What's the story of Last Names and Middle Names? In Ethiopia we have no such things..?

Question

In Ethiopia, we no middle names and no real "last names." The family uses the father's first name... For example, if the father's name is David, the children's last name become David... so if you have 3 kids named John, Mark, Ruth.. Their names would become John David, Mark David and Ruth David. And women never change their last names when they get married... their keep their own last name which is their father's firat name... So everyone's last name is their father's first name. Is this unique to Ethiopia? Are there any other cultures that have similar tradition?

Answer 1

I doubt it's unique. There are many naming customs around the world. In several Native American traditions, you will have a unique surname that relates to something that happens in your life, and it may be changed if something else happens later.

In the US, some last names (or surnames, I prefer to call them) were created when people who didn't have them immigrated to this country. I met a man from such a culture who filled out paper work that asked for his first name and his last name. He only had one name, so he put it in both blanks. His passport was printed with his name doubled, like being named David David.

Now, in China, surnames actually come first in your name, and they are usually one syllable, rarely two. Ma, Mao, Chen, Wang/Wong, Li/Lee. However, people of Chinese ancestry in the Phillipines have last names that are three syllables long! What seems to have happened in some of these cases is that the whole name of the ancestor who first came to the Philippines became the surname of his children and grandchildren.

Many people of British descent, English in particular, have surnames that date back about a thousand years to a census called the Domesday Book. Again, many people at that time did not have surnames, so some were made up for the census, and might not have stuck if they hadn't been in the book. A person whose last name is Smith, for instance, probably had an ancestor about a thousand years ago that worked as a blacksmith, making things out of iron. Someone with the last name Miller probably had an ancestor who milled grain. And a person named Davidson had an ancestor named David, but the book recorded his son!

Surnames like McDonald and O'Donnell are variations that come from Scotland and Ireland. "Mc/Mac" and "O'" all mean "son of". Originally they would have had a custom like the Ethiopian one, but the surname that was applied to Donald's son Adam became the surname of his grandchildren.

Middle names are given for many different reasons. Some kids are routinely called by both first and middle names, while others keep their middle names a secret as long as they can!

Sometimes the middle name is a name the kid can use if they don't like their first name. Sometimes families are trying to honor a couple of different people so they give a kid an uncle's name and a grandfather's name for example. In old Roman Catholic neighborhoods in the US, it sometimes seemed that every girl had the first name Mary, so you needed the middle names to distinguish Mary Katherine from Mary Francis.

Names go in and out of fashion in the US. Forty years ago, Lisa was a very popular name, and we had difficulty knowing which Lisa we were talking about. Now, babies are rarely named Lisa. Names like Tiffany, Madison, and Ashley are much more popular. Middle names can help when you have several kids in the same class with the same first name, but sometimes kids have both the same!

In parts of the US, people who are born into families who have had money and power for a long time often give a kid a middle name that may be the mother's orginal surname, or that of another branch of the family. Some people who want others to think they have had money for a long time also adopt this custom!

Answer 2

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RE:
What's the story of Last Names and Middle Names? In Ethiopia we have no such things..?
In Ethiopia, we no middle names and no real "last names." The family uses the father's first name... For example, if the father's name is David, the children's last name become David... so if you have 3 kids named John, Mark, Ruth.. Their names would become John...

Answer 3

That practice is not unique to Ethiopia. It also existed in Wales until rather recent times--a large reason why so many Welsh last names are also first names. In Scotland and Ireland, the "mac" prefix originally indicated the name of one's own father rather than of the founder of the clan. In early Scandinavia (and in Iceland to this day), people are known as their father's sons and daughters. When Astrid Olafsdaughter (I'm using the English word here because I don't know the exact spelling of the Icelandic) marries Njal Ericson, she keeps her own name, and their children have the last name Njalson or Njalsdaughter.

Last names originated in various countries at various times, sometimes referring to a clan's totem or to the name of a common ancestor. More recently, they also referred to someone's occupation, place of origin, or physical appearance, most likely as a way of distinguishing one person with a certain first name from another of the same name.

An Ethiopian neighbor of mine has just passed his last name, i. e. his father's first name, on to his newborn child. So the name of the father of this first-generation American will now be the last name of all his American descendants in the male line. This seems to be what happens to patronymics in many cultures: what started as a situation in which the second name simply revealed the father's name evolved one in which the name of the same man--father, grandfather, great-grandfather--became the name of the entire family.

Answer 4

Last names are actually surnames. Calling them last names confuses the issue when in some countries the surname is first and in Hispanic countries the father's surname is followed by the mother's or wife's maiden names.

In the past many people did not take middle names until they were confirmed.

Answer 5

Many hundreds of years ago Western European last names developed. In some areas (Sweden, Norway, Holland) the last names were the father's first name with the word son added to it (as in David's son which became Davidson or in my husband's Dutch family where the original name was Tunis de Neice who's sons were named John Tunis and who's grandsons were John Tunison). In other areas of Europe people's last name reflected their father's occupation (as in Smith - meaning Blacksmith, or Miller or Baker). In some areas the last name reflected what their father looked like (as in my maiden name which is the Irish name Flanagan - which means "red headed man" in the Irish language). Middle names evolved from baptismal names and didn't start showing up until the middle of the 18th century.

As far as women taking their husband's last name when they marry - it's just a custom. In the United States it's only mandatory in Hawaii - in the rest of the country a woman can keep her maiden name if she wants.

Answer 6

story names middle names ethiopia

Answer 7

the origin of last names seem to take one of several catgories ,the most used catagory seems to be that of 1.(off spring of) like erik olson is the son of ol and therefore his son leifs last name would be leif erikson .this happened in many cultures and can be seen in names as son /sen/ Ibn /ben /Mac / and O .and in some cultures you had both the maternal and paternal names, probably this was the begining of middle names. even your culture seems to follow this in a way.
It seems that this worked well for small communities but became confusing and as it became nessasary to record people they stopped changing the names and stuck with one last name.
2.occupation -thus you get names like sheperd -farmer-miller-butcher-baker (in the language of that country.)
Id say this also included things a person was well known for like Singer -weaver -dancer-hunter. here in American our native Americans chose names that they felt gave power to that person or described that persons most known accomplishment Like -Kills Soldier - Black bear-Hunts Bears and so on.
3.place of origin- overhill (over the hill) Lake (from the lake)
the point is the more people you have in one area the harder it becomes to know who youre talking about so you need more than one name sometimes more than two names.
I like names.if one studies a name I believe you can find a persons history there.1st name describes who the person is 2nd names desribed what or where and last names describe ancestory
My name translates as Little girl -new day- from a mountainous region in France.
Merry Christmas ><>

Answer 8

Ethiopian Last Names