The Udmurts (, ) are a Permian (Finno-Ugric) ethnic group in Eastern Europe, who speak the Udmurt language. They mainly live in the republic of Udmurtia in Russia. They form 24.1% of Udmurtia's population.
Etymology
The name Udmurt comes from * 'meadow people', from the Permic root *<!-- Permic --> 'meadow, glade, turf, greenery' and murt 'person' (cf. Komi , Mari , Mordvin mirď-), probably an early borrowing from an Iranian language (such as Scythian): * or * meaning 'person, man' (cf. Persian ). This, in turn, is thought to have been borrowed from the Indo-Aryan term * 'man', literally 'mortal, one who is bound to die' (< PIE 'to die'), compare Old Indic <!-- Old Indic --> 'young warrior' and Old Indic <!-- Old Indic --> 'chariot warrior', both connected specifically with horses and chariots. This is supported by a document dated 1557, in which the Udmurts are referred to as lugovye lyudi 'meadow people', alongside the traditional Russian name .
On the other hand, in the Russian tradition, the name 'meadow people' refers to the inhabitants of the left bank of a river in general. Most relevant in this regard is the recent theory proposed by V. V. Napolskikh and S. K. Belykh, who suppose that the ethnonym was borrowed from Proto-Iranian entirely: meaning 'resident of outskirts, border zone' (cf. Antes) → Proto-Permic *<!-- Proto-Permic --> → Udmurt .
Under the Russian Empire, Udmurts were mainly called by the exonyms ' (), Otyaks, Wotyaks
A chapter in the 1776 book is devoted to the description of the Wotyak people.
James George Frazer also mentions a rite performed by the people in his book The Golden Bough.
Many Udmurt people have red hair, and a festival to celebrate the red-haired people has been held annually in Izhevsk since 2004.
The Udmurts used to be semi-nomadic forest dwellers that lived in riverside communities. However, most Udmurts now live in towns. Although the clan-based social structure of the Udmurts no longer exists, its traces are still strong and it continues to shape modern Udmurt culture.
Genetics
thumb|left|Estimated ancestry components among selected Eurasian populations. The yellow component represents Neo-Siberian ancestry (represented by [[Nganasans).]]
According to the data gathered by Kristiina Tambets and others (2018), the majority (about 70%) of Udmurt men carry the haplogroup N. The high frequency of this East Eurasian-related haplogroup is a common pattern among Uralic-speaking peoples. Most Udmurt men belong to the subclade N1c and 16.8 percent of them belong the subclade N1b-P43. The second most common Y-DNA haplogroup among Udmurts is R1a (19%).
The most common maternal haplogroup for Udmurts is U (23.5%). Most Udmurts who have it belong to its subclades U2 (10.4%) and U5 (9.3%). Nearly as common is H (22.5%). Other mtDNA haplogroups among Udmurts include T (16.5%), D (11%) and Z (6%).]]When it comes to the autosomal ancestry of Udmurts, around 30 percent of it is Nganasan-like. This Siberian component is typical for Uralic-speaking peoples. The rest can be modelled to be mostly Steppe-like with a smaller eastern hunter-gatherer component,