About what time period did they start adding a first name to the last name?

Question

About what time period did they start adding a first name to the last name?

Answer 1

Actually, it's the other way around.  Originally, people were known by only a "first" name.  Family surnames didn't come into use until the 1200-1300s.

Last names started out as a way to tell people apart.  In the 13th century, there weren't a whole lot of first names to choose from. The majority of men were named John, William, Thomas or Richard.  To distinquish one John from another, a second name was added:

John the Baker became John Baker

John who lived on the edge of town became John Townsend

John with red hair became John Reid

John, the son of William, became John Williamson

At first, these second names were unique to each individual... John the Baker could have a son named John the Carpenter.  Eventually, however, the second names evolved into hereditary family names that were passed down from parents to children.

Answer 2

They did not add a first name to the last name; given names came first.  Depending upon the source, surnames came about B.C. in China; about the time of Christ in Rome; from the 800s to the 1400s in Europe.

Answer 3

Adding to what Nothingu and Kerrith have said, in researching my own family roots in France, I discovered that people of importance seem to have had family names that were carried forward earlier than everybody and his brother. The name might be added to (if a man married into a more illustrious family than his own, he'd tack his wife's family name on to his) but there was a surname and they kept it.

With "everybody and his brother", I found that surnames could be pretty fluid well  into the 17th century, even though by this time record-keeping was fairly meticulous. The first generation lidentified would have one surname, the next, a completely different surname, and the next might use either/or from time to time. Add to this the fact that the French are big on nicknames that would often supplant the surname at birth, and it was sometimes difficult to keep track of the line of descent in one family ... an individual would be on record under two or three different names.