By the 18th century almost all Ukrainians had family names. Most Ukrainian surnames (and surnames in Slavic languages in general) are formed by adding possessive and other suffixes to given names, place names, professions and other words.
Surnames were developed for official documents or business record keeping to differentiate the parties who might have the same first name. By the 15th century, surnames were used by the upper class, nobles and large land owners. In cities and towns, surnames became necessary in the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1632, Orthodox Metropolitan Petro Mohyla ordered priests to include a surname in all records of birth, marriage and death.
After the partitions of Poland (1772–1795), Western Ukraine came under the Austrian Empire, where peasants needed surnames for taxation purposes and military service and churches were required to keep records of all births, deaths and marriages.
The surnames with the suffix -enko are the most known and common Ukrainian surnames. Due to migration and deportations of Ukrainians during the history, it's also present in Belarus and Russia, especially in the Kuban region, where many ethnic Ukrainians historically lived.
Common suffixes in Ukrainian names are:
Some names have differing masculine and feminine forms, meaning a brother and sister's surname will be inflected with different suffixes (such as Zelenskyi/Зеленський vs. Zelenska/Зеленська). Others (such as the distinctively Ukrainian names ending in ) do not change with grammatical gender.
The first elements of Ukrainian surnames are most commonly given names (patronymics and matronymics), place names (toponyms), and professions.
Patronymic surnames
From the first name Ivan (John in English), over 100 different surnames can be formed. The most common variations of Ivan in Ukrainian are Ivas, Jan, Vakhno, and Vanko. The surnames based on Ivan include: Ivaniv, Ivankiv, Ivasiv, Ivashchenko, Ivankhiv, Janiv, Jankiv, and Ivaniuk. More examples of surnames based on a first name:
When a woman married, she was known by a form of her husband's first name or her father's. From the name Petro, she was Petrykha, (wife of Petro). From these forms, matronymic surnames ending in were created. Petryshyn came from Petrykha, Romanyshyn from Romanykha and Ivanyshyn from Ivanykha. Surnames based on women's names are rare (Marunchak from Marunia, a form of Maria).
Toponymic surnames
Some Ukrainian toponymic surnames can be identified as from the Galicia region. Those surnames often contain the suffixes or (Kolomiets, Korniets, Romanets, Baranets).
Profession-based surnames
Ethnic surnames
Names that show ethnic, national or tribal origins other than Ukrainian.
There are also old Cossack names that derive from military occupations, such as Kompaniiets or Kompanichenko. There are also surnames derived from monikers based on personal characteristics. Those are considered to derive directly from the usage of monikers instead of actual names due to nature of occupation. These compounds, usually consisting of a second person-singular-addressed imperative verb or an adjective coupled with a noun, can often be somewhat comical such as:
| Name | Literal meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| Chornovil | Black ox | |
| Chornyi | Black (adj.) | |
| Dobroshtan | Good pants | |
| Dobryivechir | Good evening! (vocative) | |
| Holodryha | Nude twitch | |
| Hryzydub | Munch the oak (second person imperative) | |
| Kandyba | Useless (crippled) horse | |
| Kryvoshapka | Crooked headwear | |
| Krutyvus | Twist the moustache (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Kryvonis | Curved nose | |
| Lomachenko | Break [+chenko] | |
| Lupybat'ko | Pummel the father (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Molyboha | Pray to God (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Navarykasha | Boil the porridge (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Nebaba | [Is] not a woman | |
| Nedaivoda | Do not give water (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Nepyipyvo | Do not drink beer (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Neschadymenko | No mercy! [+enko] | |
| Nesviatypaska | Do not [get] paska bless[ed] (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Netudykhata | Wrong way house (locative) | |
| Neizhkasha | Do not eat porridge (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Neizhpapa | Do not eat dad/bread (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Nezdiimynoha | Do not lift up the leg (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Obbizhysvit | Run around the world (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Otchenash | Our Father! (voc.) | |
| Panibud'laska | Lady, please! (voc.) | |
| Perebyinis | Break the nose (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Perevernykruchenko | Turn over the cliff (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Pidipryhora | Bolster the mountain (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Pidkuimukha | Horseshoe the fly (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Podlypa | Under a lime tree (loc.) | |
| Pokyn'boroda | Ditch the beard (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Salohub | Salo lips | |
| Sorokopud | Forty poods | |
| Tiahnyriadno | Pull the blanket (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Ubyivovk | Kill the wolf (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Uvorvykyshky | Rip the guts out (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Voshkolup | Louse scratch[er] | |
| Vyrvykhvist | Rip a tail (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Vernydub | Twist the oak (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Vernyhora | Twist the mountain (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Zapliuisvichka | Dip-spit the candle (2nd pers. imp.) | |
| Zhuivoda | Chew the water (2nd pers. imp.) |
Among Cossacks were also much simplified nature-derived last names such as Hohol (topknot), Orel (eagle), Bakai/Bakay/Bakaj (pothole), Horobets (sparrow), Syromakha (orphan), Rosomakha (wolverine), Vedmid' (bear), Moroz (frost), Kulish (Cossack soup), Mara (wraith), Skovoroda (frying pan), Harbuz (pumpkin), Vovk (wolf), Chaika (seagull) and many more that are common nouns of the Ukrainian language. Other Cossack last names were based on personality characteristics, e.g. Babii (womanizer), Dovhopiat (long foot), Dryhalo (twitchy person), Nudylo (tedious person), Plaksa (crying person), Pribluda (fornicate child, bastard), Prilipko (sticky person), Sverbylo (itchy person), Vereshchaka (shrieking person), Vytrishchaka (goggling person), etc.
| Name | Ukrainian | Meaning | Number | Predominant in regions | ||
| 1 | Melnyk | Мельник | Miller | 107878 | Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytskyi, Lviv, Vinnytsia | |
| 2 | Shevchenko | Шевченко | Shoemaker's son | 106340 | Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Zaporizhia | |
| 3 | Kovalenko | Коваленко | Smith's son | 88632 | Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Kyiv, Poltava, Cherkasy | |
| 4 | Bondarenko | Бондаренко | Cooper's son | 88133 | Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Odesa, Poltava, Zaporizhia | |
| 5 | Ivanov(a) | Іванов | John's | 84096 | Crimea, Donetsk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sevastopol, Zaporizhia | |
| 6 | Boyko | Бойко | Boyko or from бій (fight, combat) | 83195 | Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil | |
| 7 | Tkachenko | Ткаченко | Weaver's son | 82270 | Cherkasy, Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy | |
| 8 | Kravchenko | Кравченко | Tailor's son | 75456 | Chernihiv, Kherson | |
| 9 | Kovalchuk | Ковальчук | Smith's son | 70410 | Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, Volyn, Zhytomyr | |
| 10 | Koval | Коваль | Smith | 62232 | Lviv |