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Origin of Nikitin name

A study of the history of the origin of the surname Nikitin opens up forgotten pages of the life and culture of our ancestors and can tell a lot of interesting things about the distant past.

The surname Nikitin is formed in the form of a middle name on his own and refers to the common type of Russian surnames.

After 988, every Slav during the official baptism ceremony received from the priest a baptismal name that served only one purpose - to provide a person with a personal name. The baptismal names corresponded to the names of the saints and were, therefore, ordinary Christian names.

So the basis of the Nikitin surname was the church name. Often, the ancient Slavs added the name of his father to the name of the newborn, thereby indicating belonging to a particular genus. This is due to the fact that there were relatively few baptismal names, and they were often repeated. The addition to the person's name in the form of a middle name helped solve the problem of identification.

The surname Nikitin was formed on behalf of Nikita, which in translation from ancient Greek means 'winner'.

This name appeared in the name in honor of St. Nikita. The Holy Great Martyr Nikita was born and lived on the banks of the Danube and suffered for Christ in 372. Saint Nikita believed in Christ and was baptized by the Goth bishop Theophilos, a participant in the First Ecumenical Council. The spread of Christianity began to resist the pagans, resulting in internecine warfare.

According to legend, by his example and inspired word, Nikita led many Gentiles to the Christian faith. However, Afanarich (one of the main pagans) after the defeat was able to again improve his strength, return to his country and restore his former power. Remaining a pagan, he continued to hate and persecute Christians. Saint Nikita, subjected to many tortures, was thrown into the fire, where he died in 372. A friend of St. Nikita, Christian Marian, at night found the body of a martyr, not damaged by fire and illuminated by wonderful light, transferred it and buried it in Cilicia. Subsequently, it was transferred to Constantinople. A particle of the holy relics of the great martyr Nikita was later transported to the monastery of High Dečany, in Serbia.

Our ancestors believed that in the formation of a surname from a baptismal name, the patronage of the saint extends to the entire clan.

The generally accepted model of Russian family names was not immediately formed, but by the beginning of the 17th century, most of the names were formed by adding to the base — the name or nickname of the father — the suffixes -s / -ev and -in, which gradually became typical indicators of Russian family names. By their origin, such naming was possessive adjectives, patronymics. So the descendants of a man named Nikita could get the name Nikitina.

It is difficult to talk about the exact place and time of the origin of the surname Nikitin, since the process of forming surnames was quite lengthy. Nevertheless, the surname Nikitin is a wonderful monument of Slavic writing and culture.