An Analysis of the Surnames of the Members of the Modern Ethnic Group of the Italians of Crimea and their Ancestors as Quasi-Genetic Marker

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2023-2/308-324

Authors

  • Stefania Zini The Russian Academy of Sciences N.N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology
  • Nikita Khokhlov The Russian Academy of Sciences N.N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology

Keywords:

anthroponomy, Italian surnames, quasi-genetic markers, the Italians of Crimea, Black Sea and Sea of Azov Region, Northern Black Sea region

Abstract

The article presents the results of a comprehensive analysis of the surnames of members of the modern ethnic group called the "Italians of Crimea" (living today mainly in Kerch), and of their ancestors – the Italian migrants to the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov region of the 19th–20th centuries. Each Italian surname has its own history and can tell a lot about a person and their family: most of Italian surnames have their origin in a particular Italian region and/or refer to the social status of their owner. This made it possible to use the surnames of the "Italians of Crimea" and of their ancestors as a reliable quasi-genetic marker, which corresponds to the methods used in anthropogenetic studies to find answers to historical and genetic questions. The analysis of the surnames of the group, compared to the historical data from Russian and Italian archives, made it possible to establish with a certain degree of accuracy from which regions of the Apennine Peninsula several hundreds of Italian migrants moved to different cities of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov regions and to Crimea in the 19th–20th centuries. The transformations that the original surnames of Italian migrants underwent over time reflect the complex process of adaptation to the new socio-cultural, economic and linguistic conditions of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov regions.

Author Biographies

  • Stefania Zini, The Russian Academy of Sciences N.N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology

    Zini, Stefania – Ph.D. in History, Research Fellow, the Russian Academy of Sciences N. N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology (Moscow, Russian Federation). E-mail: stefania.zini@yandex.ru

  • Nikita Khokhlov, The Russian Academy of Sciences N.N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology

    Khokhlov, Nikita V. – Ph.D. in Biology, Research Fellow, the Russian Academy of Sciences N. N. Miklouho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology (Moscow, Russian Federation). E-mail: ethno@yandex.ru

    For Citation: Zini, S. and N. V. Khokhlov. 2023. An Analysis of the Surnames of the Members of the Modern Ethnic Group of the Italians of Crimea and their Ancestors as Quasi-Genetic Marker. Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik Antropologii). 2: 308–324.

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Published

01.06.2023

Issue

No. 2 (2023): Herald of Anthropology

Section

Physical anthropology