Origin of hereditary last names?

Question

When did last names change from being simply a statement of lineage (ie:son of) or profession (baker) to herditary names that are passed down without change.

Answer 1

In England, it began with the Norman Conquest (the Normans used inherited surnames to some extent; the Anglo-Saxons had not), but the process was slow. Although they were relatively common in the 13th century, and well-established in some cases by the 14th, inherited surnames did not become completely normal in England until the 16th century.

The key factor seems to have been lawyers. They handled land transfers, records of military service, notice of creditors and debitors, as well as criminal and civil court cases. All of this required precise identification. Occupational and locative bynames can change if a person switchs jobs or moves; physical bynames can change as a person ages; patronymic bynames are better, but in area (for example) where the name John is popular, the possibility of having more than one "John filius John" (John Johnson) in increased. Inherited surnames solve these problems for the most part.

Answer 2

Bt the 1400's, given and Surnames were 100% common in europe. It began in around 900 A.D. and as the populations grew, a single name was often used with the place of thier origin, then when that wasn't enough, Surnames became common, mixing professions with territorial surnames.

Example: Bakers, smiths, farmers were the commoners, while those of more Promanance used terrioral references: Mitchell, Scott, etc.

Answer 3

I can tell you about some of the names in Holland. When Napolean conquered the Netherlands he ordered in 1811 that a civil registry be set up to record vital statistics amongst other things. At that time the public went from using the Patronymic naming system to adopting a surname.
This is just one country. In other countries it was handled differently, such as in the case of slavery in America. There is a really good entry in Wikipedia that gives several different countries and how they adopted the surnames or family names. Here is the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_name

Answer 4

I would suspect that as private property became more availalble to more people, and consequently became something that could be left in a will, it became more important to establish the identity of the heir. This, and population growth would make having permanent surnames necessary.