Surname prefixes and suffixes by ethnicity.

[Nurzat]

most of the surnames in the moldavia region of romania are of ukrainian, russian, polish or hungarian origin or are romanian but of local specific and of course there is a percentage of pure romanian names. so there are a lot of moldavians with -ENCU/-ENCO (-енко > Gafencu, Bodnarenco), -(E)AC/-IAC (-ак, -як > Maruseac, Dubciac), -VICI (-вич > Popovici, Haimovici), -CIUC/-IUC (-чук, -юк, Ukrainian ending extremely widespread in Moldavia region of Romania > Marciuc, Filipciuc, Lobiuc, Siminiuc), -ĂU/-OV (-ов, the later usually transformed into the former like Cătărău instead of Katarov > Dobrov, Simeonov, Suharău), -SCHII/-ȚCHI (-ский, -цкий > Dobranschi, Halițchi), -CEC/-EC/-CIC (-чек, -ек, -чик > Uricec, Locic, Poliec), -CO (-ко > Senocico | Сеночко)... and there must be others i don't recall now

[Sikeliot]

I'm hoping someone can answer this for me, particularly someone German. A lot, if not most, of the surnames that are associated with Jews are actually Germanic in origin, such as Bernstein, Nussbaum, Lieberman, Goldstein, etc. How many ethnic Germans have these names? I'd think there would be some. I've been told that Cohen is the only name that is authentically Jewish.. meaning all other "Jewish" surnames should be found in non-Jews.

[SwordoftheVistula]

I'm hoping someone can answer this for me, particularly someone German. A lot, if not most, of the surnames that are associated with Jews are actually Germanic in origin, such as Bernstein, Nussbaum, Lieberman, Goldstein, etc. How many ethnic Germans have these names? I'd think there would be some. I've been told that Cohen is the only name that is authentically Jewish.. meaning all other "Jewish" surnames should be found in non-Jews.

You get oddities, but typically jews originating from Germany have names involving precious metals/stones, for example names containing Geld/Gold, Silber/Silver, Rubin, etc, as well as names ending in -stein. Also jews often took names from place names, so if you see a [German city]-er without a 'von' in front of it, the person is almost always jewish. Examples: Wiener, Frankfurter, Hamburger. Names containing 'lieb' and 'kin' are almost always jewish as well.

[SwordoftheVistula]

Some Irish/Scottish names I have seen with just the Ma- prefix, if followed by a 'g'. Examples; 'Magruder', 'Magovern', though it is more common to see it with the 'c' 'MacGruder', 'MacGovern' etc.

[Sikeliot]

I've also noticed some Irish surnames ending in -ty, like McNulty, Rafferty, Doherty, Moriarty, etc. But it seems like a coincidental pattern.

[Norbert]

Finnish names often end in -nen or -la/-lä.

What are the meanings of these?

[Norbert]

Fitz- as in "Fitzgerald" or "Fitzpatrick", seen in some Irish surnames.

The name was formed by the addition of the Anglo-Norman French prefix fi(t)z ‘son of’ (Latin filius) to the personal name.

http://www.ancestry.com/facts/fitzge...y-history.ashx

[Sikeliot]

I know someone with the last name Savonen and I asked her today if she was Finnish, because I remembered Riippumatto saying names ending in -nen are Finnish, and she was. Like I think I said earlier, another person I know who is Finnish has the last name Renkainen.

[Iron Will]

Leave it to The Norseman to mention...Son, Sson, Sen and Dottir can suffixes that can be found in Scandinavia as well as some other Germanic settled places.

[Wulfhere]

Is there any truth to the idea that the Mc- prefix is Irish and Mac- is Scottish? Or do you find both in both places?

Not really, in my experience. "Mc" is certainly used in both Ireland and Scotland, though conceivably "Mac" is more likely to be Scottish.