How many names did they have in medieval times?

Answer 1

1st AnswerThis question can not be answered. It is like asking how names are there today. It is impossible to know. 2nd AnswerHowever, it is known that persons had first names only and that naming patterns were often first name plus a region, locality, or a well-known parent. Some examples might be:

- John of Calabras (fictitious place name, used as an example only)

- Lady Margerese of High Pointe (fictitious place name, used as an example only)

- Lord Joackle of The Plain (fictitious place name, used as an example only)

Slowly over centuries, last names or surnames were taken, often from the occupation a person did. For example, "John the baker" became "John Baker"; Horace the tanner" became "Horace Tanner"; "Martin the (black)smith" became "Martin Smith" (blacksniths was a term often shortened to "smithy" so a surname could be "Smith" or "Smithy".

Because spelling and literacy was so poor, surnames often had many variants: Smith, Smithe, Smithey, Smithy were all names used for one person during a lifetime.

As people immigrated to the USA, surnames often were "changed" simply because heavy foreign accents made it hard to understand the correct name, or because the British were the writers of records. The German spelling of Bakar became Baker, etc. Letters were dropped or added; emphasis used in certain countries were also dropped.

By the 1800s, as more people arrived from numerous countries to the USA, the "foreigner" changed their surnames to English names to fit in better in communities.

Even as late as the 1930s, "foreigners" were often subjected to discrimination, ostracization, ridicule, and taunting in communities, especially if competing for available jobs. Newspapers between 1900 and 1930 more often than not called someone from overseas a "foreigner" than to identify the person by name or even by nationality. Sometimes in place of a name, the newspaper editor would write, "a Hungarian from (local place name)" rather than by the person's name. In many ways newspapers treated "foreigners" no better than the "colored" in the community; both groups were highly distrusted and destained.