How did last names start out?

Question

Like how did the oldet person in a family get their last name?

Answer 1

Surnames and their origins actually vary from country to country. To explain it all would take so much time, but basically the oldest use of family or surnames is unclear. Surnames have arisen in cultures with large, concentrated populations where single names for individuals become insufficient to uniquely identify them. In many cultures the practice of using additional descriptive terms in identifying individuals arose. These descriptors might indicate personal attributes, location of origin, occupation, parentage, or clan affiliation. Often these descriptors developed into fixed clan identifications which became family names in the sense that we know them today.

Wikipedia has a wonderful entry on family names if you are curious about a particular country. check out this link.

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

Take care.

Answer 2

They were intorduced in England by the Normans. They indicated a person was the son of someone, their occupation, their habitation or some characteristic.

For instance

There was a man named John that had 4 legitimate sons.

Henry, if he could write, signed his name Henry son of John. When surnames came into being he became Henry Johnson or Henry Jones. He shared his surname with others who were not any way related.

George who was a blacksmith became George Smith and shared his name with other blacksmiths, tinsmiths etc.

Sam, you hear about frequently. He lived in or near a hill and became Sam Hill as well as a lot of other people living in or near a hill that were not any way related. I have the name Overton in my maternal grandmother's line which merely means over town. You can imagine how many people lived over a town.

Robert was short and was known as Robert the Short. He became Robert Short like a lot of others who were short. He could have been Robert Stout or Robert Fairchild if he was fair etc.

So you see 4 legitimate sons of the same man took 4 different surnames and they shared their surnames with others who were not necessarily related.

In genealogy the origin and meaning of surnames is not important at all. The same surname frequently can come from more than one nationality.

The Celtic Mac, Mc, or Norman Irish Fitz means son of. The Irish O means descendant of . However not every O'Connor for instance is related or O'Brien related as their was more than one Connor orBrian that had descendants.

Answer 3

The origin of last names, or surnames, varies by culture.

In China, an imperial decree in the 29th century BC made sure every family had a hereditary name.

In England, people began taking more than one name around 1,000 AD because there were too many people and not enough unique names to go around.

Starting around the 18th century, Jews in Europe were forced to take surnames, and sometimes were forbidden from taking ones that sounded "favorable".

As suggested by other answerers, in many cases, the original surname identified a person by where they lived, what they did, what their parentage was, or signified something about their physical appearance.

Answer 4

Some names became so common - John, for example, that it became difficult to distinguish John the Elder from John the Younger. It became necessary for John to take either the name of his trade or the place name of where he lived. So, you would have John the baker becoming John Baker;or, John de Ville (de meaning of) John of the Village. Last names became more common after about 900 AD. Many of the names in the Doomsday Book are Anglo-Saxon, Roman or Viking names which illustrate this point.

Answer 5

Some came from trades and skills.

John, the mason, became John Mason.
Tom, the builder became Tom Builder
Bill, the wagoneer became Bill Wagoner, Wagner etc
Frank, who managed the castle "keep" became Frank Keeping, Keeper.

If I were named Peter, my son's last name could easily be Peterson, Williamson Johnson..get it?

The study of names is fascinating and how they are derived. The small space here can not do it justice.\

Get this....My real name is Robert. If I lived in ..I think Norway or Sweden...ya might need to look it up....If I had a son, his last name would be Robertson but if I had a daughter, her name would be Robertsdottir...Try to keep that straight

Answer 6

They were used to identify people. Of course, there were a lot less people back then. As already answered, sometimes they were used to identify a relationship, as in Johnson, meaning "son of John". Or the last name O'Brian meant "grandson of Brian". It defined our heritage, which was important when determining ownership and inheritance of family land and property and distinguishing the class you belonged to by your family name.

In other instances, a surname related to where a person lived, such as John Overhill (meaning, "John who lives over the hill"), and in other instances, they were used to define someone's trade (ex. John Cook was a cook, John Farmer was a farmer, etc) or a personality trait

Answer 7

If you were a slave, you could have been given your master's family name. Last names came later to Scandinavia than England (I'm part both). The names became required in the 1870s. Of course anyone moving to the US had to make up a last name on the spot if they lacked one.

Answer 8

Fun one!

Last names originally developed to designate which tribe a person belong to, then designated which family.

Last names also originated to show what a person's job was, to distinguish, say, Tom (the) Carpenter from Tom (the) Baker.

Last names showed the place where a person was from, like Tom Longshore (from the Long Shore), Tom Du Bois (of the Woods).

Then last names developed descriptive terms, like Tom Whitehead, Tom Brown, Tom Young.

Kind of cool, huh?

Answer 9

It is unclear where the oldest use of last names originated from, but chiefly they have arisen in cultures with large, concentrated populations where single names for individuals became insufficient to uniquely identify them. In many cultures the practice of using additional descriptive terms in identifying individuals arose. These descriptors might indicate personal attributes, location of origin, occupation, parentage, or clan affiliation. Often these descriptors developed into fixed clan identifications which became last names in the sense that we know them today.

In China, according to legend, last names originate with Emperor Fu Xi in 2852 BC. His administration standardized the naming system in order to facilitate the census. In Japan family names were uncommon except in the aristocracy until the 19th century.

In Ancient Greece, on the other hand, it became common to use place of origin as a part of their official identification. At other times clan names and patronymic names ("son of") were also common. For example, Alexander the Great was known by the clan name Heracles (as a supposed descendant of Heracles) and the dynastic name Karanos/Caranus referring to the founder of the dynasty.

In the Roman Empire last names became very standardized. At the beginning they were not strictly inherited in the way that family names are inherited in many cultures today. Eventually, though, family names began to be used in a manner similar to most modern European societies. With the gradual influence of Greek/Christian culture throughout the Empire the use of formal family names declined.

The practice of using family names spread through the Eastern Roman Empire and gradually into Western Europe, although it was not until the modern era that last names came to be explicitly inherited in the way that they are today. Note that in the case of the English, the most accepted theory of the origin of last names in England is their introduction to the Normans and the Domesday Book of 1086.

During the modern era many cultures around the world adopted the practice of using family names, especially during the imperialistic age of Europe and particularly from the 17th to 19th centuries. However, they are unused in some cultures even today.

Answer 10

The answers I saw were both good and right, but surprisingly one of the more common ways that a last name sticks to a fore bearer is as simple as a misspelling or even a mispronouncing of that name when someone else writes it down!