Family name
A
family name, or
surname or last name, is the part of a person's
name that indicates to what
family he or she belongs. The use of family names is not universal throughout history. In parts of the world, they did not appear in common use until the
17th to
19th centuries, and in some cultures they are not used today. In many cultures of Asia, as well as in Hungary, the family name is typically spoken or written first when referring to an individual (see
eastern order), while in most Western cultures, the family name is last, giving rise to the term
last name for family name.
The word
surname is
name prefixed by the French word
sur (meaning "on"), which derives from
Latin super ("over"). In the past it was sometimes spelt
sirname or
sirename (suggesting that it meant "man's name" or "father's name") due to
folk etymology, although there is no reason for "sire name" to have not developed along side "sur name", and simply been replaced by it.
The use of family names varies among cultures. In particular,
Icelanders,
Tibetans,
Burmese, and
Javanese often do not use a family name — well-known people lacking a family name include
U Thant (Burmese),
Suharto and
Sukarno (see
Indonesian names). Also, many
royal families do not use family names.
A woman's family name traditionally changes upon marriage in some cultures, although few countries mandate such a change. Other modern options include combining both family names, changing neither name, or creating a new name, e.g. combining letters of previous surnames or creating a
pseudonym unrelated to the previous surnames.
In the 19th century,
Francis Galton published a statistical study of the extinction of family names. (
See Galton-Watson process for an account of some of the mathematics.)
In
English-,
Dutch-,
German-,
French and
Scandinavian-speaking countries, people often have two or more
given names, and the family name goes at the end. (Occasionally a surname is called the "second name", which can be confused with a
middle name.) In
Spanish, people have one or more given names and two family names, one from the father and one from the mother. In
Italy, people may have one or more given names, no middle name, and a family name.
In England, hereditary surnames were adopted in the 13th and 14th centuries, initially by the aristocracy but, eventually, by everyone. By 1400, most English people and lowland Scots had acquired surnames, but many Irish, highland Scots and Welsh people did not adopt English-style surnames until the 17th century, or later.
Most surnames of British origin fall into six types:
* Occupations (e.g.,
Smith,
Archer,
Baker,
Fisher,
Miller,
Tanner,
Thatcher)
* Personal characteristics (e.g.,
Short,
Brown,
Whitehead)
* Geographical features (e.g.
Sands,
Hill,
Rivers,
Wood,
Field)
* Place names (e.g., Jack from London might be called Jack
London)
* 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,
James) or from a clan name (for those of Scottish origin, e.g.,
MacDonald,
Forbes)
The original meaning of the name may no longer be obvious in modern English (e.g., the surname
Cooper meant
barrel maker and the name
Tillotson is a
matronymic from a diminutive for
Matilda). A much smaller category of names relates to religion, though some of this category are also occupations. The names
Bishop,
Priest, or
Abbot, for example, usually indicate that an ancestor worked for a bishop, a priest, or an abbot, respectively.
In the Americas, the family names of many African-Americans have their origins in
slavery. Many of them came to bear the surnames of their former owners. Many freed slaves either created family names themselves or else adopted the name of their former master. Others, such as
Muhammad Ali and
Malcolm X, changed their name rather than live with one they believed had been given to their ancestors by a slave owner.
It has long been the custom for women to change their surname upon marriage from their
birth name (or
maiden name) to their husband's last name. From the late 1960s through the early 1990s, a small but increasing percentage of women chose to keep their birth name, or a hyphenated form of it, when they married. Going into the 2000s, however, the trend has been the other way, especially in the United States, where fewer women have been keeping their maiden name. As of
2004, roughly 90% of American women automatically assumed their husband's surname upon getting married. Even in families where the wife has kept her birth name, parents often choose to give their children their father's family name. In English-speaking countries, married women traditionally have been called
Mrs. [Husband's full name], although in recent times they are often called
Mrs. [Wife's first name] [Husband's surname].
In the
Middle Ages, when a man from a lower status family married an only daughter from a higher status family, he would take the wife's family name. In the 18th and 19th centuries in Britain, bequests were sometimes made contingent upon a man changing (or hyphenating) his name, so that the name of the legator continued. Although it is rare for English-speaking men to take the name of their wives, some men still choose to do so (such as among Canadian aboriginal groups) or, very rarely, a married couple may choose a new last name entirely.
As an alternative, both the husband and wife may adopt a
double-barrelled name. For instance, when John Smith and Mary Jones marry each other, they may become known as
John Smith-Jones and
Mary Smith-Jones. However, some consider the extra length of the hyphenated names undesirable. A wife may also opt to use her maiden name for her middle name, giving her the option of referring to herself as either
Mrs. Smith or
Mary Jones Smith. However, as the Wall Street Journal reported in 2003, from a purely logistical standpoint, the bureaucratic process for a women to change her name to anything but her husband's has become considerably more difficult in the U.S. in the wake of the
September 11, 2001 attacks.
In some jurisdictions, a woman's legal name used to change automatically upon marriage. Although women may now easily choose to change to their
married name, that change is no longer the default. In some places, civil rights lawsuits or constitutional amendments changed the law so that men could also easily change their married names (e.g., in
British Columbia).
Women in
academia who have previously published articles in academic journals under their maiden name often do not change their surname after marriage, in order to ensure that they continue to receive credit for their past and future work. This practice is also common among female physicians, attorneys, and other professionals, as well as celebrities for whom continuity is important.
Spelling of names in past centuries is often assumed to be a deliberate choice by a family, but due to very low literacy rates the reality is that many families could not provide the spelling of their surname, and so the scribe, clerk, minister, or official would write down the name on the basis of how it was spoken. This results in many variations, some of which occurred when families moved to another country. The officially-recorded spellings tended to become the standard for that family.
French-speaking countries have many similarities to English-speaking ones in the way family names are used. In
France and the
Canadian province of
Quebec, name change upon marriage is no longer automatic. Those who wish to change their name upon marriage must follow the same legal procedure as would be used under any other circumstance.
