Where do last names come from?

Question

Did people long ago just go, "Okay, my last name is Smith!", or something like that?

Did the kings and rulers decide their last names?

Answer 1

Royalty& nobility: their last names are usually what they govern. [Charlers of Wales]. The British royalty [mainly fro present Gerrmany] had a German surname but after World War I, the Parliament changed it to "Windsor".

In the Romance languages [all?] , if you have "de" or "du"' in your surname you are of the nobility [de la noblesse].

Overpopulation may be the reason for surnames. How to tell all the "Johns"" apart?

In many oriental languages, as I learned in history, begin with the surname [because of overpopulation].

"Mao Tse Dung": "Mao" is his last name].

That's all I know!

Except that, in case you're wondering, my last name is the best [in case anyone wants to share it for life.]

Answer 2

A lot of people were named after the town or village that they were born in.  Some last names are their father's first name with the "son" added to it. Like Johnson, Thompson etc. Some were named after their job, Miller, Smith, Wheelwright.

Answer 3

"gta"

Almost , but in French , espacially in the middle age in Paris , if you Have a Germanic name it  means that you were noble (a noble franks)

while if you have a celtic name(gallic) , it means that you were a not-upper class

most of family names come from the name of an ancestry, the way of beeing of your old family,your family's village, tribes, you family's Jobs etc. . .

in France , No, The king Has the name of it father ect

rulers too , Rulers ,nobles,kings were kings,rulers,nobles cause of their names and their bloods and i think it's the same in whole Europe

and also in many big civilisations

Answer 4

Last names originated from the fact that people would often introduce them selfs as

example-Bob son of Smith

somewhere along the line people stopped saying son of and made it shorter so it became

Bob Smith

Answer 5

I have a family tree back to 165 A.D. (my aunt does genealogy as a job) and I have found that many people used their fathers names as last names, or would tie it into their parents' names.

Sooo, pretend that your fathers name is Fredrick. Your mothers name is Annalise, maybe your last name will be Annarick-really. Those were just random names though.

They also would be named after their profession or the area in which they live.

Answer 6

This is what www.ancestry.com has to say about the name.

Smith Name Meaning and History

English: occupational name for a worker in metal, from Middle English smith (Old English smið, probably a derivative of smitan ‘to strike, hammer’). Metal-working was one of the earliest occupations for which specialist skills were required, and its importance ensured that this term and its equivalents were perhaps the most widespread of all occupational surnames in Europe. Medieval smiths were important not only in making horseshoes, plowshares, and other domestic articles, but above all for their skill in forging swords, other weapons, and armor. This is the most frequent of all American surnames; it has also absorbed, by assimilation and translation, cognates and equivalents from many other languages (for forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988).

hope this helps.

Answer 7

Depends on a lot of things, not to mention country of origin. Many did not chose it, rather it was given to them. Some countries did not start using them until recently, some are still not using them.

Towns, professions, father's name, or a specific character trait...all things that spawned last-names. Some are very new, and some are over 1000 years old.

As the importance of fatherhood gets destroyed in this country every day, you can count on more people eventually "making up" last names until it is completely meaningless as an avenue of geneology.

Answer 8

People in Europe, as a rule, did not have a surname until the last melennium.  They were taken to indicate 1. being the son of someone 2. their occupation 3. where they lived 4. some characteristic about them.

In England most people had one by the end of the 14th century.  When they got through taking or being assigned a surname, legitimate sons of the same man could each have a different surname but each could have shared their surname with others with whom they were not related.

It was a couple of more centuries before the same surname was passed down from father to son and actually became their family name.  

This might seem strange, but it was the Normans that introduced them for taxation purposes.  They were not originally to identify people by their family.

Answer 9

The British. It all comes from the British.

Answer 10

Alot of the time you were named for your profession.Like Smith for Blacksmith.

Answer 11

You know I asked myself that same question. But I do know that back in the day slave masters acually  changed the name of there slaves before or after they were sold or bought!! Imagine that! Crazy isnt it!

Answer 12

People long ago got their sirnames from jobs,land titles, and tasks they preformed.If you see a weird name it is probably not english or it was a piece of land.The name Smith was given beacause most of its holders are descendants of Blacksmiths.All sirnames were given for these reasons

Answer 13

Maybe people just made up names for their clan.

It depends on the culture.

In Japan, they would pick a symbol to reprsent them, and therefore create their last name.