how were last names formed?

Question

can u still make a new last name ?

Answer 1

Usually they had something to do with the husband's trade or station in life. The sons tended to inherit the trade or station, and therefore the name.

Answer 2

Traditionally names like blacksmith started because some guy was the blacksmith in the community and this stretched into all jobs crafts ext... And the wife would be Mrs. Blacksmith, and the children then took the last name and this would be handed down in the families until it became common to take a family.
As for today people usually still take the last name of the father but it isn't law, your parents can name you anything they want on your birthcertificate and when you get older you can file legal papers to change your name if you want too. People in show biz do it all the time.

Answer 3

Surnames began early in the 2nd melinniam

They denoted being a son of someone, an occupation, habitation etc.

William son of John, if he could write, signed his name would do so as William son of John.
He eventually became William Johnson. However a lot of fellas named John had sons and they became Johnson also.

Robert the taylor, would sign his name like that but then he became Robert Taylor. You can imagine how many taylors, clerk(clark, coopers, millers, fishers, carpenters, barpbers, smiths etc there were.

Some people took the name of the town or
shire they were from or a castle or a place they lived close to.

So you have William son of John who became William Johnson. He had a brother (both had same father) named George who was a blacksmith. So William Johnson's brother became George Smith.
They had another brother, Sam that lived on a hill and he became Sam Hill. All had the same father.

The Celtic Mac means son of. The Norman Irish Fitz also means son of and the O prefix means descendant of.

A interesting note about the Roman nobility.
One of the definitions of the title prince are members of a highly noble family sharing their titles with other of the same rank. The Borghese are a highly noble family. However, one of the Prince Borghese married an Aldobrandini and the male line apparently ran out. A female only takes on the title in the Roman nobility if she married someone with a title. He took the name Aldobrandini and became head of the Aldobrandinis. The Aldobrandini princes share the same Y chromosone as the Borghese princes whose title was bestowed on a nephew of Pope Paul V.

Answer 4

Last name were made by either using the males job description or trade, royal lineage, or area , and possibly something exceptional about the person .

Eric the Red was probably not a commie but am reasonably sure he had red hair. Lief, Eric's son ( Erickson) Ole Dell may be Ole from the Dell etc. My name is based on job description in Bohemian. In English, my name would have been Cooper since my Bohemian last name means "barrel maker" ( Over the years it is generally conceded that I have made it into barrel drinker)

Names are fun and I am sure you can find a book on this subject. There are people in my town by the name Brickhandler. Wonder what their line of work was?

Answer 5

Surnames probably began during Roman times. However, commoners did not have surnames. During medieval ages, Kings and Queens began to demand surnames be used. In Great Britain, most people except Highland Scots and Welsh were using surnames by 1400. At first, it was just the aristocracy that used surnames, but then the other classes used them.
Chinese started using surnames by about 2500 B.C. Japanese didn't until modern times.
Surnames are derived as:
Occupations (e.g., Smith, Archer, Baker, Walker)
Personal characteristics (e.g., Short, Brown, Whitehead)
Geographical features (e.g., Hill, Lee, Wood, Fields)
Place names (e.g., London, Hamilton, Sutton, Flint, Laughton)
For those descended from land-owners, the name of their holdings, manor or estate
Patronymics and ancestry, often from a male's given name (e.g., Richardson, Williams, Johnson) or from a clan name (for those of Scottish origin, e.g., MacDonald, Forbes).
Of course, names are also derived from their mother's name or as "John's Dotter".
Before, the surname (before, "sirname" or "sirename") indicated a family relationship or clan relationship. Now it can mean nothing at all.
Many people create their own surname (see how many surnames there are).

Answer 6

Long ago what you did for a living was your last name, Baker was a baker, Smith was a metal smith, Cooper made barrels, etc. Or from where you lived in olde England, Robert of Loxley type of stuff, Many other names were probably just made up, but that was before everyone was a number not a name.
You can change your name to almost anything as long as it is not distasteful and does not infringe on a copy-write

Answer 7

Victor is actually correct. Last names were formed from the first name of the father or whatever kinsman one was from. In some areas only the male takes the sir name of the father while the females take on the maternal grandfathers name.
You can to go court and file for a name change but they will charge you a fee. In my area it's 125.00

Answer 8

You can change your name with the courthouse for a hefty fee once you're 18. So if you change your name and have kids then they will have the name and I suppose you could create a new one. But last names were formed... generally... based on occupation... the name Smith is so common because there were a lot of blacksmiths, silversmiths, etcetera. Page was a page boy, etcetera.

Answer 9

I guess if you go to court and legally change your name to what you want, you could form a new name. People are always naming their baby's new weird names. What name were you thinking of. I think that new names could be made up from two family surnames to make a new one.

Answer 10

In my research, I see two broad categories. One is from a person's occupation (Smith, Baker, Cooper [a barrel-maker], Farmer, etc.); the other is from a person or family's historical location - for instance, I have a forebear who was from Aubigne in France; he was originally named Cornelius de Aubigne, but as time went on, that became d'Aubigne, and ultimately became "Dabney." Some names were group affiliations, like the "Mac" names in Scotland; others, especially in northern Europe, meant "son of" or "daughter of", such as "Larson", or "Olafsdottir."

As for making a new one - you can call yourself anything you like, as long as you can use that name to function in society. If you can't use it to cash a check or get across the border with another nation, it's going to be a problem. You can, of course, legally change your name; it's usually a very small fee;I changed mine BACK to my maiden name when I divorced, and I think it was $50 for the filing fee or something like that. As my attorney put it, "You can call yourself Bozo the Clown if you can still cash a check with it!"

Maybe I should have thought of "Dances with Unicorns" back then - whaddya think?? ;-)

Answer 11

Last names historically described what someone did, where they were from or who their dad was. Yes - you can definitley make up a new last name and have your name legally changed. This is a good opportunity to use your creativity. I would recomend, however, that your do not make a hyphenated name with your wifes last name and your last name. In my opinion that is completely lame.