User-submitted Reference

Origin of Volkov surname

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

Most likely, the basis of Volkov's surname was a worldly name. 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.

Worldly names were often completely replaced by baptismal names, and even in documents they could act as official names. So, even in the annals there are records such as 'the son of Fedor was born to the Grand Duke Vsevolod, and Yaroslav was nicknamed Speed' (1190), or, for example, the son of the Novgorod priest 'Maxim, and the worldly name Stanimir' (1310) is mentioned.

The surname Volkova comes from the worldly name Wolf, which was unusually popular not only among the Slavs, but also among other European peoples: for example, Wulf - from the Germans, Wook - from the Serbs, Gyrd - from the Turkic peoples. I must say that before the introduction of Christianity in Russia, the name of a child by the name representing the name of an animal or plant was a very common tradition. This corresponded to the pagan ideas of man about the world. Old Russian man, living according to the laws of nature, himself represented himself as part of it. Giving the baby such names as, for example, Wolf, Squirrel, Nightingale, Kalina, the parents wanted nature to perceive the child as their own, so that the useful qualities that the selected representative of the animal or plant world were transferred to him.

In addition, the Wolf since ancient times symbolized bold strength, courage and cunning. Therefore, such a name could probably have been given to the child by virtue of superstitious traditions: the wolf named after this name will not be touched by the wolf - it will be taken for his own. In addition, wolves are tenacious and hardy, and the bearer of this name, according to our ancestors, would automatically acquire these qualities.

The name, and later the surname formed from him, were distributed everywhere and in different classes: Ivan G. Volk Ukhtomsky, 1483; Pan Wolf Gavsovich, XIV century .; Zakhar Wolf, Vitebsk tradesman, 1597; Simon Volchok, supra-industrial peasant, 1645.

Among the many famous Volkovs, we will name Volkov Fyodor Grigorievich (1729 - 1763) - an actor and theatrical figure. In 1750, Volkov organized an amateur troupe in Yaroslavl, on the basis of which in 1756 the first permanent Russian public theater was created in St. Petersburg.

Since the process of forming surnames was quite lengthy, it is difficult to talk about the exact place and time of the origin of Volkov's surname. 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.

Sources: Dictionary of modern Russian surnames (Ganzhina I.M.), Encyclopedia of Russian surnames. Secrets of origin and meaning (Vedina T.F.), Russian surnames: a popular etymological dictionary (Fedosyuk Yu.A.), Encyclopedia of Russian surnames (Higir B.Yu.), Russian surnames (Unbegaun B.O.).

The name is most likely a derivative of the animal name 'wolf'.