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Russian surnames don't usually end with -ovich, only the male patronymics (middle names based on father's name) do. This is undoubtedly of Slavic origin (Tkachuk and names ending with -chuk are also popular in Ukraine and Russia) but I'm not sure just where it comes from. The -ch on the end looks like an anglicization, since in some Slavic languages (not Russian though) a "ch" is pronounced like an H, and often a c with an upside-down ^ accent over it is used to make the "ch" sound.

This message was edited 5/29/2007, 8:40 AM