What surnames were given in Ukraine for uncommon intelligence: still preserved today

Ukrainians often gave each other nicknames, which later turned into surnames, in honor of some defining feature. And it was not always a mockery of flaws. Often it was a way of emphasizing a person's virtues.

Thus, a separate group includes surnames that indicate the outstanding intelligence of the ancestor. This, in particular, was written about in his book Modern Ukrainian Surnames by linguist and specialist in Ukrainian anthroponymy Yulian Redko. According to him, such an origin cannot be called a frequent phenomenon, but such cases are not completely isolated.

The linguist gave several examples of such surnames that he came across during his research:

• Mudryi;
• Mudryk;
• Mudrak;
• Mudrets;
• Mudryi;
• Mudreyovsky;
• Mudretskyi;
• Rozumniuk;
• Holova;
• Golovach;
• Semyrozum.

But this list is not exhaustive. Among the surnames that indicate a person's intelligence, we find the following examples:

• Pysmennyi;
• Duma;
• Dumenko;
• Dumchuk;
• Dumchenko;
• Rozumovskyi;
• Myslyvyi;
• Rozumnyi;
• Rozumey;
• Rozumovych.

From this we can conclude that intelligence was so highly valued by Ukrainians that the people paid special attention to this quality. The wisdom of a person was recorded by giving him or her a nickname, which was later passed on to descendants.

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