Family name

   

A family name, or surname, is that part of a person's name that indicates to what family he or she belongs. In English one's family name is generally written after given names hence one's family name is often called a last name

The word "surname" is "name" prefixed by the French word sur, which derives from Latin super. It was sometimes spelled sirname and sirename because of the paternal origin. The term "surname" is used in the United Kingdom almost exclusively; "family name" is not widely known.

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.

The origin of family names is area-dependent. In Europe, family names indicated some feature of a person, such as their occupation, their place of origin, their social status or their parent's name: "Robert Smith" would be short for "Robert the smith"; "Mary Windsor" would be short for "Mary of Windsor", "Mark Johnson" would be short for "Mark, son of John", "Richard Freeman" would be "Richard the freeman", etc.

In the Americas, the family names of many black people have their origins in slave names. Some people, such as Muhammad Ali, have chosen to change their name rather than live with a name given by a slave owner.

Family names are not universal. In particular, Tibetans and Javanese often do not use a family name — well-known people lacking a family name include Suharto and Sukarno. Also, many royal families do not use family names.

It is a common practice for a woman to change her family name to that of her husband when she marries. Some countries (for example Japan) do not allow a wife to have a different family name than her husband. Other countries permit wives to have a different name, but provide incentives for changing. Still other countries allow for a man to take the wife's name. Some people choose to take a double-barrelled name, combining both family names, joined by a hyphen.

English- and French-speaking countries

In English-, Dutch-, German- and French-speaking countries (e.g., U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany), people often have two or more given names (first and middle), and the family name goes at the end, which is why it's sometimes called a "last name." The last name is usually the father's family name, although in the United Kingdom the parents are legally free to choose any surname when the child's birth is registered. Occasionally, a hyphenation of both parents' last names is used, this is referred to as a "double-barrelled surname".

It has long been the custom for women to give up their family name (called the birth name or maiden name) upon marriage, and to use their husband's last name in its place. In recent years, more women have chosen to keep their birth name when they are married. Still, even in families where the wife has kept her birth name, parents often choose to give their children their father's family name.

It is extremely rare for men in Western countries to take the name of their wives; this was chiefly done in the Middle Ages, when the man was from a low-born family and was marrying an only daughter, and was thus designated to carry on his 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. Now, some men choose to take their wives' names rather than the reverse. A married couple may also choose a new last name rather than that of either the husband or the wife.

In civil law jurisdictions such as France or Quebec, name change upon marriage is no longer recognized. Those who wish to change their name upon marriage must follow the same legal procedure as would be used under any other circumstance. Otherwise, although one may use a married name, one's legal name remains unchanged.

In some jurisdictions, contrariwise, it used to be the case that the woman's legal name changed automatically upon marriage. This is no longer the case in most jurisdictions; now, women may easily change to their married name, though it is no longer automatic. In some jurisdictions, civil rights lawsuits were used to change the law so that men could easily change to a married name, too.

Ireland

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

Irish surname prefixes:


Prefix Meaning
Ban wife of
Fitz son of (often illegitimate)
Mac son of
O of grandfather/ancestor
Ni daughter of


Spain and Hispanic areas

In Spain and countries of Hispanic culture (former Spanish colonies), each person has two family names: the first is the first family name of the father; the second is the first family name of the mother; depending on the country, these may or may not be linked by the conjunction y (and). As in the case of the English-speaking middle name, the second family name can be omitted or reduced to the initial. Some married women, rather than forfeiting their own family names, merely add their husband's name (thus, a woman named María Alvarado Rodríguez marrying a man named Fernández Endara becomes Alvarado Rodríguez de Fernández). In Spain, married women keep their two family names intact.

Portugal and Brazil

The Portuguese position is the reverse of the Spanish one. Each person has at least two family names: the first is the second family name of the mother; the second is the second family name of the father. 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 Brazil the rule is the same except that it is now very common for a person to have only one family name: the second family name of 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.

Iceland

Main article: Naming conventions of Iceland

In Iceland, most people have no family name; a person's last name is a patronymic, i.e., is 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 Magnus, their names will be Anna Karlsdóttir ("daughter of Karl") and Magnus Karlsson ("son of Karl").

Scandinavia

In Scandinavia, particularly in Sweden, family names often, but certainly not always, originate from a patronymic. These family names are today passed on similarly to family names in other western countries. Karlsson for example means Karl's son, but today Karlsson is a family name, and your father doesn't have to be called Karl if you have the surname Karlsson. In Denmark and Norway family names ending with -sen are common. Karlsen for example means Karl's son. Noble persons in Sweden often have family names referring to their coat of arms. Before the 19th century there was the same system in Scandinavia as in Iceland today, but not everyone had a patronymic. Family names such as Bergman, Holmberg and Lindgren, were quite frequent and remain common today.

India and Indonesia

Main article: Indian family name

Similar patronymic customs exist in some parts of India and Indonesia. However, many Indians (from India) living in English-speaking countries give up on this tradition because many English speakers so consistently misunderstand the custom; therefore many Indian fathers simply follow the English-speaking custom to pass on their last name instead of their first.

Russia

In Russia, names are typically written with both family name and patronymic, a modified version of the father's name. For example, in the name "Lev Ivanovich Chekhov," "Chekhov" is the family name or surname whereas "Ivanovich" is the patronymic; we can infer that Lev's father was named "Ivan". The same is true in the Ukraine. A different suffix is used for women's names. Where a son whose father's name is Ivan will be called Ivanovich, a daughter will be called Ivanovna.

