Russian Merchants at River Ports of the Bay of Bothnia, 1548.

by Rebecca Lucas (ffride wlffsdotter)

© 2017; all rights reserved
last updated 22nd October 2017

Introduction

The Bay of Bothnia, in the northernmost waters of the Gulf of Bothnia, is part of the Baltic Sea. Today, it divides the eastern coastline of Sweden, and the western coast of Finland, however in the 16th century, Oulu (Swedish: Uleåborg), Ii (Swedish: Ijo), and Kemi were all within the Kingdom and Sweden. These river ports, from the 13th century on, allowed merchants to trade in the products of sealing, including blubber (Herva and Salmi, 2010), furs, dried and salted pike, and salted salmon (Herva, Ylimaunu and Symonds, 2012). Hence, it is not surprising to find foreigners being recorded in the harbour tax registers, including the names of merchants and the ports their ships visited.

For name construction purposes, it is interesting how these apparently "Russian" names were recorded by scribes fluent in Swedish. Although the merchant's are described in the tax registers as being "Ryss" or "Russian," some of the names used are clearly Scandinavian, such as Håkon. Some of these bynames, like "Rigason" appear to be locative bynames with the addition of -son, while in other cases the meaning of the name elements are unclear.
Audén (1980; 167) notes the names have not been normalised.

Names

Note: Names with an asterisk (*) have been reconstructed from their genitive, patronymic forms. Where dates occur with a number in brackets beside it, that indicates how many times the name appeared.

The data from Audén was extracted and sorted into two lists; names listed by frequency, and names listed in alphabetical order.
The three most popular names in the registers were Eloijs, Håkon, and Iffuan, with four examples of each.

Names by Frequency
  • Eloijs (4)
    • Eloijs
    • Elox
    • Eloys
    • Unmarked Patronymic:
      Elosi
  • Håkon (4)
    • Håkon
    • Hakon
    • Patronymics:
      Håkonson
      Hakonsson
  • Iffuan (4)
    • Iffuan (2)
    • Patronymic:
      Iffuanson (2)
  • Jacop (3)
    • Jacop
    • Patronymic:
      Jacopson (2)
  • Staffan (3)
    • Staffan (3)
  • Wasill (3)
    • Wasill
    • Wassill
    • Patronymic:
      Wasilson
  • Kariill (2)
    • Kariill
    • Patronymic:
      Kwrillson
  • *Maxima (2)
    • Patronymic:
      Maximason
  • Petter (2)
    • Petter
    • Patronymic:
      Person
  • Damus (1)
    • Damus
  • Frantz (1)
    • Frantz
  • Juda (1)
    • Juda
  • *Leuos (1)
    • Patronymic:
      Leuosson
  • Michill (1)
    • Michill
  • Musta (1)
    • Musta
      Note: This may be a Finnic nickname, from musta "black".
  • *Nester (1)
    • Patronymic:
      Nesterson
  • Påuell (1)
    • Påuell
  • Riko (1)
    • Riko
  • *Saffuo (1)
    • Patronymic:
      Saffuoson
  • Siffrid (1)
    • Siffrid
  • Sitare (1)
    • Sitare
  • Sspire (1)
    • Sspire

Extracted Data (Alphabetical Order)

Name Port Notes
Damus Wasilson Ryss Ii Patronymic from the Russian personal name Vasilii.
Eloijs Hakonsson Ryss Oulu Possibly a form of the name Elogius?
Elox Ryss Kemi Possibly a form of the name Elogius?
Eloys Maximason Kemi Possibly a form of the name Elogius? Patronymic from the Russian personal name Maksim.
Frantz Ryss Kemi Note: Frantz is listed as originating from Strengenes, Norway.
Hakon Jacopson Ryss Oulu Scandinavian personal name Hakon. Patronymic from the Russian personal name Iakov.
Håkon Maximason Ryss Oulu Scandinavian personal name Hakon. Patronymic from the Russian personal name Maksim.
Iffuan Leuosson Ryss Oulu Russian personal name Ivan. Patronymic may be from the Russian personal name Lavosh.
Iffuan Saffuoson Kemi Russian personal name Ivan. Patronymic may be a diminutive of the Russian personal name Sevast′ian
Jacop Rigason Kemi Russian personal name Iakov. Byname may be indicating the merchant originated in Riga.
Juda Nesterson Kemi Russian personal name Iuda, and patronymic from the personal name Nester.
Kariill Iffuanson Ryss Oulu Russian personal name Karil, and patronymic from Ivan.
Michill Torasi Ryss Ii Russian personal name Mikhail, and an unknown byname.
Musta Thero Ryss Oulu This may be a Finnic nickname, from musta "black".
Petter Kwrillson Ryss Oulu Russian personal name Petr, and patronymic from the personal name Karil.
Påuell Jacopson Ryss Kemi Russian personal name Petr, and patronymic from the personal name Iakov.
Riko Person Ryss Ii Unknown given name. Patronymic from the Russian personal name Petr.
Siffrid Timoskson Ryss Oulu His given name is a form of Siegfried. Patronymic from the Russian diminutive personal name, Timoshko?
Sitare Håkonson Ryss Oulu Personal name is possibly from the name Isidor? Patronymic from the Scandinavian name Hakon.
Sspire Dauidson Ryss Ii Possibly a diminutive of the name Spiridon? Patronymic from the Russian personal name David.
Staffan Elosi Ryss Ii Personal name from Russian Stepan, byname may be an unmarked patronymic from the personal name Elogius?
Staffan Matzon Ryss Oulu Personal name from Russian Stepan, patronymic from the Russian personal name Mats.
Staffan Ryss Kemi Personal name from Russian Stepan.
Wassill Iffuanson Ryss Oulu Given name is the Russian personal name Vasilii, patronymic from the Russian personal name Ivan.
Wasill Rigason Ryss Ii Given name is the Russian personal name Vasilii. Byname may be indicating the merchant originated in Riga.

References