Why do Russians have names like V., Nov., Ski, and what do they mean?

Ski (-ский), Nov (-нов), are suffixes for Russian surnames, while Vicky (-вич) is a patronymic suffix.

As for -ский -нов ? -вич what these suffixes mean, some researchers say that -ский tends to refer to where the person comes from, with the last name coming from the place name. -нов tends to come from the name of the person, from whoever the family is. In fact, -ский is "of what," as in Невский, which has something to do with the fact that he fought a big battle on the Нева river.

Iванов is actually the plural ditransitive of Иван, Иван family.

-вич is actually -ич at the end of the word, whose son. For example, in ancient times, a prince was called церевич, son of the tsar's family.

Russian surnames appeared very late compared to Chinese ones. Russian surname prototype 13th century before the emergence, but at that time in fact can not be said to be "surname", can only be said to be "nickname", such as Юрий Долгорукий, the long-handed Yuri, because he went around the war to seize the territory, it gained this name.

Later in the aristocracy began to appear similar to the current surnames, such as Воротынский, Шуйский, Оболенский, while the peasants until the 19th-century reforms of serfdom did not have their own surnames, and could only be identified by the father's name, which was whoever the family Иван.

Extended information:

Russian names generally consist of three sections. The first section is the person's first name, the middle is the father's name, and the last is the family name. Women will change to their husband's last name after marriage.

For example, Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov, Ivan is the person's first name, Ivanovich is the father's name, meaning son of Ivan, and Ivanov is the last name. Women's names mostly end in Eva and Ya. Before marriage, a woman takes her father's name, but after marriage she often takes her husband's name, but her name and patronymic remain unchanged.

For example, Nina Ivanovna Ivanova, Nina is her first name, Ivanovna is her father's name, and Ivanova is her father's surname. If she had married Rogov, her surname would have been changed to Rogov after the marriage, and her full name would have been Nina Ivanovna Rogova.

Russian names are usually arranged as given name, patronymic, and surname, but it is possible to put the surname at the top, especially in official documents, i.e., the names of Ivan and Nina mentioned above can be written as Ivanov-Ivan Ivanovich and Ivanova-Nina Ivanovna. Both the first and patronymic names may be abbreviated with only the first letter.

Russians generally refer to their surnames verbally or only by their first names. In order to show politeness and respect, they refer to the first name and patronymic, for example, Ivan Ivanovich Ivanovych Ivanovych, and Nina Ivanovna Ivanova, Nina Ivanovna.

To show special respect for elders, it is also possible to refer to them only by their father's name, as in the case of Lenin, who is often referred to as Ilyich (Ильич), and whose full name is Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. Family members and those closer to them often use terms of endearment, such as Ivan Vanya (Ваня), Vanusha (Ванюша); Sergei (Сергей) called Seryozha (Селеша), and so on.

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia-Russian Names