Family names came into use in the later Middle Ages (beginning roughly in the 11th century); the process was completed by the end of the 16th century. The use of family names seems to have originated in aristocratic families and in big cities, where they developed from original individual surnames when the latter became hereditary. Whereas a surname varies from father to son, and can even be changed within the life span of a person, a hereditary surname that develops into a family name better preserves the continuation of the family, be it for prestige or for the easier handling of official property records and other matters. Family names frequently developed (via surnames) from hypocoristic forms of given names. For example, from Henry came Harry, Harris, Hal, Halkin; from Gilbert came Gibbs, Gibbons, Gibbin, Gipps, Gilbye, Gilpin; and from Gregory there developed Gregg, Grigg, Greggs, Griggs, Greig. Other sources of family names are original nicknames, from which came Biggs, Little, Grant (grand, large), Greathead, Cruikshank, Beaver, Hogg, Partridge. From occupations came Archer, Clark, Clerk, Clarkson (son of a clerk), Bond, Bonds, Bound, Bundy (bondman); and from place-names came Wallace (man from Wales), Allington, Murray, Hardes, Whitney (places in England), Fields, Holmes, Brookes, Woods (from microtoponyms).

A great number of family names come from patronymic surnames; in English they are usually formed by the suffixation of -son. Patronymic surnames can be formed from the father’s given name or from any of its variants. Thus, there is not only the form Richardson but also Dickson, Dixon, Dickinson; and there are Henryson, Harrison, Henderson; Gilbertson, Gibson; and Gregson, Grigson. Some English patronymics, particularly in old families, are formed with a prefixed Fitz- (e.g., Fitzgerald), which goes back to Norman French fis ‘son.’ In contradistinction to English, the Scottish patronymics are formed by a prefixed Mac or Mc (McGregor), the Irish with O (O’Brien) or Mc or Mac, and the Welsh with P- (Powell ‘son of Howel’). In Modern Greek, patronymics are formed by suffixation—e.g., Dimitriopoulos ‘son of Dimitrios.’

The development of family names is similar in all of Europe. For example, French names such as Jaquet, Jacquot, Jacotot, Jacotin, Cottet, Cottin, Cotin, Jacquin, Jacquinet, Jacquinot, Jacquart, Jacquier all derive from Jacques; Davignon, Decaen, Derennes, and Beauvais developed from the place-names Avignon, Caen, and so forth; Breton, Lebreton, Lenormand come from the names of districts; Clerk, Leclerc, Duclerc, Auclerk, Clergue (cf. English Clark), Boucher, Boulanger, Masson designate professions (butcher, baker, mason); and Roux, Leroux, Roussel, Rousseau, Lerouge, Roujon are all variants of “red” (i.e., red hair). Roughly the same scheme exists everywhere in Europe. Some family names can be traced to nicknames that must have their origin in incidents and attitudes that cannot be understood now—e.g., Czech family names such as Nejezchleba ‘Don’t eat bread!’ and Skočdopole ‘Jump into the field!’

The development is slightly different among Jews. While living in ghettos, they used only given names. After the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, they chose or were given family names. Many of these names (which vary in the individual languages) are derived from religious vocations: Cantor, Canterini, Kantorowicz (lower priest); Kohn, Cohen, Cahen, Kaan, Kahane (priest); Levi, Halévy, Löwy (name of the tribe of priests). Many are derived from place-names, such as Morpurgo (Marburg), or from nicknames, such as Hirsch (“deer” in German). Frequently, particularly in Austria, Jews were given derisory family names, such as Eberstark ‘strong as boar,’ Rosenduft ‘fragrance of roses,’ and Hitzig ‘hot,’ from Itzick, a mocking form of Isaac.

The only outstanding exception to this European pattern of naming occurs with the names of kings, who use one of their given names. Some royal families have what could be called family names—e.g., the Hohenzollerns (more correctly, Hohenzollers) of Prussia. The British royal family accepted the name Windsor only in 1917 (this was changed to Mountbatten-Windsor for the future members of the family who will not enjoy princely status). The pope of the Roman Catholic Church abandons his personal name after his election and chooses a single name, sometimes associated with his intentions; e.g., Pope Paul VI chose the name Paulus because of St. Paul’s missionary activities and travels.

