Surnames (last names, or family names) have evolved across the globe over thousands of years, emerging in some cultures earlier than others. Evidence of this dates back to 2852 BCE in China, where, according to legend, the mythological emperor Fu Xi decreed that all citizens would adopt hereditary family names. Thousands of years later, the 11th-century Norman Conquest helped popularize surnames in England.
Today, nearly all cultures use surnames. And of the tens of millions of surnames worldwide, most fall into five broad categories: parental, occupational, locational, nickname, and decorative. Let’s explore the history behind each.
Parental surnames are derived from a parent’s first name and may be patronymic (based on the father’s name) or matronymic (based on the mother’s name). These are among the most common names in the world. For instance, the popular English surname Johnson is patronymic, originally meaning “John’s son.”
This naming pattern appears throughout history. It’s especially common in Nordic naming traditions. The Viking Erik the Red bore the surname Thorvaldsson, a direct reference to his father’s first name, Thorvald. Erik the Red’s son, Leif Erikson, followed the same naming convention. The female counterpart of this is “dóttir,” as in Björnsdóttir, or “daughter of Björn.” Today, the modern Icelandic language still uses “-dottir” and “-sson” in some of its most common last names. However, the names don’t change between parent and child anymore.
Not all parental surnames are immediately recognizable to English speakers. In Scotland, the prefix “Mac-” comes from the Gaelic word for “son,” so MacDonald translates to “son of Donald.” The female equivalent, “Nic-” (meaning “daughter of”), also exists but is less common.
This tradition of adding suffixes and prefixes spans many languages and cultures. A few more examples include “Fitz-” (Fitzwilliam, “son of William”), “-ez” (Hernandez, “son of Hernando”), “-es” (Gonzales, “son of Gonzalo”), “-ov” (Borisov, “son of Boris”), and “-ova” (Petrova, “daughter of Petr”). Note that historically, some cultures used patrilineal forms in a gender-neutral way, meaning “son of” forms were often applied to both sons and daughters, which is why they appear more frequently.
Occupational surnames hint at an ancestor’s trade. For instance, the enduring English surname Smith dates back to the Middle Ages and denotes someone who worked with metal, such as a blacksmith or coopersmith (someone who worked with copper). Because blacksmithing was one of the earliest skilled trades, Smith was once the most widespread occupational surname in Europe. Variants of this name exist in many languages, including the Arabic Najjar, the German Zimmerman, and the Czech Tesař.
Many occupational English surnames are self-explanatory, such as Baker, Barber, Carpenter, Gardener, Knight, and Shepherd. Others are less obvious, such as Kellogg, an occupational name for a pig butcher, or Tyler, the name for a roof tiler.
This practice is common in other languages as well. Some examples include the Hungarian Sörös (“beer brewer”), the Polish and Czech Ryba (“fisherman”), the Finnish Rautio (“blacksmith”), the Dutch Baas (“boss”), the Japanese Maki or 牧 (“shepherd”), the Spanish Torrero (“bullkeeper/fighter”), and the Italian Sparacello (“asparagus grower/seller”).
Locational or toponymic names are derived from a place of residence. This might refer to a town, village, or even a physical landmark. Several U.S. presidents bore locational surnames, including George Washington and Martin van Buren. Washington is English, deriving from “settlement belonging to Wassa’s people,” while Van Buren is of Dutch origin, meaning “from Buren,” a town in the Netherlands.
Surnames based on landmarks are just as common. For example, the English surname Abbey might have been given to someone who lived near an abbey. Similarly, Atwood means “dweller at the wood,” and Brook was given to a person who lived near a stream.
Many Spanish-origin surnames are also locational. Some refer to towns or regions, such as Navarro (“from Navarre”) and Davila (“from the town of Avila”), while others describe landmarks, such as Vega (“meadow”), Mendoza (“cold mountain”), Morales (“blackberry groves”), and Iglesias (“churches”).
It’s extremely common to find locational surnames in Japanese. Research suggests that about 89.5% of modern Japanese surnames are derived from place names, including villages, neighborhoods, old provinces, and modern prefectures. They’re also created from features of the local landscape. For instance, Tanaka (田中) means “middle of the rice field,” Yamaguchi (山口) means “mountain entrance,” Ono (大野) means “small field,” and Kobayashi (小林) means “small forest.”
Some surnames are derived from nicknames based on physical characteristics or personality traits. Physical descriptions are especially common, as in Armstrong (“strong arm”), Swift (“a fast or agile person”), and Little, Short, and Long (all describing stature).
Hair, being such a distinguishing physical feature, is one of the most common categories. Fairfax, for example, is derived from an English nickname for someone with beautiful, long hair (from the Old English fæger, meaning “beautiful, pleasant,” and feax, meaning “hair”). The Italian surname Ricci means “curly haired” and is derived from the Latin ericius, meaning “hedgehog.” Other surname references to hair include the German Braun (“brown hair”), the Spanish Cabello (“thick hair”), the German Kraus (“curly hair”), the German Schwarzkopf (“black hair”), and the English/Scottish Read/Reid (“red hair”). There are even surnames for a lack of hair — the Czech/Slovak surname Lysý means “bald.”
Personality traits also shaped surnames. The English Goodfellow and the Spanish Cortes (meaning “polite”) offer flattering examples. But others are less kind. Consider these German surnames: Klossner (“hermit”), Protz (“pompous”), and Stieber, meaning “to run away,” possibly given to a cowardly person or a thief. Other examples include the Irish Quigley, meaning “untidy,” and the Italian Quattrocchi, a reference to someone wearing glasses, from quattro, meaning “four” and occhi, meaning “eyes.”
Decorative, or ornamental, surnames are often derived from nature (Rivers, Fields, Bloomfield), metals (Silverstein and Goldberg), or idealized qualities, such as Noble or Darling. Unlike nickname surnames, decorative surnames were not necessarily descriptive of the name bearer. Instead, they were chosen because they sounded pleasant or conveyed positive symbolism.
Some well-known historical figures boast decorative surnames, such as German physicist Albert Einstein, whose name means “one” (ein) “stone” (stein). Another German figure, Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the namesake printing press, bears a surname meaning “good” (guot) “mountain” (berg).
You might also recognize famous names in fashion among this category. The surname of designer Christian Dior likely comes from the French word doré, meaning “golden.” The department store Nordstrom, named after co-founder John W. Nordstrom, derives from the Swedish words nord, meaning “north,” and ström, meaning “stream.”
Though decorative surnames exist simply for their symbolic value, others offer clues about ancestral lands, occupations, or personal traits. In all of these categories, surnames serve as lasting reminders of the identities of earlier generations.
More from our network
Word Smarts is part of Inbox Studio, which publishes content that uplifts, informs, and inspires.
