A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name.
In many cases, a surname is a family name.
In all Western countries in North and South America as well as Europe, a surname is placed at the end of a person’s given name. In Spain and most Spanish-speaking countries, two last names or surnames are used. One notable exception on the order is in Hungary, where, just like in China, Korea (성씨), Japan and in many other East Asian countries, the family name is placed before a person’s given name.
This is the case in Hungary, parts of Romania, South India, Sri Lanka and countries in the Chinese cultural sphere including Japan, Korea, Vietnam and China.
In France and Italy, administrative usage is to put the surname before the first on official documents.
In India surname often denotes your caste, profession, village etc. and is invariably mentioned along with the personal names. However, hereditary last names are not universal. In Indian Passports surname is mentioned first. In telephone directories surname is taken for sorting the entries in alphabetical order. In North Indian States surname is placed after given names where it exists. In south India, where use of two names is by no means universal, surname is placed before personal name and in most cases it is kept as only initial (for example ‘S.’ for Suryapeth etc.).
In Spain and most Spanish-speaking countries, two last names or surnames are used, both customary and legally: a first surname for the father’s family, and a second surname for the mother’s.
Besides a given name, people may or may not have middle or supplementary names. Women do not lose their surnames when married. A formal way to refer to a person would be to refer to her/him using the first last name or both. So, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra would be called ‘Cervantes’ or ‘Cervantes Saavedra’, but not ‘Saavedra’.
In Spain, since 1999, and in Chile since 2008, equal gender rights are recognized by letting parents decide on the order of their children´s first and second surnames. Once the order is decided for the first child, siblings of the same biological parents must maintain same order.
Having same-sex marriage achieved legal status in Spain, surname regulations apply equally to their children in this nation.
Argentina has been an exception on the use of two surnames, since traditionally only the father’s has been used. A bill recently approved establishes the optional use of both surnames seeking to homologate[clarification needed] Argentina to the rest of Spanish-speaking countries .
Name etymologists classify European surnames under five categories, depending on their origin: given name, occupational name, location name, nickname, and ornamental name. This classification can be extended to surnames originating elsewhere.
These may be a simple first name such as “Wilhelm”, a patronymic such as “Andersen”, a matronymic such as “Beaton”, or a clan name such as “O’Brien”. Multiple surnames may be derived from a single given name: e.g. there are thought to be over 90 Italian surnames based on the given name “Giovanni”.
Occupational names include such simple examples as “Eisenhauer” (iron worker, later Anglicized in America as “Eisenhower”) or “Schneider” (tailor) as well as more complicated names based on occupational titles. In England it was common for servants to take a modified version of their employer’s occupation or first name as their last name, adding the letter “s” to the word, although this formation could also be a patronymic. For instance, the surname “Vickers” is thought to have arisen as an occupational name adopted by the servant of a vicar, while “Roberts” could have been adopted by either the son or the servant of a man named Robert. The participants would often play the same roles for life, passing the part down to their oldest sons. Names derived from this may include “King”, “Lord”, “Virgin”, and “Death”; the last is often wrongly thought to be an Anglicization of the French name “D’Ath”. It is now thought that the surname “D’Ath” arose well after the surname “Death” was first used.
Location names, or habitation names, may be as generic as “Gorski” (Polish for “hill”) or “Pitt” (English for “pit”), but may also refer to specific locations. “Washington”, for instance, is thought to mean “the homestead of the family of Wassa”, while “Lucci” likely means “resident of Lucca”.
Many Japanese surnames derive from geographical features; for example, Ishikawa (石川) means “stone river”, Yamamoto (山本) means “the base of the mountain”, and Inoue (井上) means “above the well”.
Arabic names also contain surnames that denote the city of origin, for example, in cases of Saddam Hussein al Tikriti, meaning Saddam Hussein of Tikrit, a city in Iraq. This component of the name is called a nisbah.
Ornamental names as surnames are more common in communities which adopted (or were forced to adopt) surnames in the 18th and 19th centuries and are common among Jewish families and in Scandinavia. Examples include “Morgenstern” (“morning star”), “Safire” (“sapphire”), and “Reis” (“branch”). In some cases, such as Chinese Indonesians and Chinese Thais, certain ethnic groups are subject to political pressure to change their surnames, in which case surnames can lose their family-name meaning. For instance, Indonesian business tycoon Liem Swie Liong (林绍良) “indonesianised” his name to Sudono Salim. In this case “Liem” (林) was rendered by “Salim”, a name of Arabic origin, while “Sudono”, a Javanese name with the honorific prefix “su-” of Sanskrit origin, was supposed to be a rendering of “Swie Liong
Surnames were uncommon prior to the 12th century, and still somewhat rare into the 13th; most European surnames were originally occupational or locational, and served to distinguish one person from another if they happened to live near one another (e.g., two different people named John could conceivably be identified as ‘John Butcher’ and ‘John Chandler’). This still happens, in some communities where a surname is particularly common, for example on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, many residents have the family name MacLeod (son of Lewis) and so may still be known by a surname symbolising their occupation such as ‘Kevin the post’ and ‘Kevin Handbag’.
In the United States, 1,712 surnames cover 50 percent of the population, and about 1 percent of the population has the surname Smith, which is also the most common English name and an occupational name (“metal worker”), a contraction of blacksmith or ironsmith. Several American surnames are a result of corruptions or phonetic misappropriations of European surnames as a result of the registration process at the Immigration entry points.
Approximately 70 percent of Canadians have surnames that are of English, Irish, French, or Scottish derivation.
Some estimates say that 85 percent of China’s population shares 100 surnames. In China the names Wang, Zhang and Li are the most common.
So, what’s your name?
