Armenian names in Czarist Russia

[Stranger]

The Russian Empire subjects received their last names (surnames) during the first population census in 1897. Till this time long (compound) name was widespread among ruling class only.
Some Armenian’s lands were part of the Russian Empire, and so the Russian Armenians started adopting their full names in the last half of 19th century.
I am doing genealogical research and I encounter difficulties interpreting the names. For example, in the city Shushi (Karabakh) tomb’s inscription is the following:
Baba Grigorean 1825-1894
How we may interpret this name? Did Baba’s father’s name was Grigor, or Grigor was name of Baba’s grandfather?
Second question: “If Baba’s son’s name was Ashot, would be Ashot’s full name Ashot Babunc, or Ashot Grigorean, or Ashot Babunc Grigorean (Ashot Babaevich Grigorian)? When the Russian Armenians started use the second name (patronim).

Would somebody be so kind to help me?

[Siggie]

Re: Armenian names in Czarist Russia

Hi Stranger. I do not know the answer to your question, but I wanted to welcome you to the forum.
I hope you will find the information you seek.

[Stranger]

Re: Armenian names in Czarist Russia

Thanks, Siggie,
but will somebody give me any info?

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Armenian names in Czarist Russia

Thanks, Siggie,
but will somebody give me any info?

Maybe you should try a geneology forum - or one of the russian-language forums. It is probably too specialısed and academic a question for this forum.

[Pedro Xaramillo]

Re: Armenian names in Czarist Russia

Russian Armenians often get an -ov or -ovsky, if female, -ov becomes -ova.
Ov as a suffix means and -ev means sone of. -Ova or -Ovna daughter of.
-skii usually means family of.

Also Russian Armenians have patronymical names, which means if your father was say Hovhanness Xachatrurov,
and your name is say Artem, you will be Artem Hovhannesovich Xachaturov (Xachatryan). With girls it gets -ovna, so if your name is Hasmik, you'd be Hasmik Hovhannesovna Xachaturov.

Armenian surnames become their Russian equivalent in suffix, hence :

Aivazyan becomes Aivazovsky.
Xachatryan becomes Xachaturov (Khachaturov, whichever transliteration you like).
Kasparian becomes Kaparov.

If the surname has -ovich it usually means it's of Serbian origin (like Miloradovich) or that they were Serbian Armenians if they were Armenians (for example Sargisovich).

As to Baba's name, Grigorean is just the old spelling of Grigoryan, mostly likely the name is quite old,
during when Armenians adopted the Persian -yan sufix. It's doubtful it was due to a recent relation.

As to the Ashot one, it would be Ashot Babayevich Grigoryan,
meaning Ashot son of Baba. The normal Russian "e" is pronounced as a "ye" usually unless otherwise indicated in Cyrrillic.
While -yan means son of, usually it's was established ages back, so it's basically read as descendants of, otherwise if someone was named Sargis Vartanian and had a son they would become Sargisyan which they don't.

Oh, bear in mind, Russian doesn't have an H, it means that the Armenians surnames often lose an H, like Harutyunyan becomes Aroutyunyan.

[Christina]

Re: Armenian names in Czarist Russia

The H in Russian is=N. Tzar Nicholas I & II spelled it with an H. And A.H. was Anastasia Nikolaevich.
Spanish also has a J=H, as in Jennifer Lopez pronunciated: Hennifer.

Arabic does not have a P. So Pepsi Cola is in theory "Bepsi Cola." While Farsi has P. Example: Parveneh
(a woman's name. The English would be Patty).

The Armenian names were Russianized. It was the policy of olden times and modern to speak Russian,
and not their people's individual languages. That is the complaint of the Polish people, the Lithuanians,
and so forth.

[Pedro Xaramillo]

Re: Armenian names in Czarist Russia

Yeah but that's not an H as such, Khe (Xeh) is a different phoneme than Ho.
In Spanish the Spanish J is not equivalent to J, Spanish has an H but it's silent usually (hence Hola is said as "oh-lah"),
only in the middle of a sentence does it have any pronunciation.

Russian as such does not have the proper H sound (Ho in Armenian), again the sound you mention is Xah (Xeh in Armenian), which is to any linguistic seens as different to H.

Hence why Armenians become Aroutunyan, not Xaroutunyan.

[hrai]

Re: Armenian names in Czarist Russia

Yeah but that's not an H as such, Khe (Xeh) is a different phoneme than Ho.
In Spanish the Spanish J is not equivalent to J, Spanish has an H but it's silent usually (hence Hola is said as "oh-lah"),
only in the middle of a sentence does it have any pronunciation.

Russian as such does not have the proper H sound (Ho in Armenian), again the sound you mention is Xah (Xeh in Armenian), which is to any linguistic seens as different to H.

Hence why Armenians become Aroutunyan, not Xaroutunyan.

I stand to be corrected but Russians translate Latin H as G...............ie, Gitler.

[hrai]

Re: Armenian names in Czarist Russia

Russian Armenians often get an -ov or -ovsky, if female, -ov becomes -ova.
Ov as a suffix means and -ev means sone of. -Ova or -Ovna daughter of.
-skii usually means family of.

Also Russian Armenians have patronymical names, which means if your father was say Hovhanness Xachatrurov,
and your name is say Artem, you will be Artem Hovhannesovich Xachaturov (Xachatryan). With girls it gets -ovna, so if your name is Hasmik, you'd be Hasmik Hovhannesovna Xachaturov. (Xachaturova)

Armenian surnames become their Russian equivalent in suffix, hence :

Aivazyan becomes Aivazovsky.
Xachatryan becomes Xachaturov (Khachaturov, whichever transliteration you like).
Kasparian becomes Kaparov.

If the surname has -ovich it usually means it's of Serbian origin (like Miloradovich) or that they were Serbian Armenians if they were Armenians (for example Sargisovich).

As to Baba's name, Grigorean is just the old spelling of Grigoryan, mostly likely the name is quite old,
during when Armenians adopted the Persian -yan sufix. It's doubtful it was due to a recent relation.

As to the Ashot one, it would be Ashot Babayevich Grigoryan,
meaning Ashot son of Baba. The normal Russian "e" is pronounced as a "ye" usually unless otherwise indicated in Cyrrillic.
While -yan means son of, usually it's was established ages back, so it's basically read as descendants of, otherwise if someone was named Sargis Vartanian and had a son they would become Sargisyan which they don't.

Oh, bear in mind, Russian doesn't have an H, it means that the Armenians surnames often lose an H, like Harutyunyan becomes Aroutyunyan.

Just adding the A on the female ending. With the H, in Russian they can lose it or replace it with G.

[Artashes]

Re: Armenian names in Czarist Russia

My grandfathers name on his military certificate and death certificate is Hamparian,but when I was a child he once told me his name was Hamparsunian? I think he was telling me something. Does anyone know what this means?
Thanks from Artashes