List Of Most Common Russian Last Names

Russian philology scientists compiled a list of 500 Russian most common surnames collected from a massive of various sources. We provide a list of 100 of them so that you feel more confident when hearing tales of Russian history and culture.

Why You May Need To Know This

Russian names and surnames are hard to understand for a non-Cyrillic ear just like Cyrillic letters are hard to understand and remember for an eye accustomed to a language based on the Latin alphabet. So after going on a tour in a museum or around St. Petersburg you may want to check the last name of a person you’ve just learned about. The city is full of history, architecture, culture, and many tales and facts and inventions told about during excursions are associated with politicians, scientists, inventors, writers, architects, criminals, and charlatans.

A lot of streets and avenues are called after prominent persons, so having our list at hand may be useful.

Last but not least, many global brands and other items have Russian surnames like Smirnoff vodka, Beef Stroganoff, Kalashnikov rifle, Davidoff (cigar and cigarettes).

There are a few main sources for Russian last names to originate from:

— the name of father or grandfather. Ex.: Romanov firstly meant “the son of Roman” and then, in a next generation, became the last name attributed not to a person, but to a race; The Romanovs means “those originating from someone called Roman”;

— a profession. Ex.: Kuznetsov is derivative from a Russian word «кузнец» meaning a smith; So, Mr. & Mrs. Smith would be Mr. & Mrs. Kuznetsovs;

— an animal, bird, insect, plant. Ex.: Sokolov is a derivative from the Russian word «сокол» meaning a falcon;

— an area, be it a region, city, town, village, estate. Ex.: Ryazantsev means “a man from the region of Ryazan”;

— a church, religious festival, or a saint. Ex.: Rozhdestvensky is derivative from a Russian word «Рождество» meaning the Christmas;

— a characteristic or nickname: Ex.: Smelov originates from a Russian word «смелый» meaning brave.

There is a difference between Russian male and female surnames. Typically, an “a” or an “aya” is added to a female surname. For example:

— Alexander Ovechkin (male) and Olga Ovechkina (female);

— Vladimir Tsiolkovsky (male) and Natalia Tsiolkovskaya.

Russians also have patronymic names (the last name behind the name), primarily used in official or more formalized situations or when talking to an older person.

This looks as follows:

Sergei Ivanovich Korolev where:

— Sergei is the name;
— Ivanovich is the patronymic name derivation from the name of his farther, Ivan;
— Korolev is the last name.

Top Russian Surnames

The list we provide below was created in 2005 by Anatoly Zhuravlev, a Russian doctor in philology, the chief of the etymology and onomastics department at the Russian Language Institute of the Russian Science Academy. His team collected phone books, lists of employees of establishments, lists of students, and some other sources from the period of 1970 — 2000.

The last names in the list are ranked by the frequency compared to the #1 which is Ivanov that has the coefficient of frequency 1,0 (or let’s say 100 percent). For example, Smirnov has a coefficient of 0.74 (74 percent, which means it is less common than Ivanov by 26 percent).

We don’t give the coefficients for the surnames in the list as we don’t think they are that important. But if you need the statistics on the frequency, leave us a message in the comments. And don’t hesitate to do it in case you want to inquire about a specific Russian last name.

Please mind that the spelling of Russian names and surnames may have different forms, for example, Fedorov and Fyodorov, Mikhailov and Mikhaylov, Chernyshev and Tchernyshyov.

Rank	Russian last names in Cyrillic	Russian last names in English
1	Иванов	Ivanov
2	Смирнов	Smirnov
3	Кузнецов	Kuznetsov
4	Попов	Popov
5	Васильев	Vasiliev
6	Петров	Petrov
7	Соколов	Sokolov
8	Михайлов	Mikhailov
9	Новиков	Novikov
10	Федоров	Fedorov
11	Морозов	Morozov
12	Волков	Volkov
13	Алексеев	Alexeev
14	Лебедев	Lebedev
15	Семенов	Semenov
16	Егоров	Egorov
17	Павлов	Pavlov
18	Козлов	Kozlov
19	Степанов	Stepanov
20	Николаев	Nikolaev
21	Орлов	Orlov
22	Андреев	Andreev
23	Макаров	Makarov
24	Никитин	Nikitin
25	Захаров	Zakharov
26	Зайцев	Zaytsev
27	Соловьев	Solovyov
28	Борисов	Borisov
29	Яковлев	Yakovlev
30	Григорьев	Grigoriev
31	Романов	Romanov
32	Воробьев	Vorobyov
33	Сергеев	Sergeev
34	Кузьмин	Kuzmin
35	Фролов	Frolov
36	Александров	Alexandrov
37	Дмитриев	Dmitriev
38	Королев	Korolev
39	Гусев	Gusev
40	Киселев	Kiselev
41	Ильин	Ilyin
42	Максимов	Maximov
43	Поляков	Polyakov
44	Сорокин	Sorokin
45	Виноградов	Vinogradov
46	Ковалев	Kovalev
47	Белов	Belov
48	Медведев	Medvedev
49	Антонов	Antonov
50	Тарасов	Tarasov
51	Жуков	Zhukov
52	Баранов	Baranov
53	Филиппов	Filippov
54	Комаров	Komarov
55	Давыдов	Davydov
56	Беляев	Belyaev
57	Герасимов	Gerasimov
58	Богданов	Bogdanov
59	Осипов	Osipov
60	Сидоров	Sidorov
61	Матвеев	Matveev
62	Титов	Titov
63	Марков	Markov
64	Миронов	Mironov
65	Крылов	Krylov
66	Куликов	Kulikov
67	Карпов	Karpov
68	Власов	Vlasov
69	Мельников	Melnikov
70	Денисов	Denisov
71	Гаврилов	Gavrilov
72	Тихонов	Tikhonov
73	Казаков	Kazakov
74	Афанасьев	Afanasyev
75	Данилов	Danilov
76	Савельев	Savelyev
77	Тимофеев	Timofeev
78	Фомин	Fomin
79	Чернов	Chernov
80	Абрамов	Abramov
81	Мартынов	Martynov
82	Ефимов	Efimov
83	Федотов	Fedotov
84	Щербаков	Scherbakov
85	Назаров	Nazarov
86	Калинин	Kalinin
87	Исаев	Isaev
88	Чернышов	Cherhnyshev
89	Быков	Bykov
90	Маслов	Maslov
91	Родионов	Rodionov
92	Коновалов	Konovalov
93	Лазарев	Lazarev
94	Воронин	Voronin
95	Климов	Klimov
96	Филатов	Filatov
97	Пономарев	Ponomaryov
98	Голубев	Golubev
99	Кудрявцев	Kudryavtsev
100	Прохоров	Prokhorov

The list contains 500 Russian family names. If you need the full list, just tell us in comments, we will think, may we will do it. Or you may want what a surname means, don’t hesitate to ask.