Haplogroup R-M417 (R1a)
R-M417 is the expansion branch of R1a, the dominant paternal lineage of Eastern Europe and, through its Z93 branch, of Indo-Iranian-speaking Asia. Explore the branch in the full Y-DNA haplotree: sub-branches, defining variants and where its testers live. Free, no account needed.
Paternal branch
Live tester counts
Free · no account needed
Paternal line
R-M417
- Testers
- 57,284
- 3,363 on this exact branch
- Strongest today
- Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia
- Formed
- Oldest man on this line
Origin and distribution of R-M417 (R1a)
What is R-M417? It is the expansion branch of R1a, the lineage almost all living R1a men descend from, dominant across Eastern Europe and, through its Z93 branch, across Indo-Iranian-speaking Asia.
- How it expanded
- Ancient DNA suggests R1a spread into Europe from the east after 3000 BCE; a Corded Ware man buried at Esperstedt in Germany already carried R-M417.Source: Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe (2015)
- Where it is common
- About half of men in Poland, Belarus and Ukraine, more in parts of western Russia, a third in Estonia and a fifth in Norway; about half of Afghan Pashtuns and a third of men in southern Pakistan.Source: The phylogenetic and geographic structure of Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a (2015)
- The east-west split
- R-Z282 sublineages dominate the Slavic and Baltic-speaking world; R-Z93 travelled east with steppe pastoralists into Central and South Asia.Source: The formation of human populations in South and Central Asia (2019)
R-M417 is the branch through which almost all living R1a men descend, a lineage that expanded dramatically from the Eastern European forest-steppe in the third millennium BCE. In Europe it is the paternal signature of the Corded Ware horizon: today half or more of men in Poland, Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic states carry an R1a line, with substantial frequencies through Scandinavia, the Czech Republic and the Balkans.
The branch splits along a famous east-west divide. R-Z282 sublineages dominate the Slavic- and Baltic-speaking world, while R-Z93 travelled the other way, with steppe pastoralists into Central and South Asia, where it is common from the Altai to the Indian subcontinent, particularly among Indo-Iranian-speaking populations. Ancient DNA ties both wings to the same steppe expansion that reshaped Eurasia's paternal gene pool.
One line among many: your Y haplogroup traces a single paternal line, one ancestor per generation out of thousands, so it is a thread of deep ancestry, not an ethnicity and not a percentage of who you are. Two men in the same branch share a forefather, but the rest of their genomes can differ as much as any two strangers'.
The line through time
Each branch on this line from the root of the tree, oldest first.
Where testers are found
Counts of people who took a Y-DNA test and shared an origin. They describe the tested world, not ancient frequencies.
Poland
2,543 · 18%
Russian Federation
1,973 · 14%
Sweden
1,888 · 13%
Germany
1,526 · 11%
United States
1,216 · 8.5%
Ukraine
1,165 · 8.1%
Norway
1,049 · 7.3%
England
1,012 · 7.1%
Plus 36,459 testers who gave no country. Shares are of testers with a known country.
1 of them fully sequenced
Where this branch runs strongest
The share of each country's testers who sit on this branch.
Poland
1 in 3 · 35%
Czech Republic
1 in 3 · 33%
Slovakia
1 in 3 · 31%
What defines it
The changes on the Y chromosome that every man on this branch carries. Positions are on the GRCh38 reference.
Is this your line?
If you have tested with a consumer DNA company, your own branch is already in your raw data file. The free Clade Finder reads it and shows you where you sit on this tree.
Find my branch, freePrefer it read for you? The Ancient Ancestry report can carry your paternal haplogroup as an add-on, placed on this same tree beside your ancestry model.
Frequently asked questions
What is haplogroup R-M417 (R1a)?
R-M417 is the expansion branch of R1a, the dominant paternal lineage of Eastern Europe and, through its Z93 branch, of Indo-Iranian-speaking Asia. It is a branch of the Y-DNA tree: everyone in it inherits the same set of defining mutations from one shared forefather.
How do I find out if I belong to R-M417 (R1a)?
If you have already tested with a consumer DNA company, the free Y-DNA Clade Finder reads a raw DNA export (23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage or a VCF) and places you on the tree at the resolution your file supports. It is free, and the file is discarded after analysis. A dedicated Y-DNA sequencing test resolves deeper branches than a genotyping chip can.
Does belonging to R-M417 (R1a) make me descend from one people?
No. A haplogroup follows a single paternal line, one ancestor per generation, while the rest of your ancestry doubles every generation back. It is a deep-time thread, not an ethnicity, and two members of the same branch can otherwise be as genetically different as any two strangers.
What does this page's tree data show?
The branch view on this page shows the branch inside the full Y-DNA haplotree of tested lineages: the line it descends from, the branches below it, the variants that define it, and the countries its testers report. Counts reflect people who have taken a Y-DNA test and shared an origin, so they describe the tested world, not ancient frequencies.
Keep exploring
Don't know your haplogroup yet? The free Y-DNA Clade Finder reads it from a raw DNA export. Or browse the whole tree in the Y-DNA Haplotree. Other major branches: