# Forum Learning Russian Language Resources for Studying Russian Russian Names  What does Sergeew mean??

## Sergi

hi I would like it very much if some could tell me what Sergeew means.
I belive that the russian spelling is Serghiew.... I am not sure but I will find out the proper spelling later
Thank you

----------


## Friendy

Сергеев (Sergeyev) -  this is a last name that derived from the first name Сергей.

----------


## kalinka_vinnie

I think last names that comes from first names means that at one point, you ancestors were serfs to some guy called Sergey, and when the goverment required that everybody had first names and last names (they usually only had first names), they chose the name of their master... or at least so I have been taught.

----------


## Gerty

> I think last names that comes from first names means that at one point, you ancestors were serfs to some guy called Sergey, and when the goverment required that everybody had first names and last names (they usually only had first names), they chose the name of their master... or at least so I have been taught.

 Oh, I believe it was just a development of the patronymic. In old times, common people prononse patronymics different way: instead of "Sergeev*ich*" or "Ivanov*ich*" they said "Sergeev" and "Ivanov". As you can see, it sounds exactly like this kind of family names.  
You can read this in some historic novels. For example, person introduces himself as "Ivan Petrov Ivanov". In our time his name would be "Ivan Petrov*ich* Ivanov". So the name "Sergeev" tell as, that this family descends from some ancient Sergei.  
In the other hand, there are a lot of common folks descend from peasant, who have aristocratic names. In this case, they did, actually, took their names from their masters.

----------


## Doldonius

> I think last names that comes from first names means that at one point, you ancestors were serfs to some guy called Sergey, and when the goverment required that everybody had first names and last names (they usually only had first names), they chose the name of their master... or at least so I have been taught.

 Last names derived from Christian names are said to have been given to baptized Mari. 
Yeah, Иванов, Петров, Сидоров too.  ::

----------


## chaika

Иванов and Сергеев are short-form adjectives. So a guy named Иванов would be Johnson (i.e, John's +son) if born a bit further West. 
ср. Иванов день. http://mirslovarei.com/content_etn/Ivanov-Den-195.html

----------


## Sergi

Thank you alot for your help

----------

