Armenian last names.... ?

Question

Why do all armenian last names end with -ian -yan ??

Answer 1

it means "son of" like "mc" or "mac" in irish and scottish names

Answer 2

Armenian last-names:

-ian or -yan indicates many things. It tells you, for example, what diaspora the Armenian person comes from, where the family is from, or the job of the ancestor...

Armenians who are not from the former Soviet Union, have an

-ian suffix.  Armenians from Armenia, Russia, Georgia (any former USSR nation) have last names ending in -yan. But this spelling difference is only in English. In Armenian, its all spelled the same.

The -ian or -yan,  means "son of", or "belonging to", or "of, from"..

Example #1:

The lastname "Kardashian" : Kardash is the root word.."Kar" means stone, "dash" means to cut/carve. the -ian suffix means "belonging to"...therefore, Kardashian, means, "son of stone-cutter". The -ian indicates the family is from either Iran, Greece, Lebanon, or anywhere that was not a Soviet Union.

Example #2

Sarkisyan:

Root word "Sarkis" is a name of a Saint (usually a name for a boy).. the -yan suffix means "belonging to", or "of", therefore, Sarkisyan = "son of Sarkis"

... similar to Johnson means "son of John".

The -yan indicated this person is of "Russian-Armenian" descent (from the USSR).

Example #3:

If my whole family came from California...our lastname would be "Californian"...indicating that we are from California.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_su...

Answer 3

that is our trade mark,

IAN or YAN

Answer 4

Not all last names end with -ian. Bagratuni and Artzruni are examples of dynasties and names pertaining to nobility. Nowadays, I've even seen the -ian removed. Like, Armen, Khatchik, Tovmas as last names.

Answer 5

It means son of,like 'bin' and 'binti' in certain arabic names.

In Armenain,the surnames depend on the profession of the great grand parents too,i.e, Kurkdjian mean Furr...perhaps it has got to do with furr production in the past.

Have a nice day.

Answer 6

I don't know why but I have a last name like that and I'm Armenian.

Answer 7

Tradition.