etymology

[John Dingley]

Hi!

Can someone enlighten me as to the etymology of the
Russian family name Путин? Presumably one does not
want to derive it from путь since путь is an
original masculine -i stem noun (the only one to 
survive into Modern Russian) and one would expect 
*Путев, which is the case with other family names 
derived from masculine -i stems, e.g 
Медведев < медведь
Зверев < зверь
Голубев < голубь

As a rule of thumb, the suffix -ин is used to form
family names from nouns ending in -а/-я, e.g 
Воронин < ворона, Ленин < Лена and feminine 
-i stems, e.g. Сталин < сталь.  The suffix 
-ов/-ев being used elsewhere. This distribution 
betrays their possessive adjective origin. 

Unbegaun (p.161) explains Распутин as a nickname,
where different formation rules apply.

John Dingley

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