian and etc. and this is about 2500 years ago when they existed. Now, -ian does mean "of" or "from" which could either relate to a city that a certain family was from, or the name of the family itself like Grigorian or Hoktemberian. I have serious problems accepting that TURKS forced that on us since we had our last names in ian and so did some Persian tribes and dynasties way before the TURKS could enforce anything on us. As far as Stalin changing stuff, I have no clue, but could be credible information.

[xBaron Dants]

Also strange that Armenian royal families usually had the "uni" ending instead of the "ian".

[ArmoBarbi]

I tend to believe that ian or yan means, like some of you said, "of" or "son of". This would also explain the ending going with an Armenian male name.

I was told by several people that the last names in Armenia used to be made for each generation from the grandfather's first name. Ex: Grandfather (on father's side I pressume) of a new born child is named Arakel - the child's last name is Arakelian/Arakelyan. So maybe it means "grandchild of"? Aha! That must be it!

Stalin didnt start it though right? Its just a spelling thing... Hmm

[hyebruin]

actually my last name is miss bruni

[ArmoBarbi]

actually my last name is miss bruni

(Congrats)

[Anonymouse]

One answer I found, and which I think is quite credible, is that the "-ian" ending is a Ancient Persian suffix meaning "from the family of". So "Danielian" means from the family of Daniel. There are many Farsi names today that also end in "-ian". The original Armenian ending of family names is actually "ouni" as in "Bagratouni". But centuries of Persian influence over the Armenian language also influenced the way in which family names end.

Actually the family names that ended with "ouni" were mostly from the Persian court.