Family Name - By Ethnic Group - North Caucasian Adyghe Family Surnames

North Caucasian Adyghe Family Surnames

In the case of Circassians, especially Adyges and Kabardians, hereditary surnames have been borne by people for thousands of years. All Circassian people belong to a Clan.

Most surnames of Adyge origin fall into six types:

• Occupations (e.g., 'smith', 'hunter', 'tailor')
• Personal characteristics (e.g., 'short', 'deaf', 'beautiful')
• Geographical features (e.g., 'hill', 'river', 'cave', 'wood', 'fields')
• Animal names (e.g., 'bear', 'horse', 'snake', 'fox', 'wild boar')
• Patronymics and ancestry, often from a male's given name ('son of...') or from an ethnic name (e.g., Shapsug, Kabardey)
• Religious names (e.g., Shogen 'Priest', Yefendi 'Efendi', Mole 'Mullah')

Shogen comes from the Christian era, and Yefendi and Mole come from the Muslim era.

Circassian women, even when they marry, do not change their surnames. By keeping their surnames and passing it on to the next generation, children come to distinguish relatives from the maternal side and respect her family as well as those from their father's side.

On the other hand, children cannot marry someone who bears the same surname as they do, no matter how distantly related.

In the Circassian tradition, the formula for surnames is patterned to mean “daughter of ...”

Abkhaz families follow similar naming patterns reflecting the common roots of the Abkhazian, Adygean and Wubikh peoples.

Circassian family names cannot be derived from women's names and of the name of female ancestors.