Anthroponyms and Surnames of the Nobility of the Grodno Powiat in 1565

Abstract

Patronyms could have been formed from the -sk- type anthroponyms in the generation of 1565: Друцкевичъ, Долъгошцичъ. Two surnames were found among the -sk- type anthroponyms: Халецки, Куровъски. Six more -sk- type anthroponyms are the first mention of later authenticated surnames: Завацъки, Каменъски, Новицъки, Петровъски, Свиръски, Снаръски. They were supposed to become surnames in the second half of the sixteenth century. Among the anthroponyms that are not names, patronymics, -sk- type anthroponyms, the surname Шышъко is unquestionable. Provisionally, four anthroponyms can also be considered surnames as, when changing into a surname, they dropped the patronymic suffix: Ейсмонтъ, Кобята, Стер[ъ]пейко, Толоч[ъ]ко. In the document of 1565, five more anthroponyms of this type, which were later authenticated, are mentioned for the first time: Белокозъ, Галабурда, Доха, Куликъ, Мицута. They had to become surnames in the second half of the sixteenth century. Four surnames are recorded among the first patronymics: Кгинюшевичъ, Киселевичъ, Моръдасовичъ, Носовичъ. There are two other first mentions of this type of later authenticated surnames: Бутрымовичъ, Полуяновичъ. Also, the rare patronymic form of the Christian anthroponym Хомичъ can be considered the first mention of the surname. These anthroponyms were to become surnames in the second half of the sixteenth century. The second patronymics, especially those recorded in the genitive case singular, represented the old naming system where they partially performed the function of the present surname. The surnames derived from the second patronymics, Ейсмон[ъ]товича and Сиръкгутевича (there is also a variant of the inscription Шыркгутевичъ), could have functioned already in the middle of the sixteenth century if they were written not in the genitive but in the nominative case. The anthroponym Почобутовича can be considered the first mention of a surname authenticated later among the second patronymics. Having dropped its suffix, this anthroponym had to become a surname in the second half of the sixteenth century. One person had two surnames: Халецъки Киселевичъ. Two people had two potential surnames: Новицъки Ейсмонътовича and Ейсмонътовича Снаръски. Both anthroponyms of those potential surnames of -sk- type, namely, Новицъки and Снаръски, were the first mention of later authentication, while Ейсмонътовича can be presumed to be a surname if written in the nominative case.