What's in a name?

September 8, 2008 4:21 AM

What are the meanings of the surnames Seliukova and Bessadna?

We are studying genealogy in school.

I have two children in my class and all of the other English children found their names easily but two struggled to find anything.

Can anyone help or point me to a website where I can find something?

Many thanks

posted by mooreeasyvibe to Society & Culture (5 answers total)

These names derive from female forms of (presumably) Eastern European surnames. (Though Bessad sounds a little bit more Arabic). In these countries, it is common for a female to take her father's surname, but suffixed with 'a'.

Thus, you would be better off searching for the surnames Seliukov and Bessad.

For instance A little bit of Googling reveals that Selyukov is a village in the Ukraine. While Bessad seems to be a commonish name from Algeria and Tunisia.
posted by TheOtherGuy at 7:12 AM on September 8, 2008

Looks like Selyukov is about 15 miles NE of Lubny, Ukraine.
posted by lukemeister at 8:48 AM on September 8, 2008

A little bit of Googling reveals that Selyukov is a village in the Ukraine

Which is pretty much irrelevant. The family name Selyukov(a), also transliterated Seliukov(a), is from Selyuk, a diminutive of Selivan (or a related given name).

For Bessadna, it might help if you could tell us what the ethnicity involved is.
posted by languagehat at 9:01 AM on September 8, 2008

The family name Selyukov(a), also transliterated Seliukov(a), is from Selyuk

This may be a false-friendly, but what about the Seliyuk tartars who occupied the area around the Black Sea? Might the surname be a connection through either ancestry or simple place name?
posted by Mayor Curley at 9:36 AM on September 8, 2008

Mayor Curley,

These guys?
posted by lukemeister at 8:33 PM on September 8, 2008