Suresh Shah, Managing Director, Pathfinders Enterprise
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A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. In all Western countries in North and South America as well as Europe, a surname is placed at the end of a person’s given name. In Spain and most Spanish-speaking countries, two last names or surnames are used. One notable exception on the order is in Hungary, where, just like in China, Korea (성씨), Japan and in many other East Asian countries, the family name is placed before a person’s given name. This is the case in Hungary, parts of Romania, South India, Sri Lanka and countries in the Chinese cultural sphere including Japan, Korea, Vietnam and China.
In France and Italy, administrative usage is to put the surname before the first on official documents.
In India surname often denotes your caste, profession, village etc. and is invariably mentioned along with the personal names. However, hereditary last names are not universal. In Indian Passports surname is mentioned first. In telephone directories surname is taken for sorting the entries in alphabetical order. In North Indian States surname is placed after given names where it exists. In south India, where use of two names is by no means universal, surname is placed before personal name and in most cases it is kept as only initial (for example ‘S.’ for Suryapeth etc.).
In Spain and most Spanish-speaking countries, two last names or surnames are used, both customary and legally: a first surname for the father’s family, and a second surname for the mother’s.
Besides a given name, people may or may not have middle or supplementary names. Women do not lose their surnames when married. A formal way to refer to a person would be to refer to her/him using the first last name or both. So, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra would be called ‘Cervantes’ or ‘Cervantes Saavedra’, but not ‘Saavedra’.
In Spain, since 1999, and in Chile since 2008, equal gender rights are recognized by letting parents decide on the order of their children´s first and second surnames. Once the order is decided for the first child, siblings of the same biological parents must maintain same order.
Having same-sex marriage achieved legal status in Spain, surname regulations apply equally to their children in this nation.
Argentina has been an exception on the use of two surnames, since traditionally only the father’s has been used. A bill recently approved establishes the optional use of both surnames seeking to homologate[clarification needed] Argentina to the rest of Spanish-speaking countries .
Name etymologists classify European surnames under five categories, depending on their origin: given name, occupational name, location name, nickname, and ornamental name. This classification can be extended to surnames originating elsewhere.
These may be a simple first name such as “Wilhelm”, a patronymic such as “Andersen”, a matronymic such as “Beaton”, or a clan name such as “O’Brien”. Multiple surnames may be derived from a single given name: e.g. there are thought to be over 90 Italian surnames based on the given name “Giovanni”.
Occupational names include such simple examples as “Eisenhauer” (iron worker, later Anglicized in America as “Eisenhower”) or “Schneider” (tailor) as well as more complicated names based on occupational titles. In England it was common for servants to take a modified version of their employer’s occupation or first name as their last name, adding the letter “s” to the word, although this formation could also be a patronymic. For instance, the surname “Vickers” is thought to have arisen as an occupational name adopted by the servant of a vicar, while “Roberts” could have been adopted by either the son or the servant of a man named Robert. The participants would often play the same roles for life, passing the part down to their oldest sons. Names derived from this may include “King”, “Lord”, “Virgin”, and “Death”; the last is often wrongly thought to be an Anglicization of the French name “D’Ath”. It is now thought that the surname “D’Ath” arose well after the surname “Death” was first used.
Location names, or habitation names, may be as generic as “Gorski” (Polish for “hill”) or “Pitt” (English for “pit”), but may also refer to specific locations. “Washington”, for instance, is thought to mean “the homestead of the family of Wassa”, while “Lucci” likely means “resident of Lucca”.
Many Japanese surnames derive from geographical features; for example, Ishikawa (石川) means “stone river”, Yamamoto (山本) means “the base of the mountain”, and Inoue (井上) means “above the well”.
Arabic names also contain surnames that denote the city of origin, for example, in cases of Saddam Hussein al Tikriti, meaning Saddam Hussein of Tikrit, a city in Iraq. This component of the name is called a nisbah.
Ornamental names as surnames are more common in communities which adopted (or were forced to adopt) surnames in the 18th and 19th centuries and are common among Jewish families and in Scandinavia. Examples include “Morgenstern” (“morning star”), “Safire” (“sapphire”), and “Reis” (“branch”). In some cases, such as Chinese Indonesians and Chinese Thais, certain ethnic groups are subject to political pressure to change their surnames, in which case surnames can lose their family-name meaning. For instance, Indonesian business tycoon Liem Swie Liong (林绍良) “indonesianised” his name to Sudono Salim. In this case “Liem” (林) was rendered by “Salim”, a name of Arabic origin, while “Sudono”, a Javanese name with the honorific prefix “su-” of Sanskrit origin, was supposed to be a rendering of “Swie Liong
Surnames were uncommon prior to the 12th century, and still somewhat rare into the 13th; most European surnames were originally occupational or locational, and served to distinguish one person from another if they happened to live near one another (e.g., two different people named John could conceivably be identified as ‘John Butcher’ and ‘John Chandler’). This still happens, in some communities where a surname is particularly common, for example on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, many residents have the family name MacLeod (son of Lewis) and so may still be known by a surname symbolising their occupation such as ‘Kevin the post’ and ‘Kevin Handbag’.
In the United States, 1,712 surnames cover 50 percent of the population, and about 1 percent of the population has the surname Smith, which is also the most common English name and an occupational name (“metal worker”), a contraction of blacksmith or ironsmith. Several American surnames are a result of corruptions or phonetic misappropriations of European surnames as a result of the registration process at the Immigration entry points.
Approximately 70 percent of Canadians have surnames that are of English, Irish, French, or Scottish derivation.
Some estimates say that 85 percent of China’s population shares 100 surnames. In China the names Wang, Zhang and Li are the most common.
So, what’s your name?