RUSSIAN-SURNAMES-L Archives

Archiver > RUSSIAN-SURNAMES > 2002-05 > 1021994944


From: "William F. Hoffman" <>
Subject: [RUSSIAN-SURNAMES] Re: Mikulchik
Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 10:29:10 -0500
References: <200205211104.g4LB4F321493@lists2.rootsweb.com>


Greetings!

The question on the name MIKULCHIK is not so easy to answer. Historically
speaking, it hasn't been all that long since the original Proto-Slavic
language began to differentiate into Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Polish, and
so on. For this reason, many names, and many of the suffixes used to form
names, are quite similar. Some are distinctively Russian or Polish or Czech;
with others it is very hard to tell which group they originated among.

The suffix -chik is certainly used by Russians to form names meaning
"little" and "son of," so that Mikulchik makes perfect sense as "little
Mikula" or "son of Mikula." The same suffix, however, is also common in
Polish and Ukrainian names. (In Polish it's spelled -czyk or -cik, but it's
the same basic suffix.)

Mikul- comes from the first name we use in the form Nicholas, but Poles use
it in the form Mikolaj, and Russians in the form Nikolai; Ukrainians use it
in several forms, including Mikola, Mikolai, and Nikola. As a very general
rule, Russians tended to preserve the initial N- from the Greek original
form, Nikolaos; Poles tended to change the N- into M-; and Ukrainians used
both forms. So the quick answer would be, no, Mikulchik would not be
Russian, because Russians would use the form Nikulchik. Mikulchik would be
an Anglicized phonetic spelling of a Ukrainian Polish name pronounced
roughly "me-cool-chick."

But that's an oversimplification. Russians did sometimes use names beginning
Mik- as well as Nik-; they just didn't do it as often as Poles and
Ukrainians. So you can't really draw a firm conclusion from the form of the
name. This name could be borne by ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, or Poles. If
it is Polish, the spelling has been changed for one reason or another from
Mikulczyk or Mikulcik -- but that happened all the time.

Your best way to answer this question is to get more details on the family.
If, for instance, they were followers of the Orthodox Church rather than the
Roman Catholic, that strongly indicates they were not Polish. If they
consistently bore first names of Russian rather than Ukrainian origin, that
would clarify the matter. (Russian and Ukrainian first names are usually
similar, but there are differences one can discern.)

As for documents stating that a given person came "from Russia," that
doesn't mean much. By roughly 1815 the Russian Empire included all of the
Baltic States, much of Ukraine, and most of central and eastern Poland. By
the time massive immigration was underway, from 1870 on, people from those
regions were officially considered subjects of the Russian Empire. Thus a
Pole living as far west as Kalisz would be classified as coming from
"Russia," even if he loudly protested that there wasn't a drop of Russian
blood in his body! You can't rely on what country a person was said to come
from; you have to find out what part of that country, then look on
historical maps to learn whether that was an area dominated by ethnic
Russians or Poles or Ukrainians or Lithuanians or whatever.

The bottom line is, surnames usually don't tell you much, and even the basic
info in some documents isn't as reliable as it appears. The only answer, I'm
afraid, is to keep on digging and researching. If your Mikulchiks lived near
Ryazan, had first names such as Vasiliy and Anatoliy and Konstantin, and
were baptized in an Orthodox church, they were Russians. If they were Roman
Catholics living near Warsaw and were called Jan and Stanislaw and Andrzej,
they were Poles. If they lived near Kiev and were Orthodox and bore names
such as Pylyp and Volodymyr and Pavlo, they were Ukrainian. But really,
until you know their first names, religion, and place of residence, you're
probably not going to be able to conclude much from the surname alone.

Hope this helps!

William F. "Fred" Hoffman
Author, _Polish Surnames: Origins & Meanings_
Manager, Language & Lineage Press
http://langline.com


This thread: