Where did surnames originate from?

Answer 1

Most Germanic Europeans have names from their ancestor's jobs; which were hereditary in the medieval period. So if your dad and his dad were blacksmiths- guess what- so are you. So Cooper, Smith, etc.

Those with more Roman or Celtic ancestry it comes from the Clan's name. Gaius Julius Caesar was of the family Julius and the Tribe Caesar. If your last name is McGreggor, or McDonald- thats the clan to which you belong.

Others just relate to the place you are from; but that might have been an issue of lazy workers at ellis island not wanting to try to spell European last names and went for the cities, which were simpler to spell. But also, in Near Eastern places, like Isreal; we know people by their location for the most part. Jesus of Nazarath comes from there; Joseph of Aramathia; but they also associated with the Clan/Tribe; and prominant people within them. being of the 'House of David' for example.


Russsian last names, and names that end in -son; are usually the name of their father. Anderson is the son of Ander.

Answer 2

A lot of the English surnames come from the Norman conquest. When they took the census for the doomsday book, most of the people just used to have names like Will, Robin's son, or Jack the Blacksmith. The Normans who were used to using family names essentially gave the British their surnames by turning them into Will Robinson and Jack Black, or Jack Smith.

Generally surnames are the family profession, or a indicator of parentage like Frederiksen (Frederiks son) or Ivanova (Ivan's daughter), and sometimes a place name, where the family came from, like Livingstone or Winchester.

Answer 3

To answer YOUR question, surnames ORIGINATED in China, circa 2900 BCE. The emperor decreed that there were too many people with the same name, and a second name was required to be added on, so that people could be accurately identified...

5,000 years ago, due to food surpluses, created by successful early farming practices, the human population worldwide, had surged to 100 million...which is the appx. size of Mexico's population, today!

Answer 4

what everyone else was saying..but i know some do get shortened...when u start to check it out there are a bunch of dervitives...
then there are freaks like me who have a surname where there is no possible common sense type reason...how do you end up with a chopped surname (they removed the o') that ive been told is a 'good irish catholic' name, from a decent that is completely not-white (ie my fathers side is not white at all....) where the only thing that makes sense is that ur ...excited...weird, mm
who knows..its one of those interesting/tricky/(fun if ur a geek like me..lol!) ones...

:)
gl

Answer 5

They were simply adopted as a natural and obvious means to identify people. In many instances the name chosen would have been from the person's work, trade or craft. In other instances from his place of origin, or occasionally some facet of his appearance.

Note the use of "his" as the ladies adopted the name of their husband to inform and confirm their identity.

Answer 6

Frederick the Great, King of Prussia for example was given this surname as a token of his importance by the eyes of his subject slaves for instance.

Answer 7

According to my Medieval history professor, the last name signified what your ancestor did for a living. You've heard the obvious English names cook, mason, etc but even the Germanic last name has meaning, such as the profs last name was Krempler which meant manure spreader. My grandfather's last name was Kutil, which meant house worker and he was a plumber, I guess it doesn't translate well in Czech.
If your interested in what your last name means, try to google it and you will get the answer.

Answer 8

The final answer is they were used to identify the family or clan of origion. Some countries still use only one name to identify a person. In many locations they were indeed used to identfy a person's trade or village of origion. Some native Amercan tribes used them to identify deeds of ancestors "Ten-Killer."
Names that end in "son, sen, or start with Mc/Mac or O' designate ancestry of father or grandfather. The most notable name "Dracula" or Drac ula means son of Drac, a Romanian king.

Answer 9

Alot of them originated from what the people used to work as.

Answer 10

They are grasped as culture build. A surname has value in the culture it is created...