I don’t mean a direct translation, but rather a common and/or “stereotypical” last name that is generally used as the equivalent of “Smith” in English.
I don’t mean a direct translation, but rather a common and/or “stereotypical” last name that is generally used as the equivalent of “Smith” in English.
Kalējs, Kalvis, Kovalenko, Kuznetsov are some that I know around here.
Kuznetsov is a bit of an exception, it’s from the word кузня (kuznja) meaning forge. Koval would be Smith.
Many people whose last name was Kovalenko became Kovalyov during Russification in Soviet Union.
‘Kuznets’ means smith too. The difference is that kuznets is borrowed from Church Slavonic, while koval is authentically East Slavic.