In France, until January 1, 2005, children were required by law to take the surname of their father. From this date, article 311-21 of the French
Civil code permits parents to give their children either the name of their father, mother, or a hyphenation of both - although no more than two names can be hyphenated. In cases of disagreement the father's name applies [
1]. This brought France into line with a 1978 declaration by the
Council of Europe requiring member governments to take measures to adopt equality of rights in the transmission of family names, a measure that was echoed by the United Nations in 1979. Similar measures were adopted by
Germany (1976),
Sweden (1982),
Denmark (1983) and
Spain (1999).
Furthermore, in
French Canada, up until the late 1960s, children of
Catholic origin were given three names at birth (usually not hyphenated): the first, Marie or Joseph, usually indicated the gender of the child. The second was usually the name of the
godfather or
godmother, while the third and last given name was the name used in everyday situations. Thus, a child prenamed Joseph Bruno Jean on his birth or baptismal certificate would indicate the baby to be a boy, the godfather's first name to be Bruno and that the child would be called Jean (and not Joseph) for all intents and purposes of everyday life. This naming convention was in the most part dropped following the
Quiet Revolution (late 1960s), and is now seen much more rarely.
German family names most often derive from given names, occupational designations, bodily attributes or geographical names. Hyphenations notwithstanding, they mostly consist of a single word; in those rare cases that the family name is linked to the given names by particles such as
von or
zu, they usually indicate
noble ancestry.
Family names in German-speaking countries are usually positioned last, after all given names. There are exceptions, however: In parts of
Austria, the family name is regularly put in front of the first given name. Also in many - especially
rural - parts of Germany, to emphasize family affiliation there is often an inversion in colloquial use, in which the family name becomes a
possessive:
Rüters Erich, for example, would be Erich of the Rüter family.
In Germany today, upon marriage both partners can choose to keep their birth name or adport a hyphenated name of their birth names, or one of them can switch to their partner's name (if the partner keeps it). After that, they must decide on one family name for all their future children, by pretty much the same rules. Changing one's family name for reasons other than marriage, divorce or adoption is only possible in Germany if the applicant can prove that they suffer extraordinarily due to their name.
Many surnames in Ireland of
Gaelic origin derive from ancestor's names;
nicknames; or descriptive names. In the first group can be placed surnames such as
McMurrough and
McCarthy, derived from father's names, or
O'Brien and
O'Toole, derived from ancestral names.
Gaelic surnames derived from nicknames include
O'Doherty (from
dochartaigh, "destroyer" or "obtrusive"),
Garvery (
garbh, "rough" or "nasty"),
Manton (
mantach, "toothless"),
Bane (
bán, "white", as in "white hair"),
Finn (
fionn, "fair", as in "fair hair"), and
Kennedy (
cinnéide, "ugly head").
In contrast to
England, very few Gaelic surnames are derived from place names. Among those that are included in this small group, several can be shown to be
bastardizations of Gaelic personal names or surnames.
In areas where certain family names are extremely common, extra names are added that sometimes follow this archaic pattern. In
Ireland, for example, where
Murphy is an exceedingly common name, particular Murphy families or extended families are nicknamed, so that
Denis Murphy's family were called
The Weavers and Denis himself was called
Denis "The Weaver" Murphy. (See also
O'Hay.)
For much the same reason, nicknames (e.g. the
Fada Burkes, "the long/tall
Burkes"), father's names (e.g.
John Morrissey Ned) or mother's maiden name (
Kennedy becoming
Kennedy-Lydon) can become colloquial or legal surnames. The Irish family of de Courcy Ireland became so-named to distinguish them from their cousins who moved to France in the 17th and 18th centuries.
In addition to all this, Irish speaking areas still follow the old tradition of naming themselves after their father, grandfather, great-grandfather and so on. Examples include
Mike Bartly Pat Reilly ("Mike, son of Bartholomew, son of Pat Reilly"),
John Michel John Oge Pat Breanach ("John, son of Michael, son of young John, son of Pat Breanach"),
Tom Paddy-Joe Seoige ("Tom, son of Paddy-Joe Seoige"), and
Mary Bartly Mike Walsh ("Mary, daughter of Bartly, son of Mike Walsh"). Sometimes, the female line of the family is used, depending on how well the parent is known in the area the person resides, e.g.
Paddy Mary John ("Paddy, son of Mary, daughter of John"). A similar tradition continues even in English-speaking areas, especially in rural districts.
Some Irish surnames can be mistaken for non-Irish. Anglicization of many surnames has been so thorough that bona-fide Irish names such as
Crockwell and
Harrington appear 100% English. Other Irish names can appear to be German (
Bruder), Italian (
Costello), or even Polish (
Comiskey).
Irish surname prefixes
*
Bean: "Wife", pronounced as
ban.
*
De: "of the": a
Norman-French habitational prefix used by some of the most common Irish surnames among which are De Búrca, De Brún, De Barra, De Cíosóg and de Faoite. 'De' historically has signalled ownership of lands and was traditionally therefore a mark of prestige.
*
Mac: Irish for "son", often shortened to
Mc in Anglicised versions of Irish names, but also frequently left as
Mac: A grammatical variant is
Mag (pronounced
Mac), which is dependent on the first letter or letters of the second part of the surname (eg
Mag Shamhráin).
*
Mhic: Pronounced as
vick. Compressed form of
bean mhic ("wife of the son of") eg
Máire Mhic Néill (Máire, the wife of Mac Néill). This is the grammatically correct form of the prefix
Mac always taken by a woman after marriage (i.e. a woman marrying someone of the surname
Mac Néill would become
Mhic Néill).
Mhig (also pronounced
vick) is used similarly to
Mag in some cases (e.g.
Mag Shamhráin/Mhig Shamhráin).
*
Mac Giolla: Irish for "son of the devotee of a saint", or "son of a man whose name was perhaps
Giolla Pádraig or
(Mac) Giolla Bhrighde". Similar is the use of
St. George and
St. John as forenames in England in the 18th and 19th century.
*
Maol: In Pagan times this was expressed as
Mug, as in the case of
Mug Nuada. The literal expression of this is "slave of
Nuada", i.e. "devotee of
Nuada". In the
Christian era the word
Mael was used in its place for given names such as
Mael Bridget,
Mael Padraig,
Mael Lagan,
Mael Sechlainn, and
Mael Martain. In later times, some of these given names evolved into surnames, e.g.
