Origin While the use of given names to identify individuals is attested in the oldest historical records, the advent of surnames is relatively recent. Many cultures have used and continue to use additional descriptive terms in identifying individuals. These terms may indicate personal attributes, location of origin, occupation, parentage, patronage, adoption, or clan affiliation. In China, according to legend, family names started with Emperor
Fu Xi in 2000 BC. His administration standardised the naming system to facilitate census-taking, and the use of census information. Originally,
Chinese surnames were derived
matrilineally, although by the time of the
Shang dynasty (1600 to 1046 BC) they had become
patrilineal. Chinese women do not change their names upon marriage. In China, surnames have been quite common since at least the 2nd century BC. In Ancient Greece, as far back as the
Archaic Period clan names and
patronymics ("son of") were also common, as in
Aristides as Λῡσῐμᾰ́χου – a genitive singular form meaning son of Lysimachus. For example,
Alexander the Great was known as
Heracleides, as a supposed descendant of
Heracles, and by the dynastic name
Karanos/Caranus, which referred to the founder of the
dynasty to which he belonged. These patronymics are already attested for many characters in the works of
Homer. At other times formal identification commonly included the place of origin. Over the course of the Roman Republic and the later Empire, naming conventions went through multiple changes. (
See Roman naming conventions.) The
nomen, the name of the
gens (tribe) inherited patrilineally, is thought to have already been in use by 650 BC. The
nomen was to identify group kinship, while the
praenomen (forename; plural
praenomina) was used to distinguish individuals within the group. Female
praenomina were less common, as women had reduced public influence, and were commonly known by the feminine form of the
nomen alone.
Medieval era and beyond The practice of using family names spread through the Eastern Roman Empire, however it was not until the 11th century that surnames came to be used in West Europe. Medieval Spain used a patronymic system. For example, Álvaro, a son of Rodrigo, would be named Álvaro Rodríguez. His son, Juan, would not be named Juan Rodríguez, but Juan Álvarez. Over time, many of these patronymics became family names, and they are some of the most common names in the Spanish-speaking world today. Other sources of surnames are personal appearance or habit, e.g. Delgado ("thin") and Moreno ("dark"); geographic location or ethnicity, e.g. Alemán ("German"); and occupations, e.g. Molinero ("miller"), Zapatero ("shoe-maker") and Guerrero ("warrior"), although occupational names are much more often found in a shortened form referring to the trade itself, e.g. Molina ("mill"), Guerra ("war"), or Zapata (archaic form of
zapato, "shoe"). In England the introduction of family names is generally attributed to the preparation of the
Domesday Book in 1086, following the
Norman Conquest. Evidence indicates that surnames were first adopted among the feudal nobility and gentry, and slowly spread to other parts of society. Some of the early Norman nobility who arrived in England during the Norman conquest differentiated themselves by affixing 'de' (of) before the name of their village in France. This is what is known as a territorial surname, a consequence of feudal landownership. By the 14th century, most
English and most
Scottish people used surnames and in Wales following unification under Henry VIII in 1536. A four-year study led by the
University of the West of England, which concluded in 2016, analysed sources dating from the 11th to the 19th century to explain the origins of the surnames in the
British Isles. The study found that over 90% of the 45,602 surnames in the dictionary are native to Britain and Ireland, with the most common in the UK being
Smith,
Jones,
Williams,
Brown,
Taylor,
Davies, and
Wilson. The findings have been published in the
Oxford English Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, with project leader Richard Coates calling the study "more detailed and accurate" than those before. Most modern Arabic names consist of a first, middle and surname, but this wasn't always the case. In medieval times some of the most common parts of a name are called: ism (given name), kunya (name relevant to offspring), nasab (name relevant to descent, traced through the patrilineal line), nisba (can be a tribal or geographical name) and laqab (a title or honorific name). Medieval Arabic documents show that Arabic names included multiple words, which did not appear in the same order that names are written in now. The given name was not always the first name, in terms of name order. Most documents from this era do not use the full name of a person.
Al-Tabari, a polymath and author is referred to in this way, despite his full name being Abu Jaʿfar Muhammad ibn Jarir ibn Yazid al-Tabari. Arabic names include lineage information, sometimes across multiple generations (the father, grandfather and great grandfather).
Modern era During the modern era many cultures around the world adopted family names, particularly for administrative reasons, especially during the age of European expansion and particularly since 1600. The Napoleonic Code, adopted in various parts of Europe, stipulated that people should be known by both their given name(s) and a family name that would not change across generations. Other notable examples include the Netherlands (1795–1811), Japan (1870s), Thailand (1920), and Turkey (1934). The structure of the
Japanese name was formalized by the government as
family name +
given name in 1868. In Breslau Prussia enacted the Hoym Ordinance in 1790, mandating the adoption of Jewish surnames. Napoleon also insisted on Jews adopting fixed names in a decree issued in 1808. Names can sometimes be changed to protect individual privacy (such as in
witness protection), or in cases where groups of people are escaping persecution. After arriving in the United States, European Jews who fled Nazi persecution sometimes
anglicized their surnames to avoid discrimination. Governments can also forcibly change people's names, as when the
National Socialist government of Germany assigned German names to European people in the territories they conquered. In the 1980s, the
People's Republic of Bulgaria forcibly changed the first and last names of its
Turkish citizens to Bulgarian names. == Origins of particular surnames ==