Abstract. The article is devoted to the research issues of little-investigated area of onomastics – anthroponymy of the Ob-Ugrians. The article maintains a focus on the Ob-Ugrian surnames. The article gives a brief history of the issue, deals with the formation process of the Ob-Ugrian first and last names, with the problems of theiretymologisation, presentsthe surname etymologies of Russian, Turkic, Samoyedic and Finno-Ugrian origins. The author presents the main criteria, taking into account of which is necessary for confident etymological interpretation of surnames. The work is mainly based on materials of written sources; some field data of the author is also used.
Keywords: Ob-Ugrians, anthroponymy, surnames, history, problems of etymologisation, authenticity criteria of etymologies.