Thread: My last name

My last name is Stott, but that's the americanized form that my family adopted a century or so ago. Before that it was Stottlemeir, which is German. However, before that it was Stotshelvich(not sure if that's how it is spelled, I've only ever heard it pronounced) and my dad said it was probably Russian. What do you guys think?

I think it's slavic but not Russian. In Russia, last names ending with -ич (-ich) and -ский (-sky) belong mostly to Jews.
Most Russian last names end with -ов/-ова, -ев/-ева, -ин/-ина and there are Russian last names without an ending at all.

That would make sense. My family was jewish in Germany and France according to my father. It seems likely that before they moved to Germany they were Jews in some Slavic speaking eastern european area.

Serbian last names are finished with ich in Serbian ић .
е.г. Јовановић, Стојковић, Станковић, Петровић....
Maybe your surename could be Стотшелвић


BR

Originally Posted by pisces

last names ending with -ич (-ich) and -ский (-sky) belong mostly to Jews

It's a quite common prejudice. However, if it was a rule, there were no real Poles in Poland. Istead, they would be just Polish speaking Jews who desperately believe they are Poles

Originally Posted by Al Polonski

Originally Posted by pisces

last names ending with -ич (-ich) and -ский (-sky) belong mostly to Jews

It's a quite common prejudice. However, if it was a rule, there were no real Poles in Poland. Istead, they would be just Polish speaking Jews who desperately believe they are Poles

There are people who look for Jewishness everywhere, you lisp - Jewish, your name ends in -ovich/-evich/-ovski/-evski or is Polish/Germanlike - Jewish, black hair - Jewish, big eyes - Jewish, you're rich or you're a musician/doctor/professor - Jewish.

BTW, I am not Jewish.

As for names in -ovich/-evich, they could belong to Polish, Ukrainian, Belarussian, Yugoslav, whatever and Russian too, a lot of Russians have these endings too, Russian names are not restricted to -ev/-ov/-in.

I wondered about that also, my Russian friends seem to not like Russian Jews at all, they don't consider them Russian... Why the prejudice?
-Fantom

Well, Fantom, I have to say that nationalism is quite common in Russia, not only applying to Jews, but to the other non-russian (and especially non-slavic) people as well. It's so common, average Russian person don't even notice it. I was a visible minority, so I knew. It's a cultural thing.

I thought that this was appropriate. It was a banner right under Gerty's post here at MR.
http://www.jmerica.com/magazine/yoyenta/yenta-7-05.php

Originally Posted by Gerty

Well, Fantom, I have to say that nationalism is quite common in Russia, not only applying to Jews, but to the other non-russian (and especially non-slavic) people as well. It's so common, average Russian person don't even notice it. I was a visible minority, so I knew. It's a cultural thing.

Well, hopefully, it's not a cultural thing! If we say nobody has any prejudices at all, East or West, we would deceive ourselves and others. The more education and better education one gets, the less racial or national prejudices people should have. Russian people are very hospitable and tolerant to other people in general but "паршивая овца всё стадо портит".

Originally Posted by Gerty

Well, Fantom, I have to say that nationalism is quite common in Russia, not only applying to Jews, but to the other non-russian (and especially non-slavic) people as well. It's so common, average Russian person don't even notice it. I was a visible minority, so I knew. It's a cultural thing.

I think it is gross overestimate.
Nationalism is not Russian distinguishing feature or a cultural thing at all.

Originally Posted by Gerty

Well, Fantom, I have to say that nationalism is quite common in Russia, not only applying to Jews, but to the other non-russian (and especially non-slavic) people as well. It's so common, average Russian person don't even notice it. I was a visible minority, so I knew. It's a cultural thing.

Is it your culture's thing to slander Russians publicly? No offence.

I don't slander. I just say as it is. It wasn't me who notised it first, right? I answered a question. Средний россиянин, живущий в России, имеет гораздо большую склонность к националистическим суждениям (не обязательно резко агрессивным, но с явным предубеждением), чем средний канадец, и, я думаю, житель США. Это очень заметно в смешанных группах - все замечается в сравнении. Это невозможно скрывать. Это культурная особенность. Я не ругаюсь, я констатирую факт. Это просачивается в официальную прессу. Если вы выглядите как русский, вы этого просто не заметите, для вас этот факт прозрачный. Попробуйте походить по Москве с лицом кавказской национальности.

Originally Posted by Анатолий

Is it your culture's thing to slander Russians publicly? No offence.

This very post proves Gerty's point ten times over. "Her culture" is the same as yours, Анатолий, which is Russian. She is a Russian writer, for Christ's sake.

Indeed, in Russia, at least in everyday conversations ethnic slurs and racist/nationalistic references are considered more acceptable than in the US or Canada. Sadly, most of the Russians don't even realize this.

Accepting that there is a problem is fixing it halfway. Russians themselves criticize themselves a lot and have a habit of saying "we are bad", this could be a cultural thing. So, generalizing, and saying that all Russians are xenophobic (even if you are yourself Russian) is slandering the whole nation. Ethnic slurs and racist/nationalistic references are acceptable in the media because there are no laws forbidding it. It also depends what you read. Some newspapers talk about foreign threat (Chinese, Caucasian, whatever) but the others talk about threat of xenophobia and the measures that must be taken to stop this.

Talking about Caucasians (people from Caucasus) in Moscow - Russia is at the state of war with Chechnya, there were a lot of terrorist attacks on the Russian territory. How do Jewish people feel at the presence of Palestininians in Israel? That's my answer to why Caucasians are disliked in Moscow, it wasn't always like this. In 1940's Germans were "disliked" too.

Prejudices are not racism, some "average Russian", as Gerty said might have some prejudices it's not necessarily the same as xenophobia, if we say nobody has prejudices in the US, Canada, Australia, etc in the West we deceive ourselves.

There are racists, xenophobes in Russia and they are noticeable but it's not the majority of the population.

It seems like a big discussion starting, not sure I will have time to answer all future questions. I am part of various lingustic forums and on those forums xenophobia in Russia is discussed a lot and voices against it are getting stronger.

All that is said is that four is more than two, not that two is equal to zero. Of course you can find all sorts of brain damaged mutants everywhere, just take a drive around Montreal and you'll see what I mean, however the average certain attitude towards certain ethnic groups is obvious and stands out once you come back to Russia after having lived in the West for some time. I am not saying this because I have some cultural identity problems, I look as waspy as it gets, and I have never experienced any of this crap by myself, but I just can't help noticing it. Maybe the idiotic reason people confide in me is that I dont look any "suspiciously" Jewishly or of Chechen descent.