" Máel Sechlainn and
Mac Mael Martain or
Mael Lagan, which became after the 15th Century the name
Milligan.
*
Fitz: a
Norman-French word derived from the
Latin word
filius ("son"). It was used in
patronymics by thousands of men in the early
Norman period in
Ireland (e.g.
fitz Stephen,
fitz Richard,
fitz Robert,
fitz William) and only on some occasions did it become used as an actual surname, the most famous example being the
FitzGerald Earls of Kildare. Yet well into the 17th and 18th century it was used in certain areas dominated by the
Old English of
Ireland in its original form, as a
patronymic.
The Tribes of Galway were especially good at conserving this form, with examples such as
John fitz John Bodkin and
Michael Lynch fitz Arthur, used even as late as the early 1800's. Despite claims to the contrary, the use of
Fitz in a surname never denoted illegitimacy. This misunderstanding may have originated because a number of illegitimate members of the British royal family were given such surnames: some of the illegitimate children of
King Charles II were named
FitzCharles or
FitzRoy ("son of the King"); those of
King James II were named
FitzJames; those of
Prince William, Duke of Clarence and St Andrews (later King William IV) were named
FitzClarence.
*
": In Old Irish as
ua ("grandson", "descendant"). E.g., the ancestor of the
O'Brien clan,
Brian Boru (937-1014) was known in his lifetime as
Brian mac Cennéide mac Lorcán ("Brian, the son of
Cennéide, the son of
Lorcán "). Not until the time of his grandsons and great-grandsons was the name
O'Brien used as a surname, used to denote descent from an illustrious
ancestor. It has for some three hundred years been written as
O', but in recent years the apostrophe is often dropped, bringing it into line with early medieval forms.
*
Uí: This is the plural of
" and is used in reference to a kin-group or clan, e.g.
Uí Néill, in reference to the
O'Neill clan. Pronounced "ee".
*
Ní: This is used for women instead of
O before a surname and comes a shortened form of the Irish word for a daughter, e.g.
Máire Ní Bhriain ("Mary O'Brien").
*
Nic: This is used for women instead of
Mac, but only if this is their maiden name, never their married name. Compressed form of
iníon mhic ("daughter of the son of/Mac..."), e.g.
Máire Nic Charthaigh ("Mary, daughter of McCarthy").
Nig (pronounced
nick) is used in cases where the surname uses
Mag e.g.
Nig Shamhráin.
Italian names are mostly derived from Latin, but since the Italian city-states and modern Italy have always experienced extensive contacts with foreign powers and travellers, many surnames are of Spanish, French, German, Norman or Swiss origin. Beginning in the 14th century, it became necessary to add a
second name to distinguish between individuals with the same surname.
Italian surnames are generally easy to recognize because most end in a vowel, like nearly all words in
standard Italian, and many of them have been derived from descriptive nicknames.
Italian surnames developed in the most part from four sources: patronym (e.g.
Francesco di Marco, "Francis, son of Mark"), occupation (e.g.
Giovanni Fabbri, "John the Smith"), personal characteristic (e.g. nicknames or pet names like
Dario Forte, "Darius the Strong"), and geographic origin (e.g.
Elisabetta Romano, "Elisabeth from Rome").
Few family names are still in the original Latin, and usually they indicate from or with pretensions to antiquity, e.g.
Santorum or
de Laurentiis. Despite notions of this indicating nobility, it actually reflects that the family name has been preserved from
Medieval Latin sources as a part of their business or household documentation or church records.
Usually, family names are written after any given name in most uses. However, the surname is written before given names when used in many official documents (for example,
Giovanni Fabbri may be referred to
Fabbri Giovanni in official documents). In speech, the use of given name first, family name last is standard.
Greek surnames usually describe occupation or characteristics.
Some are prefixed with
papa-, indicating ancestry from a priest. Other prefixes include
hadji- and
kara- of Turkish origin which derive from occupations during the
Ottoman Empire era.
Common patronymic suffixes are
-poulos (
Peloponessus),
-idis,
-iadis (
Pontus),
-akis (
Crete),
-atos (
Ionian sea),
-ellis (
Lesvos Island). The suffix
-idis survives from the ancient times (
-ides) for patronymic epithets.
Zeus, for example was also referred to as
Cronides ("son of
Cronus").
Pakistani surnames are basically divided in three categories:
Arab naming convention, tribal names and ancestral names.
Muslim surnames include those of
Arab heritage, e.g.
Shaikh,
Siddiqui,
Abbasi,
Syed,
Farooqi,
Osmani,
Alavi,
Hassani,
Hussaini, and
Suhrawardi.
Khan is the most common surname in
Pakistan,
India and
Afghanistan indicating
Turkish,
Mongol and
Central Asian ancestry. Other family names indicating
Turkish heritage include
Mughal,
Mirza,
Baig or
Beg,
Pasha, and
Barlas. People claiming
Iranian ancestry include those with family names
Agha,
Firdausi,
Ghazali,
Hamadani,
Isfahani,
Kashani,
Kermani,
Khorasani,
Mir,
Montazeri,
Nishapuri,
Noorani,
Qizilbash,
Saadi,
Sabzvari,
Shirazi,
Sistani,
Yazdani,
Zahedi, and
Zand.
Tribal names include
Afaqi,
Afridi,
Amini,
Ashrafkhel,
Awan,
Bajwa,
Baloch,
Barakzai,
Baranzai,
Bhatti,
Bhutto,
Bijarani,
Bizenjo,
Brohi,
Bugti,
Butt,
Ghaznavi,
Ghilzai,
Gichki,
Jakhrani,
Jamali,
Jamote,
Janjua,
Jatoi,
Joyo,
Junejo,
Karmazkhel,
Kayani,
Khar,
Khuhro,
Lakhani,
Leghari,
Lodhi,
Magsi,
Malik,
Mandokhel,
Marwat,
Mengal,
Palijo,
Panhwar,
Popalzai,
Rabbani,
Raisani,
Rakhshani,
Rathore,
Soomro,
Sulaimankhel,
Talpur,
Thebo, and
Zamani.
In the
Portuguese naming customs, the main surname (the one used in alphasorting, indexing, abbreviations, and greetings), appears last (reverse the order of Spanish surnames).
