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Origin of Lebedev surname

The owner of the surname Lebedev can rightfully be proud of his ancestors, information about which is contained in various documents confirming the trace left by them in the history of Russia.

The basis of the Lebedev surname was the worldly name Lebed. Such a name was joined by the parents of the child to the name received by him at baptism. This name was used more often than the baptismal one and was assigned to a person for life.

The presence of a second, secular, name was a kind of tribute to the ancient Slavic tradition of dual-name. Its purpose was to hide the main, church name from 'evil spirits' and 'evil spirits.'

Worldly names were often completely replaced by baptismal names, and even in documents they could act as official names.

There are many theories of the origin of the nickname Swan. The nickname in folk speech was mostly used in the feminine gender and meant actually - 'beautiful, tender and slim.' In relation to men, the nickname Cygnus was often used in the meaning of 'lover.'

Also, the swan has traditionally been considered a bird of poets. The song of the dying swan is the poet's song, and its whiteness is sincerity. It is possible that the ancestor of the Lebedev family was a talented poet.

According to another hypothesis, the surname Lebedev is of artificial origin. As the famous linguist B. Unbegaun claimed, the surname was frequent among the Russian clergy and was given directly from the word 'swan' as a sacred symbol. Thus, a swan is a symbol of rebirth, purity, chastity, proud loneliness, nobility, wisdom, prophetic abilities and perfection. In Christianity, the white swan is also an image of mercy and a symbol of the Virgin Mary. His dying song symbolizes the suffering of martyrs and Christian humility. In addition, in ancient times there was an idea of ​​the ability of the soul to travel through the sky in the form of a swan.

It is also possible that the basis of the surname goes back to the geographical name - the city of Lebedin (Sumy region) or Lebedyan (Lipetsk region); Turkic ethnic group 'Swans' is also known, in the former Biysk and Kuzetsk counties (upper Ob basin), which got their name from the Lebed River.

Perhaps the surname Lebedev also indicates the occupation of the ancestor of the clan. So, Swans in Russia were called servants, imposed by duty to deliver swans to the table of the prince (and later the king).

The practice of giving the child, in addition to the official baptismal name, one more, non-baptismal, was held until the 17th century. and led to the fact that surnames formed from worldly names accounted for a significant part of the total number of Russian surnames.

Since the process of forming surnames was quite lengthy, it is difficult to talk about the exact place and time of occurrence of the surname Lebedev. However, we can confidently say that it belongs to the ranks of the oldest Russian family names and can tell a lot about the life and life of our distant ancestors.