Resumen de Latvian Surnames Motivated by Profession
The article is devoted to contemporary anthroponyms (surnames) of Latvian origin motivated by occupation or profession. The amount of different surnames of this primary semantics is not large – about 7.9%. It is less than analogical groups in neighbouring countries. According to Ernests Blese (1929), surnames of such primary semantics are very old: Arst ‘doctor’ 1506, Czelskallis ‘ironsmith’ 1573. Documents of the 16th century have provided evidence for professions or occupations which are not used today anymore, such as: Bozeneke (= bozenieks ‘stick master’), Groszenicke (= grožnieks ‘rein master’). The most widespread occupational names among Latvian modern surnames are the following: Mucenieks ‘cooper’, Mūrnieks ‘bricklayer’, and Kalējs ‘blacksmith’; cf. such surnames whose frequency is low: Arājs ‘ploughman’, Zemnieks ‘peasant’ etc. There are also many compound surnames known only in Latvian – no anthroponyms of analogous semantics are recorded in other comparative languages, e.g.: Mālmeisters ‘clay master’, Griķumalējs ‘buckwheat miller’, Jaunarājs ‘new/young ploughman’, Milzarājs ‘giant ploughman’, Smilšarājs ‘sand ploughman’, Kalnzemnieks ‘hill peasant’. Some of them have definitely originated from oikonyms, i.e. from homestead names. The typological study comparing surname systems in Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Finnish, Russian, Polish and German shows many similarities, but also some interesting peculiarities. Especially, a large number of surnames of this etymological semantics is known in German and in Russian.