Other patterns of naming

Names and naming practices in other cultural areas show a strong similarity in the basic trends. Among the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian names are theophoric designations such as Ashurbanipal, meaning “Ashur [a god] created son,” and Nabukudurriusur (Nebuchadrezzar of the Bible), translated as “Nabu [a god] protected the estate.” The Phoenician (Carthaginian) name Hannibal means “grace of Baal” (a god). The Hebrew Yehonatan, Yonatan (i.e., Jonathan) means “God gave”; Rafaʾel (Rafael) is translated as “God cured.” There are also nontheophoric names such as Laban (from Hebrew lavan ‘white’). The Aramaic surname of the fisherman Simon, Kepha, meaning “stone,” became famous in the New Testament as Petros (Peter), the Greek translation of the name (petra ‘rock, stone’).

The more-complicated structure of Arabic society brought an independent development similar to the European one. Given names such as Muḥammad, Ibrāhīm (= Abraham), Maṇsur ‘victor,’ ʿAli ‘exalted,’ ʿAbd Allāh ‘slave of Allah’ are differentiated by surnames such as ibn ʿAbbās ‘son of ʿAbbās,’ al-Baghdādī ‘from Baghdad,’ al-Ghazālī ‘the spinner.’ The Caucasian (e.g., Ossetic) personal name consists of a given name preceded by the name of the tribe (gens) in the genitive plural; the name of the father may be inserted, thus giving Gaglojty Soslany fyrt Nafi ‘Nafi, son of Soslan, of [the gens of] Gaglo.’ Chinese society has had the institution of hereditary family names since the 4th century bce, but the number of these names has been reduced to some 200. Examples include Chan, Mao, and Lu. The choice of the given name was formerly much freer, but legislation seems to have restricted it. In a similar way, there are not more than 300 Korean family names, but only three of them—Kim, Pak, and Yi—belong to the great majority of families in Korea. The given name is chosen, but its choice is limited by the practice that one of the two syllables of the name should be identical within a family for a generation; the whole given name should have an auspicious meaning.

By the 20th century the originally European pattern of given name + family name had been introduced practically everywhere. Sub-Saharan Africa (e.g., among the Yoruba) now has the “normal” pattern of personal names, but both the given and the family names are of vernacular stock. There are given names such as Olúṣolá ‘god [non-Christian] made greatness,’ Òṣunbúnmi ‘Osun [a river] gave me,’ and Adeyẹmí ‘crown befits me’ and family names like Ajólore ‘who [is] a kind doer.’ Among the American Indians there are, surprisingly, practically no theophoric names. Instead, the Indians used names related to the totem, to animals indicated by omens or dreams, and to successful incidents in life. Those North American Indians who did not accept English names now use the English translation of their names as last names (which sometimes are not hereditary)—e.g., John Sleeping Owl, Mary Little Bear.

Descriptive and commemorative place-names

If the “meanings” of place-names and the motives for their choice are examined, several broad types may be discerned. Descriptive names indicate a characteristic feature of the entity—e.g., Rocky Mountains, North Sea, Newcastle. The chosen feature is sometimes only illusory or observed by chance, as in the case of the Pacific Ocean (only a small part of it was calm, or pacific, when seen and named). Honorific and commemorative names are another broad category. Examples include Constantinople, formerly called Byzantium, renamed Konstantinoupolis ‘city of Constantine’ because that emperor made it the capital of the Roman Empire; Aphrodisias ‘(the town of) Aphrodite,’ in Asia Minor, changed into Stauropolis ‘city of the cross’ with the advent of Christianity; Cartagena, transferred to Colombia (South America) in commemoration of Cartagena in Spain, and Cartagena in Spain in turn developed from Latin Carthago Nova, a translation of the name given to the town by the Phoenician settlers in commemoration of Carthage, the Phoenician rival of Rome; and Nieuw-Amsterdam, commemorative of the Dutch capital, changed to New York, honorific for the duke of York. Among the numerous benedictory, wishful names are the Russian Vladivostok ‘Govern the East!’ (founded and named by Russians as their main base on the Pacific coast), Cape of Good Hope (a renaming of a more descriptive Cape of Tempests), and Greek Pontus Euxinus (now the Black Sea) ‘hospitable sea’ (a renaming of Pontus Axeinos ‘inhospitable sea’). In most cases, however, place-names do not have a “meaning” at all, particularly not for the general user.