When did surnames start?

Answer 1

It started out by when people names others by their jobs.

For example,a man named Mark works in a mill,his name would be Mark Miller

A woman who works in the hills,would be named Hillton.

This is how it started.

Answer 2

Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax, first levied in 1275.

Surnames were also used by some families before they were needed for taxation, as a means of showing their connection with famous or powerful people.

Surnames go back many centuries in some regions and lesser times on others. In a few places, including Iceland and parts of Indonesia, surname are still not the norm although patronymics may be widely used.

They were to help people distinguish between two people with the same name. Before the 10th century people only went by their personal names and since people lived in small communities this was ok because people hardly went beyond their villages. Names were not duplicated so keeping up with them was easy. Increases in population, travel and cultures spurred the use of surnames and slowly over time they were introduced.

Answer 3

In China, according to legend, family names originate with Emperor Fu Xi in 2852 BC.http://www.answers.com/topic/family-name#wp-_note-0 The practice of using family names spread through the Eastern Roman Empire and gradually into Western Europe although it was not until the modern era that family names came to be explicitly inherited in the way that they are today. Note that in the case of the English, the most accepted theory of the origin of family names in England is their introduction to the Normans and the Doomsday Book of 1086. In the British Isles, hereditary surnames were adopted in the 13th and 14th centuries, initially by the aristocracy but, eventually, by everyone.

Answer 4

The Bible's New Testament mentions several surnames, so the first century seems a good place to start.

Answer 5

Jews first started taking surnames around the 17th and 18th Centuries.