Rasputin: Last Name or Nickname?

Okay, this is going to sound really silly, but I've heard of it two ways. In Carolyn Meyer's "Anastasia: The Last Grand Duchess" fictional diary (in the case you've never heard of it: It is a part of the Royal Diaries series, published by Scholastic in 2000), there is one place where it says that "Rasputin" was just a nickname for him meaning dissolute, but in that case, what WAS his last name? And nearly everywhere else (I could give you sources if needed, but I don't find that necessary - as I said, it was almost everywhere!), it has him down as Grigori Efimovitch (excuse the spelling - might not be quite correct =D) Rasputin, as a LAST name.

Which one of these were correct? Or, by some stroke of luck (or bad luck for him =D) was Rasputin his last name AND did it mean dissolute?

Thanks in advance,
Olga Bernice

Hopefully we do not start a discussion on an issue that is no issue. Rasputin was his family name, His father was Efim, so therefore Grigorij's patronym Efimovich: Grigroij Efimovich Rasputin.

Hopefully we do not start a discussion on an issue that is no issue. Rasputin was his family name, His father was Efim, so therefore Grigorij's patronym Efimovich: Grigroij Efimovich Rasputin.

Nope. His real surname was Novich. He was Grigoriy Efimovich Novich.
Rasputin was a nickname. It is not completely sure about why he had this particular nickname. The most plausible explanation is that is derived from the russian word "Rasput'" (or Raspute, i don't have my kovalev here at the moment) that means "deviation" also when you turn on a secondary street, you know. In russian, put' ----> way, but also little country street.
I took this info from "The last Empress" by G. King.

The churchbooks from Pokorovskoe, saved in the archives of Tjumen, show the name Rasputin for Grigorij and his father.
Novij was added to his family later:
About "Novy":
In Nicholas' personal archives is Rasputin's request, dated Dec. 15th 1906, to the Tsar, to grant him and his descendants to be called "Rasputin Novy". As reason he wrote: "Living in the vilage of Pokrovskoe, my family name is Rasputin, the same family name I share with many other villagers, therefore may rise all kinds of minsunderstandings."
In municipal documents of Pokrovskoe from 1908 is a remark next to Rasputin's name: Grigorij has been allowed with permission from the Tsar to be called by the family name "Rasputin-Novy". Order from the Tobolsk State Chamber from March 7th 1907, under No. 9136 in case No. 11/1907.

Rudy, that is very interesting! I was SURE Novich was his surname, so I'm sorry if i contradicted you - i was really sure. So THANKS for this info, this is so interesting! Thanks a lot, from my heart!

You are welcome, Sunny!

But you are/were by far not the only one believing Rasputin was a nickname. The famous French/Russian writer Henri Troyat (Lev Tarasov) in his biography of Rasputin (1996) mentioned Rasputin was a nickname. By then Arthur Chernyshov had already published the information on birth and descendance of Grigory Rasputin he had found in the Tiumen archives. Chernyshov was the first to disclose Rasputin's documented date of birth, January 9th 1869....

That's the point, Rudy; Troyat is quite the only romanov historician published in italian, so i've read everything he wrote about russian history. Now i'm thinking i didn't take the infos from King, but from Troyat, indeed.

Well, the sense of the word Rasputin in Russian does mean dissolute, and in Grigory Efimovich's case, it seeems apt, though it seems it's the  real family name . There's a fair chance that in  much earlier generations  Rasputin WAS a nickname but became the formal family last name at some  later point.

Okay, so, let me get this straight: Rasputin's family was dissolute and so they got the last name "Rasputin" for being that way. But, I have another question: In Russia (or any other place back then, for that matter), wouldn't one be looked down upon if they had a last name that meant such a terrible thing as dissolute?

PS: I know that at least his daughter went by Rasputina at least until marriage (unless, of course, it is a fraud or something like that), because here is a thread about a book by Maria Rasputina.

The family name "Rasputin" by itself does not men anything, does not mean "dissolute", so the name can be used without any shame.... A well-known contemporan writer is called Rasputin, Valentin Rasputin. And there is a Siberian pop singer by the name Masha Rasputina, so still today Rasputin is not a rare family name.
There are different versions on the origin of the name. Rasputye, crossroads, is a more probably origin for a name that originates from Siberia.

[Mathematic, art and history in ♥]

If you see the root of his surname, you notice the word 'put', which mean 'the way'. Rasput is something that describes the one 'who is not on the goof way', if you get what I mean. Novii means 'the New one' - it was added probbaly because there was another person by same name Sorry this is so banal conclusion.

Novii means 'the New one' - it was added probbaly because there was another person by same name

This is what Rasputin wrote in his petition to the Tsar: "Living in the vilage of Pokrovskoe, my family name is Rasputin, the same family name I share with many other villagers, therefore may rise all kinds of missunderstandings"

If you see the root of his surname, you notice the word 'put', which mean 'the way'. Rasput is something that describes the one 'who is not on the goof way', if you get what I mean. Novii means 'the New one' - it was added probbaly because there was another person by same name Sorry this is so banal conclusion.

There are analogies similar to the one with Rasputin ('rasput') in many other languages. In English, 'deviant or deviate 'is formed in the same way from the Latin words 'de' and 'via' , meaning 'off the( true) path'  or 'to have strayed' . Likewise, in Italian, there is La Traviata" (Verdi's famous opera). La Traviata was a lost or fallen woman, one who has gone astray. It's formed from a shortened form of 'stra' and 'via' , again meaning , off,  or away from , the (true or right) path.

Spiridovitch wrote his biography of Rasputin using his copies of original Okhrana investigation reports and published it in Paris in 1935.  He is most clear that the name "Rasputin" was very common in Siberia and that there were many families who bore the surname.  Grigori Efimovitch Rasputin was born in 1863 in Pokrovskoie, Tyumen district of the Tobolsk Government.  His parents were Efim Andreievich Rasputin and Anna Igorenva Rasputina and he had a brother Mikhail Rasputin who died.

[Mathematic, art and history in ♥]

Anna and Effim were married on 21th January 1862. Anna gave birth to several girls, but they died at young age. On August 7th 1867 she gave birth, a boy named Andrei, who also died soon. In Tobolsk's archive from 1897, there says that he was born on January 10th 1869, the day of St. Gregory, and R. was named after him. He also used to add several years when being asked how old was he...And definitely, different sources mention the different dates...