China, Hungary, Japan, and Korea

Main articles: Chinese family name, Korean name#Family names and Japanese name

In other cultures, like Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Hungarian, the family name is placed before the given names. So the terms "first name" and "last name" carry opposite meanings when used outside of English speaking cultures. In many non-English-speaking countries, names are referred to as surname and given name to avoid ambiguity. Some Chinese add a Christian name in front of their Chinese name, so an example would be is Martin LEE Chu-ming. In addition, many Chinese Americans have an English name which is commonly used and a Chinese name which is used as a middle name, that is to say, Martin Chu-ming Lee. Chinese living in the US are willing to rearrange their real names to avoid misunderstanding. However, no one in China would rearrange Mao Zedong into Zedong Mao in English writings.

In English writings originating from non-English cultures (e.g. English newspapers in China), the surname is often written with all capital letters to avoid being mistaken as the middle name: "Martin LEE Chu-ming" (this practice is common on the Internet), or in small capitals (except the first letter), as "Martin LEE Chu-ming" (this is more common in books) or AKUTAGAWA, Ryunosuke to make clear which one is the family name, particularly often in mass-media reporting international events like the Olympic Games. The CIA The World Factbook (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/docs/notesanddefs.html) 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." On the contrary, the English Wikipedia follows a strict guideline on not to use all capital family names (the Esperanto Wikipedia (http://eo.wikipedia.org/), for example, often capitalizes family names regardless of the country of origin of the person who bears the name). As a result, non-English names appearing in Wikipedia articles are ambiguous to most laymen. For example, Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing might be mistaken as Mr. Wing by readers unaware of Chinese naming conventions.

In Japan, 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. It is worth noting that the Chinese character zhui (贅) carries a money radical (貝), which implies that this tradition was originally based on financial reasons. All their offsprings will carry the mother's family name. Usually the groom or his family would not agree with such arrangement if he were the first born who has an obligation to carry his own ancestor's name. In such situation, a compromise may be reached in that the first male child would carry the mother's family name while the other offsprings carry the father's family name. The tradition is still in use in many Chinese communities outside of mainland China. Under Mao Zedong's communist rule, Chinese citizens had no personal assets to pass to their heirs. Such tradition might have become unnecessary. With Chinese economic reform, it is uncertain if such tradition returned to China.

Romania

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.

Romanian names' etymologies are mixed. Sometimes, family names denote some ancestor's occupation (for example Butnaru meaning 'one-who-makes-barrels'), sometimes a genitor's name - notably, there are common family names deriving from a woman's name, hence the mother's name (e.g. Amarandei, '[son or daughter]-of-[S]maranda').

It should be noted that the first name/last name distinction is not clear in Romanian culture. While the ordering of given name first, family name second is always used in media, from literature to television, the opposite order is used in all official documents, ostensibly for filing purposes. Since bureaucracy is very pervasive in Romania, a Romanian will often instinctively start with his family name when introducing himself, especially in any 'official' context (this includes, for example, a student signing an occasional test paper in school). You will not, however, hear someone refer to a poet or a politician this way.

In Romanian the words "nume de familie" (literally "family name") and "prenume" (for one's given name) are used instead of the first/second name convention.

Jewish names

Until a few hundred years ago, Jews followed no tradition of family names, but used patronymics, i.e., the last name of a child was their father's name, prefixed by 'ben' or 'bat'. For example, a boy named Joseph of a father named Isaac would be called Joseph ben Isaac. Isaac's daughter Esther would be called Esther bat Isaac.

When northern European countries legislated that Jews required "proper" surnames, Jews were left with a number of options. Many Jews (particularily in Austria, Prussia and Russia) were forced to adopt Germanic names. Joseph II issued a law in 1787 which assumed that all Jews were to adopt German names. The city mayors were to chose the name for every Jewish family. For names related to precious metals and flowers a fee was gathered, the free of charge surnames were usually connected to animals and common metals. Many took Yiddish names derived from occupation (e.g. Goldstein, 'Gold-smith'), from their father (e.g. Jacobson), or from location (e.g. Berliner, Warszawski or Pinsker).

In Prussia special military commissions were created to chose 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 - Temperatureglitch
  • Kanalgeruch - Sewerstink
  • Singmirwas - Singmesomething

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 (that's why many Frankists adopted the name Majewski - after the month of May in 1759).

Polish names

In Poland and most of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the surnames first appeared in late Middle Ages. Initially their purpose was to denote the differences between various people living in the same town or village and bearing the same name. Initially the surnames used were simple nouns denoting the occupation (Karczmarz - Innkeeper, Kowal - Blacksmith, Bednarczyk - Young Cooper), descent (patronymic names like Szczepaniak - Son of Szczepan, Józefski - Son of Józef or Kaźmirkiewicz - Son of Kazimierz) or a feature (Nowak - the new one, Biały - the pale one, Mazur the one from Masovia or Wielgus - the big one).

Since the early 16th century geographical names became common, especially among the szlachta. Initially the surnames were in a form of Jan z Kolna (meaning John of Kolno), later most of the surnames were changed to adjective forms (Jakub Wiślicki - James of Wisła, Zbigniew Oleśnicki - Zbigniew of Oleśnica) with suffixes -ski, -cki and -dzki.

A separate class of surnames is constituted by names derived of the names of szlachtas coats of arms. These are used either as separate names or the first part of a double-barrelled name. This way persons named Jan Nieczuja and Krzysztof Nieczuja-Machocki might be related. Similarily, after World War I and World War II many members of the underground organizations adopted their war-time pseudonyms as the first part of their surnames. This way Edward Rydz became the later Marshal of Poland Edward Śmigły-Rydz and Jan Nowak became Jan Nowak-Jeziorański.

See also

External links

de:Familienname es:Apellido ja:姓 nl:achternaam pl:nazwisko zh:姓氏


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