Russian surnames with a Polish root?

Question

Which surnames in Russia are also known to be in Poland or have a Polish origin/association? I presume most Polish names are Germanic, is that correct? Also, where might the name Osherenkoff originate from? City? Town? Region?

Answer 1

Most of Polish names are in fact Polish (surprise, surprise!!!). A lot of Polish surnames end with "-sky". There are plenty of people of Polish descent in Russia, but even more in the Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania.

Osherenkoff (or, if you de-Germanize it, Osherenkov) appears to be Russian, but very uncommon. Russian search engines return no mention of it, and neither does Google. Using a slight variation, Oscherenkov, does not help, either.

Generally speaking, Russian surnames do not carry any geographic information in them, with very few exceptions (such as gentry names and names of people whose ancestors relocated right before they received their surname). Historically, surnames were given to people based on their ancestor's first name (the classic Russian trio of common last names -- Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov -- is derived from first names common in 18th and 19th centuries, Ivan, Petr, and Sidor), physical appearance (Shestopalov is derived from "one with six fingers"), family status (Bol'shov and Men'shov are derived from Russian words for "eldest" and "youngest"), occupation (Kuznetsov is derived from Russian word for "blacksmith"), or origin (Mordvinov, for example, is derived from Mordva, a Finno-Ugric group that historically lived along middle Volga).

Speaking of surname origins, Oscherenkov might in fact be derived from old Russian word "oscher", meaning "baring of teeth" (in a smile or in a growl).

Answer 2

I have tried to answer your question about "Osherenkoff" before. Here are some additional thoughts:

Although some of Polish names can be Germanic, most of them are Slavic by origin. There are too many Russian names with common origin with Polish (including by own). Most of them have "ski" as an ending, but some have "ko." If you drop "ff", "Osherenkoff" it becomes Osherenko - a name of Ukrainian or Polish origin.

It could be of German origin, although it does not sound German to me. If you're sure that it's Russian, then "off" would be equivalent to "ov" ("ов" using Cyrillic alphabet). The first "O" is really confusing. Before I had suggested trying to drop it and search Sherenkov, Cherenkov etc. Apparently it didn't work.

Now I have another idea - what if there was a letter in front, which "got lost". Something like Kosherenkov or Kocherenkov - quite usual Russian names.

Finally, "ov" in Russian last name means belonging to a particular family (or being somebody's son). Quite often "ov" would become "off" when translated in English (I guess because "v" sounds like "f" in German, although I am not sure).