Each person has usually two family names: the first is the maternal family name; the last is the paternal family name. A person can have up to six names (two first names and four surnames — he or she may have two names from the mother and two from the father).
In the ancient ages the patronymicum was commonly used — surnames like
Gonçalves ("son of
Gonçalo"),
Fernandes ("son of
Fernando"),
Nunes ("son of Nuno") and many more are used today as usual family names.
Brazilians usually call people only by their given names, omitting family names, even in many formal situations (as in the press referring to authorities, i.e. "President Fernando Henrique", never President Cardoso). When formality or a prefix requires a family name, the given name usually precedes the surname, e.g.
João Santos ("John Saints"), or
Sr. João Santos ("Mr. John Saints").
In medieval times, a patronymic system similar to the one still used in Iceland emerged. For example,
Álvaro, the 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 are some of the most common names in the Spanish-speaking world. Other sources of surnames are personal appearance or habit, e.g.
Delgado ("thin") and
Moreno ("dark"); occupations, e.g.
Molinero ("miller") and
Guerrero ("warrior"); and geographic location or ethnicity, e.g.
Alemán ("German").
However, nowadays in Spain and in many countries of Hispanic culture (former Spanish colonies, e.g. México, Honduras, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Venezuela), most people have two surnames, although in some situations only the first is used. The first surname is the paternal one, inherited from the father's paternal surname. The second surname is the maternal one, inherited from the mother's paternal surname. Since both surnames come from the paternal surnames of the previous generation, their transmission can be seen as a
patriarchal feature of the Hispanic society. In Spain, after a new law approved on 1999, an adult can change the order of his/her surnames and the parents can also change the order of their children's surnames if they agree (if one of their children is at least 12 years old they need his/her agreement too). [
2] (Link in spanish)
Depending on the country, the surnames may or may not be linked by the conjunction
y ("and"),
i ("and", in
Catalonia),
de ("of") and
de la ("of the", when the following word is feminine). However, in many South American countries people have now adopted the English-speaking custom, thus having a single surname (e.g. in
Argentina). Sometimes a new father transmits his complete surname by creating a new one, combining his two surnames, e.g. the paternal surname of the son of
Javier (given name)
Reyes (paternal surname)
de la Barrera (maternal surname) may become the new paternal surname
Reyes de la Barrera.
At present day in Spain, women upon marrying keep their two family names intact. In certain situations she may be addressed as if her maternal surname were substituted with her husbands paternal surname often linked with
de. For example, a woman named
Ana García Díaz, upon marrying
Juan Guerrero Macías, could be called
Ana García de Guerrero. This custom, begun in medieval times, is decaying and only has legal validity in
Ecuador and
Peru. In Ecuador, a couple can choose the order of their children's surnames. Most choose the traditional order (e.g.
Guerrero García in the example above), but some invert the order, putting the mother's paternal surname first and the father's paternal surname last (e.g.
García Guerrero from the example above). Such inversion, if chosen, must be maintained for all the children.
Until the middle of the 19th century, there was no standardization of surnames in the
Philippines. There were native Filipinos without surnames, others whose surnames deliberately did not match that of their families, as well as those who took certain surnames simply because they had a certain prestige, usually ones dealing with the Roman Catholic religion, such as
de los Santos and
de la Cruz.
In 1849, the Spanish governor
Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa decreed an end to these arbitrary practices, the result of which was the
Catálogo Alfabético de Apellidos ("Alphabetic Catalog of Surnames"). The book contained many words coming from Spanish and the Philippine languages such as
Tagalog.
The actual application of this decree varied from municipality to municipality. Some municipalities received only surnames starting with a particular letter. For example, the majority of residents of the island of
Banton in
Romblon province have surnames starting with
F such as
Fabicon,
Fallarme,
Fadrilan, and
Ferran. Thus, although there perhaps a majority of Filipinos have Spanish surnames, such a surname does not imply Spanish ancestry.
There are other sources for surnames. Many Filipinos also have Chinese derived surnames, which in some cases could yield clues to Chinese ancestry. Many Hispanicized Chinese numerals and other Hispanicized Chinese words, however, were also among the surnames in the "Catálogo Alfabético de Apellidos". For those whom it may indicate a Chinese ancestry, analysis of the surname may indicate when those ancestors immigrated to the Philippines. A hispanicized Chinese surname like
Cojuangco suggests an 18th-century immigration while a Chinese surname like
Lim suggests a relatively recent immigration. Some Chinese surnames like
Tiu-Laurel are composed of the immigrant Chinese ancestor's surname as well as the name of that ancestor's godparent.
In the Muslim-dominated areas of the southern Philippines, adoption of surnames was influenced by connections to that religion, its holy places, and prophets. As a result, surnames among Filipino Muslims are largely Arabic-sounding, and include such surnames as Hassan and Haradji.
There are also Filipinos who to this day have no surnames at all, particularly if from rural tribes.
The vast majority of Filipinos follow a naming system which is the reverse of the Spanish one. Children take the mother's surname as their
middle name, followed by their father's as their surname; for example, a son of
Juan de la Cruz and his wife
Maria Agbayani may be
David Agbayani de la Cruz. Women take the surnames of their husband upon marriage; so upon her marriage to
David de la Cruz, the full name of
Laura Yuchengco Macaraeg would become
Laura Yuchengco Macaraeg de la Cruz.
The Iberian naming order, almost always coupled with the use of
y, however, remains common practice in the Philippines, where it is used, among others, in keeping criminal records. (See
Iberian naming customs.)
In
Iceland, most people have no family name; a person's last name is a
patronymic, i.e. a modified form of the father's first name or, sometimes, the mother's. For example, when a man called
Karl has a daughter called
Anna and a son called
Magnús, their names will be
Anna Karlsdóttir ("daughter of Karl") and
Magnús Karlsson ("son of Karl").
Until the early 20th Century, Finland was a strong
agrarian society and
Finns' names were based on their association with a particular area,
farm, or
homestead, e.g.
Jaakko Vilippunen ("Jaakko, Vilippu" with the -nen suffix). People began treating the agrarian names as proper surnames, which practice produced many surnames ending with
-nen, e.g.
Häkkinen,
Halonen,
Lipponen, and
Räikkönen. Surnames became compulsory for all Finns in
1921.
