where did last names come from and when?

Answer 1

It wasn't until after 1200 or so that last names started to become popular. It used to be you were just known by your first name, although in biblical times you were often known as "Isaac, son of Abraham" (Issac ben Avraham). After a while, two problems emerged. One is that the same names kept getting used. In England around 1200, 1 out of every three people was John or William or Richard. Hence you needed a way of distinguishing them. A second was when people started moving to new towns.

Last names came from varying things. One was family - hence, the son of John took the surname Johnson. Another was physical characteristics: Brown, Armstrong, Russell (brown haired), Grant (a tall guy), and Moore (meaning you were dark complected). A third was jobs (Farmer, Bishop, Cooper, Chandler, Archer, Smith). Throw in influences of invaders and you've got quite the variation going.

Answer 2

In medieval Europe and England, many people started having what amounted to two names: John the Butcher became simply John Butcher, in English. So many people named smith? Because there had to be a smith in every stop along the way when you were depending on horses: iron horseshoes and iron tools and implements of all kinds.

Then there are plenty of names that are last names now but were first names originally, or which mean Somebody-son. Johnson is the easiest one to remember.

And lots of people's names came from the town or village where they lived: all those de la whatever in French, meaning "Joe from Village."

Gradually, people used their father's last name (in Europe and England, for the most part) in part as a way to prove they were acknowledged by said father. Paternity was more important than maternity as much because it was easier to question. Also, this avoided multiple son-son-son endings: Johnson's son was just Johnson, same as his dad.

Answer 3

First names are Christian names. In the catholic faith, from which Church of England, methodist, presbyterian and so on was derived, children are supposed to have the name of a saint, hence the term "Christian". Last name or Surname is the family name. It is the same with other religions such as Muslim, although interestingly, in that faith, the family name is usually the first name. All very confusing but it does help in giving us individuality. It has been around for a very long time.

Answer 4

You got a lot of good answers but here is one I didn't see. For illegit children often they took Fitz- as a last name so if he was a child of the prince's mistress he was Fitzroy or Fitz-and his mother's title.
In Scotland and Ireland and Viking culters, from what I have seen often have their father's name as a last name like Gunner Donaldsson or Ilda Donaldsdatter. I hope this helps and it seemed last names did come about in England around the time of William the Conquror.

Answer 5

There are several sources of last names, but the European communities method predominates from places of family location e.g. Moorecroft (cottage on the moor), trade names (Cooper = barrel maker), Ancient Political affiliation (MacDonald = Family or son of Donald or Kings of Donachichae). Also from appearance eg. (Reid Reed Reade = Red haired or ruddy complexion, probably Saxon). This also applies to things, e.g. Denim comes from a hardy material origionally woven in Nimes France, hence, de Nimes or Denim. Pre fixes like the Dutch "van" mean son or family of e.g. Van den Bosch. Sometimes they are translated when the family moves to another culture e.g. (Greenwood was once the French Boisvert) or truncated e.g. Cosi may have been Cosicesceau. For names other than European origin, you will have to check other sources.

Answer 6

First Nations People used to name their children after whatever the mother saw when giving birth. For example If the mother saw a tobacco road, she would name her child "Tobacco Road". If she saw an old yellow skinned woman she would name the child "Yellow Old Woman" "Shining Moon" etc. These names were used as surnames.

Answer 7

As far as I remember people call them self by a first name and then their profesion. example a fisherman with the first name allan, was then called Allan Fisher, and so on.
don't remember the exact date my looong time ago maybe 1000 years

Answer 8

i guess the last names came from practise of Chinese, i mean like their dynasty names were added to their names!

Answer 9

It really depends upon which country you are talking about.

In France, Napoleon is credited with requiring surnames of all people, not only of the aristocracy.

In Italy this process started in the Middle Ages, but was not codified until Napoleonic law was enforced briefly throughout much of Italy. We know of famous names like Leonardo da Vinci, and most people assume his last name was da Vinci -- it was really a description of his place of origin, which eventually would become used as a surname.

In Britain, the Anglo-Saxons had the habit of fixing a person's last name with the vocation of the father, followed by the suffix 'son'. so the Joe the Baker became Joseph Baker, and his son became Joe Josephson or Joe Bakerson. Both were common.

In Celtic Britain, prefixes were used in what's calleda patronymic system, which bascially menas a son took the name of his father. So Howell might be called Howell the Death (Hywel y Farw) if his profession was the undertaker, but his son Howell, Jr. would be called Howell ap Howell, with the ap meaning 'son of'. Eventually the Ap Howell merged into Powell, as in Colin Powell. The word Ab meant 'son of' also, in Welsh, and O' as in O'Brien, Fitz, and Mac had similar functions respectively in Gaelic, Scots Irish, and Irish. They all meant 'son of' or grandson of'. Probert came from Ap Robert, Pritchard from Ap Richard, Brian from Ab Rhian, Fitzhammon from Fitz Hammon, etc.

Price, as in Condoleeza Rice came from Ap Rhys, which eventually became Ap Rice, and then Price, and finally Rice.

When the Celts were colonized by the English, they adapted the English naming rules. So weird combinations like O'Brianson became common.

In Wales and Scotland, names like Williamson for 'son of William' were shortened to Williams, over time. The most common name for a man in Wales was John, or Jone in Welsh, so Joneson became Jones, which we all recognize as the most common name in America today.

There was a similar process of codifying surnames in Germany and in Scandinavia, and we understand simple contractions like the Swedish Obergsson to mean 'son of Oberg'.

I'm not sure when this took place, but in most of Europe the process began in the 6th or 7th century, and became codified by church or royal laws in thew 7th-9th centuries, with some countires not fixing their surnames until the 14th or 15th centuries.

In some countries, strict laws developed, mostly imposed by the churhc, to make sure that each child bore a 'Saint's name.' Foreign names were prohibted in most countries, so this excluded Afrcian, Jewish and Romany persons from joining the church, which allowed them to be baptized, a required step to gain a legal name, unles they changed name to a so-called 'Christian name.' Some decriptive references stuck as surnames over time, so Jacob the Jewess's son eventually became Jacob Jewison, etc.

In each culture, last names seem tied to the development of an organized Imperial system of government, with precise record-keeping, related to fair payment of taxes. If you accept the origin or place of birth suffixes as surnames, than there are many 'surnames' in the Bible, the most famous being Jesus 'of Nazareth.' In Hebrew or Aramaic Jesus was probably called something like 'Jesus Ben Joseph ha Galil', etc. or Jesus son of Joseph from the Galillee region.

Because Spain and Portugal were occupied by the Moorish Arabs for many years, Arabic influences entered their languages and influenced surnames. The Spanish equivalent of 'Jones' would be Gonzalez, with the 'zalez' suffix deriving from Arabic. This ending is seen in many names, like Vasquez, etc.