The House of Sheremetev was one of the wealthiest and most influential Russian noble families, descending from Feodor Koshka.

History

The family held many high commanding ranks in the Russian military, governorships and eventually the rank of Count of the Russian Empire.

Notable members

The Sheremetyevo International Airport, built in the 1950s and named from the nearby settlement of Sheremetevskiy (dating from about 1901), from its railway-station Sheremetevskaya and from the railway-line founder Sergei Dmitrievich Sheremetev (1844-1918), indirectly commemorates the family.

Etymology

Russian surnames are gender sensitive, the masculine form of the name being Sheremetev (Шереметев) and the feminine being rendered as Sheremeteva (Шереметева). There are three theories about the origin of the surname, all of them indicate a Tatar and eastern origin for the family. One theory proposes that the name originated with the Turkic Chuvash language word seremet (шеремет), meaning "poor man". Another theory translates the nickname Seremet as "having light steps", "hot" (about a horse), while the third theory suggests that the name originates with the Tatar/Turkic-Persian shir Akhmat, which literally translates to "Tiger Ahmet" and can be read as both "brave Ahmet" and "Pious Ahmet."