Boykos

For the origin of the name Boyko exist several etymological hypotheses,[5] but it is generally considered, as explained priest Joseph Levytsky in his Hramatyka (1831), that derives from particle boiie.[6] Specifically, it derives from the exclamation "бой!, бойє!" (< bo-i-je), meaning "it is really so!", which is often used by the population.[7] The 19th-century scholar Pavel Jozef Šafárik, with whom agreed Franjo Rački and Henry Hoyle Howorth, argued direct connection of the Boykos with the region of Boiki mentioned in the 10th century De Administrando Imperio,[6][8] but this thesis is outdated and rejected,[7] as most scholars like Mykhailo Hrushevsky already dismissed it in the 19th century because Boiki is a clear reference to Bohemia, which in turn derives from Celtic tribe of Boii.[9][10] The derivation from Boii,[5] is also disputed because there is not enough evidence.[6] Like in the case of Hutsuls and Lemkos, they are recorded in historical and ethnographic sources since the 18th and 19th century.[11]

Like other Rusyn subgroups, they are considered as one of the descendants of East Slavic tribes, specifically White Croats who lived in the region,[5][6][12] possibly also Ulichs who arrived from the East,[13] and partly Vlach shepherds who later immigrated from Transylvania.[12]

In the region inhabited by Boykos, named as Boikivshchyna, lived up to 400,000 people of whom mostly were Boykos.[6][14] They also lived in Sanok, Leskom and Przemyśl County of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship in Poland, before the forced relocation in 1947.[15] In memory of Boykos, Ukraine's national parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, in 2016 renamed Telmanove Raion into Boykivske Raion where Boykos were deported from Czarna, Bieszczady County (today in Poland) after the 1951 Polish–Soviet territorial exchange. In 1970, was evaluated that lived 230,000 people of Boyko's origin.[15]

In Ukraine, the classification of Boykos and other Rusyns as an East Slavic ethnicity, distinct from Ukrainians is controversial.[16][17][18] The deprecated and archaic term Ruthenian, while it is also derived from Rus', is ambiguous, as it technically may refer to Rusyns and Ukrainians, as well as Belarusians and even Russians, depending on the historical period. According to the 2001 Ukraine census, only 131 people identified themselves as Boykos, separate from Ukrainians.[1] However, this figure is distorted because some people otherwise identifiable as Boykos regard that name as derogatory.[6] In the Polish census of 2011, 258 people identified their nationality as Boyko, with 14 people listing it as their only national identification.[2]

• Poland: southeasternmost part of Poland (Podkarpackie Voivodeship).
• Ukraine: central and western half of the Carpathians in Ukraine across such regions as the southern Lviv Oblast (Skole, Turka, Drohobych, Sambir and Stary Sambir Raions), western Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (Dolyna and Rozhniativ Raions) and parts of the northeastern Zakarpattia Oblast (Mizhhiria Raion)
• Northeast Slovakia

To the west of Boykos live Lemkos, east or southeast Hutsuls, and to the south or southwest other Carpathian Rusyns.

• 
  Ethnographic groups of southeasternmost Poland, Boykos in dark blue.
• 
  Highlander groups of westernmost Ukraine, Boykos in brown.
• 
  Boyko inhabitants of Galicia, lithograph from 1837
• 
  Boyko man, 1925–1939.
• 
  Boyko family, prewar.
• 
  Boyko family, prewar.

A traditional Boyko church in Lviv.

Most Boykos belong to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, with a minority belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The distinctive wooden church architecture of the Boyko region is a three-domed church, with the domes arranged in one line, and the middle dome slightly larger than the others.

• Yuriy Drohobych (1450–1494), first doctor of medicine in Ukraine, rector of the University of Bologna (1481–1482), professor at Jagiellonian University (1488).[5]
• Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny (1582–1622), Ukrainian political and civic leader, Hetman of Ukrainian Zaporozhian Cossacks (1616–1622).[5]
• Ivan Franko (1856–1916), Ukrainian poet, writer and political activist.[5]

• Ukrainians
• Ruthenians
• Ukrainian dance

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Boykos.

• Anatoliy Ponomariov. "Ethnic groups of Ukrainians" (in Ukrainian). Available online.
• Nakonechny, Ye. "How Ruthenians became Ukrainians", Zerkalo Nedeli (the Mirror Weekly), July, 2005. Available online in Russian and in Ukrainian.
• Short photo essay about contemporary Boiko life.
• Romaniuk, K. Characteristics of Boikos dialect use in Kherson region in the mid 20th century. "Domiv". 8 March 2016.