Is the Russian surname Lunskaya a Jewish name?

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 24 Sep 2005 09:40 PDT

Dear topspin,

"Lunskaya" would be the female form of the surname, with "Lunskoy"
being the basic (male) form. However, that seems not to be a Russian
surname at all. I think that transcription from the Russian alphabet
caused a misinterpretation of the name. Is it possible that the name
can also be spelled "Lanskaya" resp. "Lanskoy"?

Scriptor

With great trepidation at questioning Scriptor, this site does list a
Lunskaya, and also with names that I would suspect to be Jewish:

http://www.purs.org/people_sub/shereshev3.htm

Indeed, Jewish, when one clicks on the other pages at the bottom of the list.

The name also brought this site, Topspin, which nicely links both the
names on your other question, albeit with a different spelling, but
perhaps "Bachmanoff" could help that search:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/sunday/books/0301lois.stm

See the 3rd paragraph.

Strange things is, I inadvertently used Lanskaya  - also Lanskaja - 
when searching on the other question, finding lots of mentions.  And
somewhere either on that name or on Desaix, the name Riordan came up.

It would seem that we need to look "downstream" for a connection to the general.

The plot thickens, Myoarin

Lunskaya is a female surname, and the male surname should read
Lunskii. The root of the name Lun is a bird, something of an owl,
leaving in the Northern part of the Republic of Belorus. This republic
is just North and West of Russia.

There were many folks with Jewish ethnicity living there as well, many
of whom have since immigrated to North America during the first few
waves (around the Russian revolutions of 1905-1917), and the next few
waves (in 1960s, then in the 1980s+). This is why many people
associate this name with ethic Jews rather than with the Belorus
ethnicity (those people have not immigrated to North America in
similar numbers).


Another potential but less likely root for the name is "Lun", which is
a hole in the ice for winter fishing. In the Republic of Belorus the
fishing is probably the top hobby, but digging these fishing holes in
ice is a rather difficult task, requiring skills and lot's of
strength. It is possible that your ancestor was quite profficient in
fishing - hence the name. This would be a likely scenario if your
ancestors had a large and strong sceleton.


Hope this helps
Alex