How common is the name Ter-Petrossian?

March 14, 2009 4:52 PM

How common is the family name Ter-Petrossian in the Caucasus? Was the former president of Armenia related to one of Stalin's killers?

I'm reading Simon Sebag Montefiore's excellent Young Stalin right now, and one Simon Ter-Petrossian comes up fairly often as one of Stalin's primary henchmen in while Comrade Djugashvili was a gangster in the Caucasus. They apparently grew up together in Gori.

It made me curious about Levon, given the seemingly uncommon family name. Montefiore doesn't mention any connection, and he's fairly meticulous, Levon comes from Syria, and I can't find any suggestion of a connection online. So is it just coincidence?

posted by wandering steve to Education (5 answers total)

I'm no expert, but it sounds like Ter-Petrossian is the equivalent of, like, Peterson. Google returns hundreds of thousands of results for 'Petrossian,' and Armeniapedia has several of 'em. So I'd say it's at least fairly common. On the other hand, I seem to recall reading somewhere that everyone on earth is at least 50th cousin to everyone else. My non-expert guess, then, would be that they're related, but distantly, possibly very distantly.

I eagerly await a more informed opinion.
posted by box at 5:16 PM on March 14, 2009

Best answer: Typical Armenian last names (family names) end with the suffix -ian, -yan, or sometimes -jan. Example: Petrosian. That ending comes from the old Armenian word meaning "son". So the last name "Petrosian" means "son of Petros", the Armenian form of the name Peterson....

The prefix "Der"/"Ter" (meaning "lord") is typically Armenian. It might be followed by a space or attached directly to the root. If someone possesses a surname containing "Der" or "Ter" it usually signifies that this person has a priest in the family. -- Armenian surnames, wikipedia

So the name is really the common Petrossian, and both families may have had priests (probably itself common).
posted by dhartung at 5:22 PM on March 14, 2009 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Aha -- yeah, the priest bit makes a lot of sense. Thanks!
posted by wandering steve at 6:31 PM on March 14, 2009

Dhartung is exactly correct.
posted by k8t at 8:18 PM on March 14, 2009

Fun fact - the city of Kavar/Gavar in Armenia, known for its redheads and drunks, was named for Simon Ter-Petrossian (Petrosyan is the usual spelling, BTW), AKA Kamo. His nickname was Kamo because of his thick Caucasian accent pronouncing the word "komu" in Russian (to whom).
posted by k8t at 8:27 PM on March 14, 2009