From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Boyko or Boiko is the name for a distinctive group of Ukrainian montagnards of the Carpathian highlands. The Boykos inhabited the central and the western half of the Carpathians in Ukraine, including the Dolynsky and a part of the Rozhniativsky Raions (districts) in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (province), the Skolivsky, Turkivsky, and parts of the Drohobytsky, Sambirsky and Starosambirsky Raions in the Lviv Oblast, and parts of the Mizhhirsky Raion in the Zakarpattia Oblast), as well as the adjacent areas of southeast Poland and northeast Slovakia.

Some scholars claim that this ethnic group is a part of Rusyns. Indeed, in the 19th century and in the first part of the 20th century Boykos, as well as most of the population of the present day's Western Ukraine called themselves Ruthenians (Ukrainian: Русини, Rusyny). Then the term "Ukrainian", that replaced the term "Ruthenians" in Eastern Ukraine a century earlier, has became more common among Western Ruthenians/Ukrainians, including Boykos, as well. According to the recent census practically all Boykos in Ukraine (not however in Poland and in Slovakia) declared their ethnicity as Ukrainian.

The name, "Boyko" is thought by some to originate in their patterns of speech, specifically the use of the expression, "bah!".

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.

Boyko is also a common surname among people with origins in Western Ukraine, including in Canada and the United States.

• Hutsuls
• Lemko
• Ukrainians
• Rusyns
• Ruthenians
• Ukrainian dance

• Anatoliy Ponomariov. "Ethnic groups of Ukrainians" (in Ukrainian). Available online.
• "How Rusyns became Ukrainians", Zerkalo Nedeli (the Mirror Weekly), July, 2005. Available online in Russian and in Ukrainian.