However, a considerable minority of Finnish surnames have suffixes that describe the place where an ancestor lived, like
-mäki ("-hill"),
-järvi ("-lake"), and
-joki ("-river"). Finnish women usually change their surname when they get married.
Finn-Swedes tend to keep the format of their surnames of their European ancestors like Karlsson, Andersson, Majander and Stockmann, and subsequently they follow the format of their ancestors.
Due to Finland's legal protection of names, many people cannot change their surnames to legally protected ones, e.g. to famous names like
Mannerheim or
Ståhlberg. Finns also can legally only have a maximum of three given names and two surnames (
double barrelled only). Some immigrants have had difficulty naming their children, as they must choose from an approved list based on the family's household language.
In
Scandinavia family names often, but certainly not always, originate from a patronymic. In
Sweden, the patronymic ending is -
sson, e.g.
Karlsson ("Karl's son"). In
Denmark and
Norway, the corresponding ending is -
sen, as in
Karlsen. Names ending with
dotter/datter (daughter), such as
Olofsdotter, are rare but occurring, and only apply to females. Today, the patronymic names are passed on similarly to family names in other Western countries, and a person's father doesn't have to be called Karl if he or she has the surname Karlsson.
Before the 19th century there was the same system in Scandinavia as in Iceland today. Noble families, however, as a rule adopted a family name, which could refer to a presumed or real forefather (e.g. Earl
Birger Magnusson Folkunge) or to the family's
coat of arms (e.g. King
Gustav Eriksson Vasa). In many surviving family noble names, such as
Cederqvist ("cedar-twig") or
Stiernhielm ("star-helmet"), the spelling is obsolete, but since it applies to a name, remains unchanged.
Later on, people from the Scandinavian middle classes, particularly artisans and town dwellers, adopted names in a similar fashion to that of the nobility. Family names such as the Swedish
Bergman,
Holmberg,
Lindgren,
Sandström and
Åkerlund were quite frequent and remain common today. The same is true for similar Norwegian and Danish names.
These names often indicated the place of residence of the family. For this reason, Denmark and Norway have a very high incidence of names derived from those of farms, many signified by the suffix -
gaard -- the modern spelling is
gård in Danish and has changed to
gard in Norwegian, but as in Sweden, archaic spelling persists in surnames. The most well-known example of this kind of surname is probably
Kierkegaard (original meaning:
the farm located by the Church or also
churchyard and
cemetery [although this is unlikely in the context] which, with
kierke, actually includes two archaic spellings), but many others could be cited. It should also be noted that, since the names in question are derived from the original owners' domiciles, the possession of this kind of name is no longer an indicator of affinity with others who bear it.
In many cases, names were taken from the nature around them. A family name such as "Dahlgren" is dervied from "dahl" meaning valley and "gren" meaning branch.
Many
Dutch last names start with an independent prefix ("
tussenvoegsel") like
van ("of"),
de or
het ("the"),
der ("of the"),
van de ("of the"), and
in het ("in the"). Examples are
De Groot ("the great"),
Van Weert ("of the city Weert"). Many such Dutch surnames originated from referrals to cities and other geographical locations. Surname registration started with the French occupation by Napoleon (1811). Some Dutch people, convinced that this convention would only be temporary, deliberately chose comical or confusing surnames, such as
Rotmensen (meaning "rotten people"),
Poepjes ("poops" or "farts"),
Naaktgeboren ("born naked"), or
Zeldenthuis ("rarely at home").
Since
Belgium has three official languages — Dutch, French and German — Belgian names are similar to those in the neighbouring countries: the Netherlands, France and Germany. Some differences exist: for example, Dutch names commonly have prefixes as mentioned
above, except that these usually start with a capital letter, and are often written connected to the main word. Thus,
de Bakker and
van der Steen are probably Dutch while
De Bakker and
Vandersteen are Belgian. (Note: This distinction may have faded in surnames of Americans of Dutch or Belgian heritage.) The most common Dutch surnames in Belgium are
Peeters,
Janssens,
Maes,
Jacobs,
Willems,
Mertens,
Claes,
Wouters,
Goossens, and
De Smet.
Flemish surnames often resemble first names, e.g. the following first names relate to above surnames: e.g.
Peter,
Jan,
Jacob,
Willem,
Maarten,
Klaas, and
Wouter. The trailing
s reportedly once meant "son of", so
Willems would be "Willem's son". Furthermore older or historically different regional spelling remains visible in many names, e.g. usage of
c instead of
k and
ae instead of
aa (compare
Claes with
Klaas). The most common
Walloonian surnames are
Dubois,
Lambert,
Martin,
Dupont,
Dumont,
Leclercq,
Simon,
Laurent,
Lejeune, and
Renard.
A full
Russian name consists of personal (given) name, patronymic, and family name (surname).
Most Russian family names originated from patronymics, that is, father's name usually formed by adding the adjective suffix
-ov(a) or
-ev(a)). Contemporary patronymics, however, have a substantive suffix
-ich for masculine and the adjective suffix
-na for feminine.
For example, the proverbial triad of most common Russian surnames follows:
Ivanov (son of Ivan),
Petrov (son of Petr),
Sidorov (son of Sidor).
Feminine forms of these surnames have the ending
-a:
Ivanova (daughter of Ivan),
Petrova (daughter of Petr),
Sidorova (daughter of Sidor).
Such a pattern of name formation is not unique to Russia or even to the Eastern and Southern Slavs in general; quite common are also names derived from professions, places of origin, and personal characteristics, with various suffixes (e.g.
-in(a) and
-sky (-skaia)).
Professions:
*
kuznets (
smith) '
Kuznetsov"Kuznetsova*
portnoi (
tailor) '
Portnov"Portnova*
pastukh (
shepherd) '
Pastukhov"PastukhovaPlaces of origin:
*
Moskva (
Moscow) '
Moskvin"Moskvina,
*
Smolensk '
Smolensky"Smolenskaia,
*
Riazan '
Riazanov"Riazanova,
Personal characteristics:
*
tolsty (stout, fat) '
Tolstov"Tolstova,
Tolstoy"Tolstaya,
*
nos (nose) '
Nosov"Nosova,
*
sedoi (grey-haired or -headed) '
Sedov"Sedova.
