Volkonsky is a famous Russian, from Rurikid

Rurik Dynasty

The Rurik dynasty or Rurikids was a dynasty founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who established himself in Novgorod around the year 862 AD...

 princely house. It inherited some Rurikid land along the Volkona river sometime in the dark centuries of Mongol disturbances in Russia and it is not totally clear what was the route of the inheritance. according to Almagro, Rurikid princes disputed for centuries the legitimacy of the Volkonski claim to the princely rank. The Volkonski -although well-established in Moscow already since the 16th century- are not listed in the Velvet Book

Velvet Book

The Velvet Book is an official compilation of genealogies of Russia's most illustrious families. The book is bound in red velvet, hence the name...

 as Rurikids. Their descent from Rurik

Rurik

Rurik, or Riurik , was a semilegendary 9th-century Varangian who founded the Rurik dynasty which ruled Kievan Rus and later some of its successor states, most notably the Tsardom of Russia, until 1598....

 and the landed inheritance may be through a foremother (since the Volkonski do not have the Y DNA of Rurikids who descend from the male line), and it is believed Oleg I of Chernigov

Oleg I of Chernigov

Oleg Svyatoslavich of Chernigiv , sometimes also styled as of Tmutarakan, was a Rurikid prince whose equivocal adventures ignited political unrest in Kievan Rus at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries....

 of Chernigov's Olegovichey as well as the saint prince Michael Vsevolodovich Chernigovsky, executed in 1246, were ancestors in some root of the Volkonsky. Michael's younger son, Yuri, inherited udel

Udel

Udel may refer to:* a Russian feudal term for an appanage given to a younger son of the tsar or other male member of the imperial family* an abbreviation for the University of Delaware...

 Tarusa. Yuri's grandchildren moved to Alexinsky region (Dubensky region in Tula oblast), where they bought votchina

Votchina

Votchina or otchina was an East Slavic land estate that could be inherited. The term "votchina" was also used to describe the lands of a knyaz.The term originated in the law of Kievan Rus...

on the banks of river Volkona (Volkchona). Some heir of theirs likely inherited that land, and took its name.

sources:

• Almagro (1843), Notice sur les principales familles de la Russie, par le comte d'Almagro