Name «Movchan»

The name "Movchan" is derived from the nationwide appellative "movchan," which means "a silent or reticent person" or "mute." The earliest mention of this lexeme as a surname comes from the village of Ladomirova in Prešov Region: in 1618, there is a record of a man named Danko Malchan. There is also a mention from 1678 about Fedir Movchan, who was a colonel in Pryluky. Similar names can be found in the town of Svalyava: for example, in 1699 – Molcsan Vaszil.As a proper personal name, "Movchan" appears only from 1674, with the mention of the Zaporizhian colonel Molchan Cheremysov. However, since the end of the 16th century, there are records where a derivative of the name "Movchan" appears as a patronymic surname. Thus, in 1590, Simon Molchanovych, a peasant from Ostrog, is mentioned, and in 1649, among the Cossacks of the Korsun regiment – Ivan Movchanenko.The ancientness of the name "Movchan" in the Carpathians is also indicated by the existence of a field named Movchan in the cadastre of the village of Smerkove in the Velikiy Berezny district. However, among the Transcarpathian Ukrainians, the lexeme "Movchan" was not common, and the concept of "to be silent" was expressed using a calque from the Hungarian phrase "csendbe lenni," which means "to be quiet." In the 14th-15th centuries, the personal name "Movchan" was also used in Russia.