A considerable number of "artificial" names exists, for example, those given to seminary graduates; such names were based on major Orthodox holy days or Christian virtues.
Major Orthodox holy days:
*
rozhdestvo (Christmas) '
Rozhdestvensky"Rozhdestvenskaia,
*
voskresenie (Resurrection) '
Voskresensky"Voskresenskaia,
*
uspenie (Assumption) '
Uspensky"Uspenskaia,
Christian virtues:
*
philagathos (one who loves goodness) '
Dobrolubov"Dobrolubova,
Dobrolubsky"Dobrolubskaia,
*
philosophos (one who loves wisdom) '
Lubomudrov"Lubomudrova,
*
theophilos (one who loves God) '
Bogolubov"Bogolubova.
Many freed serfs were given surnames after those of their former owners. For example, a serf of the
Demidov family might be named
Demidovsky, which translates roughly as "belonging to Demidov" or "one of Demidov's bunch".
Grammatically, Russian family names follow the same rules as other nouns or adjectives (names ending with
-oy,
-aya are grammatically adjectives), with exceptions: some names do not change in different cases and have the same form in both genders (for example,
Sedykh).
In
Poland and most of the former
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, surnames first appeared during the late Middle Ages. They initially denoted the differences between various people living in the same town or village and bearing the same name. The conventions were similar to those of English surnames, using occupations, patronymic descent, geographic origins, or personal characteristics. Thus, early surnames indicating occupation include
Karczmarz ("innkeeper"),
Kowal ("blacksmith"), and
Bednarczyk ("young cooper"), while those indicating patronymic descent include
Szczepaniak ("Son of
Szczepan),
Józefski ("Son of
Józef), and
Kaźmirkiewicz ("Son of
Kazimierz"). Similarly, early surnames like
Mazur ("the one from
Mazury") indicated geographic origin, while ones like
Nowak ("the new one"),
Biały ("the pale one"), and
Wielgus ("the big one") indicated personal characteristics.
In the early 16th century, geographical names became common, especially among the
szlachta. Initially, the surnames were in a form of "[first name]
z ("of") [location]", e.g.
Jan z Kolna ("John of
Kolno"). Later, most surnames were changed to adjective forms, e.g.
Jakub Wiślicki ("James of
Wisła") and
Zbigniew Oleśnicki (
"Zbigniew of
Oleśnica"), with masculine
suffixes
-ski,
-cki and
-dzki or respective feminine suffixes
-ska,
-cka and
-dzka. Names formed this way are adjectives grammatically, and therefore change their form depending on gender; for example,
Jan Kowalski and
Maria Kowalska collectively use the plural
Kowalscy.
Names with masculine suffixes
-ski,
-cki, and
-dzki, and corresponding feminine suffixes
-ska,
-cka, and
-dzka became associated with noble origin. Many people from lower classes successively changed their surnames to fit this pattern. This produced many
Kowalskis,
Bednarskis,
Kaczmarskis and so on. Today, although most Polish speakers do not know about noble associations of
-ski endings, such names still sound somehow better to them.
A separate class of surnames derive from the names of
szlachta coats of arms. These are used either as separate names or the first part of a
double-barrelled name. Thus, persons named
Jan Nieczuja and
Krzysztof Nieczuja-Machocki might be related. Similarly, after
World War I and
World War II, many members of
Polish underground organizations adopted their
war-time pseudonyms as the first part of their surnames.
Edward Rydz thus became
Marshal of Poland Edward Śmigły-Rydz and
Jan Nowak became
Jan Nowak-Jeziorański.
Until a few hundred years ago,
Ashkenazim (
Jews from Northern and Eastern Europe) followed no tradition of surnames, but used patronymics within the
synagogue, and
matronymics in other venues. For example, a boy named
Joseph of a father named
Isaac would be called to the
Torah as
Joseph ben Isaac. That same boy of a mother named
Rachel would be known in business as
Joseph ben Rachel. A male used the
Hebrew word
ben ("son") and a female used
bat ("daughter").
When Northern European countries legislated that Jews required "proper" surnames, Jews were left with a number of options. Many Jews (particularly in
Austria,
Prussia, and Russia) were forced to adopt
Germanic names. In 1781,
Emperor Joseph II of Austria announced an
Edict of Toleration for the Jews, which established the requirement for hereditary family names. The Jews of
Galicia did not adopt surnames until 1785. He issued a law in 1787 which assumed that all Jews were to adopt German names. The city
mayors were to choose the name for every Jewish family. A fee was charged for names related to precious metals and flowers, while free surnames were usually connected to animals and common metals.
Many took
Yiddish names derived from occupation (e.g.
Goldschmidt "Gold-smith"), from their father (e.g.
Jacobson), or from location (e.g.
Berliner,
Warszawski or
Pinsker). This makes Ashkenazi surnames similar to Scandinavian and especially Swedish ones.
Many Jews also took names of their Jewish lineage. A person of
Priestly (Cohanite) descent could take the last name related to his lineage (e.g.
Cohen - Hebrew/Yiddish or
Colons - Spanish). If a Jew was a descendant of the
Levites, then he could take a surname like
Levin or
Levenson.
In
Prussia, special military commissions were created to choose the names. It became common that the poorer Jews were forced to adopt derogatory, offensive or simply bizarre names. Among those created by
Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann were:
*
Ochsenschwanz ("
oxtail")
*
Temperaturwechsel ("temperature glitch")
*
Kanalgeruch ("sewer stink")
*
Singmirwas ("sing me something")
The
Jews of Poland adopted names much earlier. Those who were adopted by a
szlachta family usually changed the name to that of the family.
Christened Jews usually adopted either a common Polish name or a name created after the month of their
baptism. Thus, many
Frankists adopted the name
Majewski after the month of May in
1759.
Both the given names and surnames of Ashkenazim today may be completely European in origin, though many will also possess a traditional Hebrew name for use only in the
synagogue.
In
Romania family names traditionally have an English-like usage: a child inherits his father's family name, and a wife takes her husband's last name. There are however exceptions and social pressure to follow this tradition is not particularly strong in most families.
