origin of surnames?

Question

when and where did the use of surnames originate?

Answer 1

A family name, surname, or last name is the part of a person's name that indicates to what family he or she belongs. Until the 12th century, most people throughout the world did not use or have a family name, and they were called by the single name they had (which was called a "first" or "given name" only after family names came into use). One of the most accepted theories for the origin of surname use attributes their introduction to the Normans and the Domesday Book of 1086. The use of surnames gradually became an accepted practice throughout Western Europe in the Middle Ages. In parts of the world, family names did not appear in common use until the 17th to 19th centuries, and they are unused in some cultures even today.

Answer 2

I do genealogy as a hobby, and I find that when I trace people back to about 1200 C.E., that surnames tend to drop out of the picture. Most of the people before that time are simply designated by the place they come from or what they do, like "John of York," or "David the Baker." After that period of time, those names gradually became "John York" or "David Baker." If you look on a site like Ancestry.com, you'll see that many family names come from places or occupations; after all, think of the number of "Smith" or "Clark" (clerk) families you know! Another big category of names are those that simply refer to someone as the son or daughter of another person. You might see "Gerald, the son of Robert" or "Mary the daughter of Michael" - (the parent in question generally being the father). Those eventually made it into English as an equivalent name such as "Robertson" or "Michaelson" (even if the person was a daughter). Some languages - particuarly Norse languages - use "sen" or "sohn" for son and "dottir" for daughter; there are lots of other designations that work in a similar way, such as the Hebrew/Arabic usage of "ben" or "bin" for "son of" and "bat" or "bint" for "daughter of." Hope this helps.

Answer 3

when people lived in villages everybody knew who your father was and what job you did, so there was little need for names that could be passed from father to son to hold a family together.

as people began to move to cities though it was much rarer to know your neighbours - let alone folk from other districts - so the need arose for a name you could share with your wife and your children (and that the government could use for assessing your taxes).

the greeks barely had 'surnames' , but the romans had a system that showed who your father was and which extended family you belonged to:

gaius valerius catullus
tiberius sempronius gracchus

the russians still use such a triple system but most western europeans found our current double system of personal name and family name adequate.

as several other posters have already pointed out, during the period between the fall of rome and the re-emergence of the great urban centres of the renaissance many europeans actually went back to a single-name system, since societies were not sufficiently centralised and popular mobility was not high enough to need anything more complicated.

Answer 4

Most European surnames were based on occupational or descriptive info. They began to be used in Europe frequently in the late Middle Ages.

Early surnames would include:

Smith - from Latin 'smite' - a metal worker
Carpenter - wood worker
Woodbridge - place where the person lived, by a wooden bridge
White - a person with fair hair
Jager - (German) hunter
Klein - (German) small, as in the person was short

Answer 5

Some are patronymics: Sanders, Sanderson, Alexanderson, Sinkovitch and Senkewicz are all variations on the same name, although not necessarily sons of the same guy named Alexander.

Some are locative: England, English, Germann.

Some are occupational: Butcher, Baker, Chandler, Spannbauer, Stoneseifer, Smith, Schmidt, Ferrogiaro (sword maker or iron worker), etc.

And some are just totally off the wall but have intriguing possibilities. I knew a lady who married someone named Aytch. I could see an ancestor of her husband showing up somewhere looking for work: "what's your name?" (Ancestor stops--if he admits his name is Henderson, then he's going right back to the Henderson plantation. If he'd wanted to be there, then he wouldn't have escaped. But whatever he says now, he will have to answer to it the rest of his life as if he'd been answering to it all his life. . . .)

Answer 6

The organization of the surname, as we know it today, can be ascribed to the Norman race about 1120.

Incidentally, the names that begin with Von, Mac, Mc, or had son at the end of a name meant son. McPherson would have been son of Phearson, and so forth. Smith may have been a blacksmith, Tomson would have been the son of tom. Vonfisher would have been son of the fisherman. etc.

Answer 7

ummm people didn't really used to have surnames, but then I guess as the population grew, people needed to identify themselves. Names like Smith would have originated from a Blacksmith and I guess surnames stuck like that.

Answer 8

Well
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Hope it helps.

Answer 9

They came from occupations. Example:

John the Miller became John Miller

Johan the Conner became Johan Conner

Michael the Smithy became Michael Smith

Answer 10

Some stated already - the name is part of ones identity and of course thousends of friendships broke with this war - they used to live somehow - more or less - peacefully together in Asia Minor. - off topic - If you are interested I would suggest this book to you: Matomena Chomata by Dido Sotiriou Sotiriou was born in Aidini, Asia Minor, in 1909 and was best known for her strong portrayal of women in books about Greeks fleeing Asia Minor and the Greek civil war. The novel that shot her to fame was “Matomena Chomata,” or “Goodbye, Anatolia,” which was published in 1962 and translated into six languages.