Some surname elements
If anyone has a vaguely ethnic-sounding surname but has no idea which nationality it derives from, here are a few helpful hints if your surname ends in or contains these elements:

-ski is likely to be Polish.

-sky is more likely to be Russian (these two get mixed up a lot.)

-ak is Slovak.

-enko is almost infalliably Ukranian.

-vic is likely from Yugoslavia.

-vich is often confused with 'vic' but is from Russian, not Yugoslavian, origin.

-vici, also often confused with the two above, is Serbian.

-off, -ov, -ev, and -eff are probably Russian.

-iak is Ukranian.

-wicz or any cz combination really, is likely Polish.

I'll be back with more later if I can!

JC
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Replies

More fun with surname elements! A few more common elements include...

-ez is usually Spanish.

-es, not to be confused with the above example, is Portuguese.

-is is from Catalan.

-escu, -aru and -eanu are Romanian.

-zade is Persian (Farsi) in origin.

-oglu is Turkish and means "son of".

-berg, -s, and -er are common German sufixes, as are -dorf, -baum, -hof,
-stein, -bach, -feld, -heim, -stadt, -mann, and -gross.

-blad, -ek, -gren, -holm, -lind, -kvist, -sjo, and -strom are Swedish.

Van-, Vander-, and Vanden- are all Dutch and are related to the German
Von-, meaning "of" or "at".

-nen is Finnish more often than not.

Ibn- and Ben- are Arabic and Hebrew. Both mean "son of".

-ian and -yan are both Armenian.

-is and -os are usually Greek.

Mc- and Mac- are Gaelic prefixes from Irish and Scots that mean "son of".
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