Expert: Maria Kuruskina - 6/19/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hello, I was wondering if you could help me. Would you be able to provide the meaning, origin, or other information about the Russian surname "Atallahanov" please? Thanks for your time.

ANSWER: Hi
In fact, it is not a Russian surname. It consists of two words Atalla and khan. Atalla - is masculine name, common in Azerbaijan, Turkey and Arabic countries; and khan means "ruler, monarch" in Arabic. So we get something like "Atalla the king". "ov" at the end of the word means that it is a surname and that it belongs to a man. As this morpheme is present, it is very likely that this person is a Russian citizen, but in reality comes from somewhere like Azerbaijan or Uzbekistan.
I hope this will help.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you! Would it be a bother if I asked for information about a few more surnames?

ANSWER: no, it's ok

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you, I really appreciate your time and effort. The other surnames I was wondering about are:

Agalakov
Atamoglanov
Agalaroff (it's related to Agalakov, I imagine)
Abelmazoff

Once again, thank you very much.  

Answer
Agalakov - Agalak - is a Turk name, so the surname might originate from a number of countries.
Agalaroff - the root is Agalar, a name common in Azerbaijan, Turkey, Arabic countries.
Atamoglanov - the same. Words that have "ata", "aga", "ara" in them are normally of arabic origin. Unfortunately I don't know what they mean in Arabic :) Surnames like that can prompt you that these people are from the former Soviet Union's Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and the like. The word formation principle is Russian and the roots are foreign.

Abelmazoff - looks Jewish to me. Abel like in Bible and maz I believe is a Jewish root too. "off" is a variant of "ov" which Russians sometimes use for their names to sound more aristocratic :))