Until the
19th century, the names were primarily of the form "[given name] [father's name] [grandfather's name]". The few exceptions are usually famous people or the nobility (boyars). The name reform introduced around 1850, had the names changed to a western style, most likely imported from France, consisting of a given name followed by a family name.
As such, the name is called
prenume (French
prénom), while the family name is called
nume or, when otherwise ambiguous,
nume de familie ("family name"). Although not mandatory, middle names (Romanian
numele mic, literally, "small name") are common.
Historically, when the family name reform was introduced in the mid 19th century, the default was to use a
patronym, or a
matronym when the father was dead or unknown. The typical derivation was to append the suffix
-escu to the father's name, e.g.
Anghelescu (
"Anghel's child") and
Petrescu (
"Petre's child"). The other common derivation was to append the suffix
-eanu to the name of the place of origin, especially when one came from a different region, e.g.
Munteanu ("from
Munte") and
Moldoveanu ("from
Moldova"). These uniquely Romanian suffixes strongly identify ancestoral nationality.
There are also descriptive family names derived from occupations, nicknames, and events, e.g.
Botezatu ("baptised"),
Barbu ("bushy bearded"),
Prodan ("foster"),
Bălan ("blond"), and
Fieraru ("smith").
Romanian family names remain the same regardless of the sex of the person.
Although given names appear before family names in most Romanian contexts, official documents invert the order, ostensibly for filing purposes. Correspondingly, Romanians often introduce themselves with their family names first, especially in official contexts, e.g. a student signing a test paper in school.
For more details on this topic, see Indian family name.Indian surnames, where formalized, fall into seven general types.
*Patronymics and Ancestry, where the father's name or an ancester's given name is used in its original form or in a derived form (e.g. Aggarwal or Agrawal or Agrawala derived from the ancestor Agrasen).
*Occupations ( Chaudhury, Patel or Patil meaning Village Headman,
Gandhi, Kulkarni, Kapadia, Nadkarni, Patwardhan, Patwari, Chamar) and priestly distinctions (Trivedi, Chaturvedi, Twivedi, Purohit, Bhattar, Mukhopadhyay.) In addition many
Parsi,
Bohra and
Gujarati families have used English trade names as last names since the 18th and 19th centuries (Contractor, Engineer, Builder).
*
Caste or clan names (Gaudar, Vaish, Parmar, Kamma, Sindhi).
*Place names or names derived from places of ancestral origin (Marwari, Gawaskar, Mangeshkar, Kapoor, Karnad).
*
Muslim surnames, generally following the same rules used in
Pakistan.
Khan among the most popular, often signifying
Afghan/
Central Asian descent.
*Bestowed titles or other honorifics (titles bestowed by Kings,
Nawabs and other nobles before
British Raj (Wali, Rai, Rao) and those bestowed by the British (Rai, Bahadur). In
Bengal, it is also common custom to create hybrid surnames based on the previous last names and new titles (Raichoudhury)
*Names indicating nobility or feudal associations or honorifics (Varma, Singh, Burman, Raja, Tagore, Thakur)
*Colonial Surnames forced on natives based on tax or after religious conversion, particularly in Goa which was under Portuguese control (DeCruz, Pinto). Often, surnames of Portugene noble families were used as the surnames of the converted.
The convention is to write the first name followed by middle names and surname. It is common to use the father's first name as the middle name even though it is not universal. In some Indian states like
Maharashtra, official documents list the family name first, followed by a comma and the given names.
It is customary for wives to take the surname of their husband after marriage. In modern times, in urban areas at least, this practice is not universal. In some rural areas, particularly in North India, wives may also take a new first name after their nupitals. Children inherit their surnames from their father.
In some parts of Southern India, no formal Surname is used, either because none is designated or because the family has decided to forgo its existing clan name. This practice is prevalent in Kerala where someone who belongs to the Nair (a corruption of "Nyakar" pointing to a warrior past) clan for example, could forgo its usage completely in modern times, preferring just to use the initials of the father, ancestral village or "house" instead. An example of this usage is the name of olympian P. T. Usha (Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha, where the first name indicates the geographical origin and the second is the name of her "house"). Wife or child takes the given name of the husband or father (Usha married Satish, and may therefore be called Usha Satish or simply S. Usha).
Sikhs generally use the words
Singh ("lion") and
Kaur ("princess") as surnames added to the otherwise unisex first names of men and women, respectively. It is also common to use a different surname after Singh in which case Singh or Kaur are used as middle names (
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Surinder Kaur Badal). In modern times, many Sikh women also use "Singh" as their last name following the western concept of patronymic or marital inheritance (Surinder K. Singh). Other middle names or honorifics that are sometimes used as surnames include Kumar, Dev, Lal, and Chand.
The modern day spellings of names originated when families translated their surnames to English, with no standardization across the country. Variations are regional, based on how the name was translated from the local language to English in the 18th, 19th or 20th centuries during British rule. Therefore, it is understood in the local traditions that Agrawal and Aggarwal represent the same name derived from Uttar Pradesh and Punjab respectively. Similarly, Tagore derives from Bengal while Thakur is from Hindi-speaking areas. The officially-recorded spellings tended to become the standard for that family. In the modern times, some states have attempted at standardization, particularly where the surnames were corrupted because of the early British insistence of shortening them for convinience. Thus Bandopadhyay became Banerji, Mukhopadhay became Mukherji, Chattopadhyay became Chatterji etc. This coupled with various other spelling variations created several surnames based on the original surnames. The
West Bengal Government now insists on re-converting all the variations to their original form when the child is enrolled in school.
Some parts of
Sri Lanka,
Thailand,
Myanmar, and
Indonesia have similar patronymic customs as that of India.
The patronymic custom in most of
Ethiopia and
Eritrea gives children the father's exact first name as their surname. The family gives the child its first name. There is no middle name given in this culture. So for example, a person's name might be
Demesie Birhanu. In this case,
Demesie is the first name and
Birhanu is the surname, and also the first name of the father.
The paternal grandfather's name is often used to further identify a person, for example in school registration. Thus, Tesfay Gebreselassie's son may be Bein Tesfay or Bein Tesfay Gebreselassie. Also of note: women retain their father's name after marriage, rather than taking on the husband's name. The household or family are known by the name of the husband/father ('Inda Tesfay--'house/home of Tesfay').
