Ukrainian surnames

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By the 18th century almost all Ukrainians had family names. Most Ukrainian surnames (and surnames in Slavic languages in general) are formed by adding possessive and other suffixes to given names, place names, professions and other words.

Surnames were developed for official documents or business record keeping to differentiate the parties who might have the same first name. By the 15th century, surnames were used by the upper class, nobles and large land owners. In cities and towns, surnames became necessary in the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1632, Orthodox Metropolitan Petro Mohyla ordered priests to include a surname in all records of birth, marriage and death.

After the partitions of Poland (1772–1795), Western Ukraine came under the Austrian Empire, where peasants needed surnames for taxation purposes and military service and churches were required to keep records of all births, deaths and marriages.

The surnames with the suffix -enko are the most known and common Ukrainian surnames. Due to migration and deportations of Ukrainians during the history, it's also present in Belarus and Russia, especially in the Kuban region, where many ethnic Ukrainians historically lived.