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Surnames, or "last names," are fairly recent. Most people had one name, to which might be added some descriptive term, e.g. Thomas the lame, or Joan of Arc. Modern surnames come mostly from an ancestor's occupation ( e.g. Sawyer, Farmer); from trades and guilds (e.g. Plummer, Draper); from geographical origin (e.g. French, Hammond); from kinship (e.g. Johnson, Bennett) from titles (e.g. Butler, Masters) or from personal attributes (e.g. Russel, Longfellow).

Surnames, permanent family names, developed at different times in different places. They were used in ancient Rome and in ancient China. They were used only by very prominent families (and not by all prominent families) in medieval Europe. Spanish Jews used surnames in the 1400s, but other European Jews began using surnames only when forced to by local governments in the mid-19th century. In Iceland and parts of Indonesia, surnames are still not used.

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14y ago

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