In
Chinese,
Japanese,
Korean,
Vietnamese, and
Hungarian cultures, the family name is placed before the given names. So the terms "first name" and "last name" are potentially confusing and should be avoided, as they do not in this case denote the given and family names.
Chinese names manytimes originate through royal decree, awarded by the Emperor, such as
Kwong or Lee. Some Chinese add an English given name in front of their Chinese name, e.g.
Martin LEE Chu-ming. In addition, many Chinese people who live in English-speaking countries have an English first name which is commonly used and a Chinese name which is used as a middle name, e.g.
Martin Chu-ming Lee. Chinese living in English-speaking countries may rearrange their names when written in English to avoid misunderstanding. However, some well-known Chinese names remain in the traditional order even in English literature, e.g.
Mao Zedong.
Vietnamese and Korean names are generally stated in East Asian order (family name first) even when writing in English. Names of Hungarian individuals appear in Western order in English writing. Japanese people born on the first year of Meiji or afterwards usually have their names in Western order while Japanese people born before the first year of Meiji are usually referred in Japanese order.
In English writings originating from non-English cultures (e.g. English newspapers in China), the family name is often written with all capital letters to avoid being mistaken as a middle name, e.g.
Laurence Yee-ming Kwong or using small capitals, as
Laurence KWONG Yee-ming or with a comma, as
AKUTAGAWA, Ryunosuke to make clear which name is the family name. Such practice is particularly common in mass-media reporting international events like the
Olympic Games. [https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/docs/notesanddefs.html The CIA World Factbook] stated that
"The Factbook capitalizes the surname or family name of individuals for the convenience of [their] users who are faced with a world of different cultures and naming conventions". For example,
Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing might be mistaken as Mr. Wing by readers unaware of Chinese naming conventions.
Vietnamese family names present an added complication. Like Chinese family names, they are placed at the beginning of a name, but unlike Chinese names, they are not usually the primary form of address. Rather, people will be referred to by their given name, usually accompanied by an honorific. For example,
Phan Van Khai is properly addressed as
Mr. Khai, even though
Phan is his family name. This pattern contrasts with that of most other East Asian naming conventions.
In Japan, the civil law forces a common surname for every married couple, unless in a case of international marriage. In most cases, women surrender their surnames upon marriage, and use the surnames of their husbands. However, a convention that a man uses his wife's family name if the wife is an only child is sometimes observed. A similar tradition called
ru zhui (入贅) is common among Chinese when the bride's family is wealthy and has no son but wants the heir to pass on their assets under the same family name. The Chinese character
zhui (贅) carries a money
radical (貝), which implies that this tradition was originally based on financial reasons. All their offspring carry the mother's family name. If the groom is the first born with an obligation to carry his own ancestor's name, a compromise may be reached in that the first male child carries the mother's family name while subsequent offspring carry the father's family name. The tradition is still in use in many Chinese communities outside of
mainland China, but largely disused in China because of social changes.
In
Hong Kong, mainland China, Korea, and
Taiwan, women keep their own surnames, while the family as a whole is referred to by the surnames of the husbands.
In Hong Kong, some women would be known to the public with the surnames of their husbands preceding their own surnames, such as
Anson Chan Fang On Sang. Anson is an English given name, On Sang is the given name in Chinese, Chan is the surname of Anson's husband, and Fang is her own surname. A name change on legal documents is not necessary.
In
Macau, some people have their names in Portuguese spelt with some
Portuguese style, such as
Carlos do Rosario Tchiang.
Chinese women in
Canada, especially
Hongkongers in
Toronto, would preserve their
maiden names before the surnames of their husbands when written in English, for instance Rosa Chan Leung, where Chan is the maiden name, and Leung is the surname of the husband.
In
Chinese and
Korean, surnames are predominantly monosyllabic (written with one
character), though a small number of common
disyllabic (or written with two characters) surnames exists (e.g. the Chinese name
Ou Yang, the Korean name
Namgung).
In
Mongolia, it is customary for children to take the first name of their father as their surname (see
patronymic). For example the name
Yuhjijad Befinsioan indicates that the person's father's first name is
Befinsioan.
Armenian surnames almost always have an ending transliterated into English as -yan or -ian (meaning "son of"), though names with that ending can also be found among Persians and a few other nationalities. Armenian surnames can derive from a geographic location, profession, noble rank, personal characteristic or personal name of an ancestor. Armenians in the diaspora sometimes adapt their surnames to help assimiliation. In Russia, many have changed -yan to -ov (or -ova for women). In Turkey, many have changed the ending to -oglu (also meaning "son of"). In English-speaking countries, many have shortened their name by removing the ending.
Surnames of
South Slavic groups such as
Serbs,
Croats,
Montenegrins, and
Bosniaks traditionally end with the suffix "-vić" (alternatively spelled "vic" or "vich") which also means "son of." These are usually derived from a specific profession.
Aside from Russian surnames (see above),
Ukrainians and
Belarusians usually end with the suffix "-enko" which too means "son of."
Georgian surnames end alternately with the suffixes of "-shvili" or "-nadze."
*
List of most common surnames*
Family name etymology,
German family name etymology*
Family name affixes*
List of people by name*
List of Hispanic surnames*
List of Italian surnames*
List of common Chinese surnames*
List of Japanese surnames*
List of Jewish surnames*
List of Middle Eastern surnames*
List of Eastern European surnames*
List of Central Asian, Iranian, Caucasian and Tatar surnames*
List of South Asian surnames*
List of Southeast Asian surnames*
List of surnames of German-speaking cultures *
List of Swedish surnames*
List of African surnames*
Family history*
Patronymic*
Personal name*
Nickname*
Maiden name*
Legal name*
Glossary of Surname Meanings & Origins*
Dictionary of Names*
Inbreeding and genetic distance between hierarchically structured populations measured by surname frequencies*
Short explanation of Polish surname endings and their origin*
Dictionary of Surname Origins and Last Name Meanings*
Surnames in Denmark - Naming Traditions, Meaning, and Origin*
History of Jewish family NamesSearch for specific SurnamesData Wales SurnamesWelsh surnames and their meaningBritish Surname Distribution Profiles*''
Herring Family Name website and forum
