Who is the one who got to pick last names ?

Question

how come one might never be able to pick a last name for himself?

Answer 1

Last names are a fairly recent invention.

Everybody knows "Robin of Locksley" who today would be Robin Locksley. "Fletcher" originally was a arrow maker, "Smith" a blacksmith and "Wright" a wheel maker.

In Asia Koreans didn't have last name unless they were favored by the king. Overtime more people used last names but Kim, Lee and Park are surnames shared by half the population.

At the end of the Civil War freed slaves often took the last name of the former owner or adopted names like "Freeman" and "Brown (after John Brown)

Today people keep their maiden names (the term itself is obsolete) or hyphenate the two last names (there's no rule on the order) and even create their own names.

There's nothing "wrong" with picking a new last name. There will be problems with your records, voting, taxes, mail, school records.....in short there's a lot of work and confusion will likely never end.

Answer 2

You can change your last name at any time...I did!

The earliest record of adding a Surname to one's first name, is when a Chinese emperor, circa 2900 BCE, declared that with a population of over 1 Million people in China, there were too many people with the same name, so every family was required to take on a second name...

Answer 3

Most last names came from surnames. If you made shoes you where Shoemaker, you worked with wood Carpenter, molded metals Smith.

At least that's how the Europeans did it.

Answer 4

Commonly the office was taken by the last name: for example Carpenter or the place of where it was his origin

Answer 5

I think you could pick a last name for yourself.  Go to the clerk's office in your court and see if you can change it.  I think you have to have a reason (in your mind).