Why do people have surnames?

Answer 1

I'm going to give an example why we have last names. We have last names because if a person is calling another person named Jaymie and there are 56 Jaymies'. You would call their last name you would say, " Where is Jaymie DeLeon? " because that is her last name.

Last names first originated when ancient tribe groups and clans grew in size. Each member eventually had a special job to do such as hunter, farmer, shoemaker, blacksmith, etc. Their job title became their name. Then as clans grew larger and people began living in villages, first names were added. In addition, in many cultures, the suffix son was added to the father's name to separate a son with the same name as his father. For example, today we have Peterson, Johnson, Davidson, etc.

In the French culture the word " de " meaning " of " was often added as a prefix, as above in " De Leon " meaning " of the village of Leon ".

Then younger members often preferred to change the spelling of their family names to give them uniqueness. Thus the many spelling variations we see today.

Answer 2

Surnames can come from a person's occupation (ex: Baker, Mason, Goldsmith), from the place they came from (Ex: Cleveland, Warburg), from a relationship with another person or clan (Ex: "Son of," as in Johnson, MacDonald) or even a personal characteristic (Ex: Small, Smart).

Answer 3

One answer is that the inestimable urge to associate with one's ancestors and/or living relatives is simplified by the recognition of surnames.

Answer:

Surnames became more frequent during the Napoleonic period. As you can imagine having an army made up of several hundred Johns, Toms or Larrys made accounting for pay days difficult. Property rights were difficult to track as everyone was surnamed by his father's name (John Toms son) As a consequence everyone was required (by law) to choose an additional name to make book keeping more easily. Even in earlier towns people were identified by both their own mane (Tom, Dick or Harry) as well as a additional name to specify which Tom Dick or Harry they were. As a consequence the names Smith, Taylor and similar identified them by occupation, Black, Brown and Grey by their physical colour (their hair etc.) and Strong, Little or similar by their appearance.

Once the need for surnames was required legally, some people became annoyed by the imposition. Some Dutch people, for example, adopted funny or rude names to mock the edicts (the joke lost its humour for them when they discovered that they weren't allowed to change them afterwards. Some gtoups were required to adopt "coded names" to identify their ethnic origins. For example in Germany Jews wee required to adopt names related to flowers (e.g., Blum, Rosen, etc.) to preserve the distinction among the Jewish and non-Jewish populations.

Answer 4

Surnames where mainly given based on what job you had. (They where mostly given in the medieval ages to classify the people) Obvious example would be

Smith, Cooper, Tanner, Doorman, Taylor, Mason, Miller, Sawyer, Bishop, Abbott, Baker, Baxter, Clark, Fletcher, Fuller, Tucker, Turner, and Wright

Many where also nicknames given by friends and later adapted as a surname.

Rich, Armstrong, Wise, Poor, Kennedy (Gaelic for 'ugly head'), Long, Short, and Moody

For more examples, check out the related link.

Answer 5

people have surnames because they like to identifie who they are.

Answer 6

The dictionary answer is that it is a partial translation of the French " surnom," meaning "last name."