User-submitted Reference

Version 1.

The nickname Ponomar contains an indication of the profession. Most likely, the ancestor of the owner of the surname Ponomarev was a clergyman whose duties included lighting candles, preparing a censer, serving at the altar, and ringing the bells. The nickname, and, accordingly, the surname are recorded in the documents of the XVI-XVII centuries: Ivashko Ponomarev, the old man, 1523; Grishko Yarefeev, son of Ponomarek, Tyumen resident, 1687; Ananya Andreev Ponomarev, Zemsky judge in Verkhoturye, 1665; Areshka Ponomarek, Nevelsky peasant, 1654. Ponomary, eventually received the name Ponomaryov.

Version 2

According to some sources, nicknames were historically the first type of personal naming, the need for which did not disappear even with the advent of personal names. Names were often repeated, and therefore were not always convenient for identifying a person. The surname Ponomareva comes from the nickname Ponomarev, which goes back to a similar common noun. In the old days, a minister of the church was called a sexton, who lit candles, prepared a censer, served at the altar, and rang the bells.

The sexton was obliged to remain inseparable from sacred places, for example, in the Bethlehem cave, where the Savior was born, on Calvary, both to protect them from sacrilege and to provide various services to pilgrims. He watched the property of the temple, lit the lamps before the service, and extinguished them at the end of it. Over time, reading and singing during worship, bringing prosphora, wine, water, frankincense to the altar, preparing and serving censers with censers and warmth, inviting believers to worship with a bell ringing were assigned to the duties of a sexton. The sexton formed the basis of the surname Ponomarev. In the formation of Slavic surnames, affiliation suffixes -ov / -ev, -in were most often used. Thus, the descendant of a man who possessed the nickname Ponomarev, eventually received the name of Ponomarev.

One of the first references to the surname Ponomarev in written sources refers to the first half of the 17th century: in Onomasticon SB Veselovsky recorded Posad man Olimpiy Ponomarev from Vologda, 1618

Some Ponomarevs may have a noble origin. So, the noble family of the Ponomaryovs is included in the genealogy books of Chernihiv, Tver, Kiev and other provinces. The coat of arms of the Ponomarev family is included in the 11th and 19th parts of the General Herbovnik of the noble families of the All-Russian Empire.

Among the famous representatives of the surname are Anton Trofimovich Ponomarev (1744-1819), a merchant of the first guild, the mayor of Perm in 1799-1802 and 1808-1809; Vladimir Fedorovich Ponomarev (1860-1927), Russian naval officer, fleet lieutenant general, participant in the Tsushima battle; Vitaly Vasilievich Ponomarev (b. 1939), Soviet and Russian film and theater actor, People's Artist of the RSFSR.