Surnames by country

A family name, or surname, is the part of a person's name that indicates to what family he or she belongs. The use of family names is not universal throughout history. In many parts of the world, they did not appear in common use until the 17th to 19th centuries, and in some cultures they are not used today. In many cultures of Asia, the family name is typically spoken or written first when referring to an individual, while in most Western cultures, the family name is last, giving rise to the term last name for family name.

The word surname is "name" prefixed by the French word sur (meaning "on"), which derives from Latin super ("over"). In the past it was sometimes spelled sirname or sirename (suggesting that it meant "man's name" or "father's name") due to folk etymology.

In English-, Dutch-, German- and French-speaking countries, people often have two or more given names, and the family name goes at the end. (Occasionally a surname is called the "second name", which can be confused with a middle name.) In Spanish, people have one or more given names and two family names, one from the father and one from the mother. In Italy, people may have one or more given names, no middle name, and a family name.

The use of family names varies among cultures. In particular, Icelanders, Tibetans, Burmese, and Javanese often do not use a family name — well-known people lacking a family name include U Thant (Burmese), Suharto and Sukarno (see Indonesian names). Also, many royal families do not use family names. In many cultures, few non-aristocratic families had surnames prior to the 15th century.

A woman's family name traditionally changes upon marriage in some cultures, although few countries mandate such a change. Other modern options include combining both family names, changing neither name, or creating a new name, e.g. combining letters of previous surnames or creating a pseudonym unrelated to the previous surnames.

In the 19th century, Francis Galton published a statistical study of the extinction of family names. (See Galton-Watson process for an account of some of the mathematics.)

English-speaking countries

Most surnames of English origin fall into six types:

Occupations (e.g. Smith, Baker, Archer)
Personal characteristics (e.g. Short, Brown, Whitehead)
Geographical features (e.g. Scott, Hill, Rivers, Windsor)
Place names (e.g. Jack from London might be called Jack London).
For those descended from peers, the name of their holdings or estate.
Patronymics and Ancestry, often from a male's given name (e.g. Richardson, James) or from a clan name (for those of Scottish origin, e.g. Macdonald, Forbes).

The original meaning of the name may no longer be obvious in modern English (e.g. the surname Cooper meant barrel maker). A much smaller sixth category of names relates to religion, though some of this category are also occupations. The names Bishop, Priest, or Abbot, for example, usually indicate that an ancestor worked for a bishop, a priest or an abbot.

In the Americas, the family names of many African-Americans have their origins in slavery. Many of them came to bear the surnames of their former owners. Many freed slaves created family names themselves, or adopted the name of their former master. Others, such as Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X, changed their name rather than live with one they believed had been given to their ancestors by a slave owner.

It has long been the custom for women to change their surname upon marriage from their birth name (or maiden name) to their husband's last name. From the late 1960s through the early 1990s, a small but increasing percentage of women chose to keep their birth name, or a hyphenated form of it, when they married. (This trend has since reversed itself in the United States, where somewhat fewer women are now keeping their maiden name upon marriage.) Even in families where the wife has kept her birth name, parents often choose to give their children their father's family name. In English-speaking countries, married women traditionally were called Mrs. [Husband's full name], though recently they are more often called Mrs. [Wife's first name] [Husband's surname].

In the Middle Ages, when a man from a lower status family married an only daughter from a higher status family, he would take the wife's family name. In the 18th and 19th centuries in Britain, bequests were sometimes made contingent upon a man changing (or hyphenating) his name, so that the name of the legator continued. Although it is rare for English-speaking men to take the name of their wives, some men still choose to do so (such as among Canadian aboriginal groups) or, very rarely, a married couple may choose a new last name entirely.

As an alternative, both the husband and wife may adopt a double-barrelled name. For instance, when John Smith and Mary Jones marry each other, they may become known as John Smith-Jones and Mary Smith-Jones. However, some consider the extra length of the hyphenated names undesirable. A wife may also opt to use her maiden name for her middle name, giving her the option of referring to herself as either Mrs. Smith or Mary Jones Smith.

In some jurisdictions, a woman's legal name used to change automatically upon marriage. Although women may now easily choose to change to their married name, that change is no longer the default. In some places, civil rights lawsuits or constitutional amendments changed the law so that men could also easily change their married names, e.g. in British Columbia.

Women in academia who have previously published articles in academic journals under their maiden name often do not change their surname after marriage, in order to ensure that they continue to receive credit for their past and future work. This practice is also common among female physicians, attorneys, and other professionals for whom continuity is important.

Spelling of names in past centuries is often assumed to be a deliberate choice by a family, but due to very low literacy rates the reality is that many families could not provide the spelling of their surname, and so the scribe, clerk, minister, or official would write down the name on the basis of how it was spoken. This results in many variations, some of which occurred when families moved to another country. The officially-recorded spellings tended to become the standard for that family.

French-speaking countries

French-speaking countries have many similarities to English-speaking ones in the way family names are used. In France and the Canadian province of Quebec, name change upon marriage is no longer automatic. Those who wish to change their name upon marriage must follow the same legal procedure as would be used under any other circumstance.

In France, until January 1, 2005, children were required by law to take the surname of their father. From this date, article 311-21 of the French Civil code permits parents to give their children either the name of their father, mother, or a hyphenation of both - although no more than two names can be hyphenated. In cases of disagreement the father's name applies [1]. This brought France into line with a 1978 declaration by the Council of Europe requiring member governments to take measures to adopt equality of rights in the transmission of family names, a measure that was echoed by the United Nations in 1979. Similar measures were adopted by Germany (1976), Sweden (1982), Denmark (1983) and Spain (1999).

Furthermore, in French Canada, up until the late 1960s, children of Catholic origin were given three names at birth (usually not hyphenated): the first, Marie or Joseph, usually indicated the gender of the child. The second was usually the name of the godfather or godmother, while the third and last given name was the name used in everyday situations. Thus, a child prenamed Joseph Bruno Jean on his birth or baptismal certificate would indicate the baby to be a boy, the godfather's first name to be Bruno and that the child would be called Jean (and not Joseph) for all intents and purposes of everyday life. This naming convention was in the most part dropped following the Quiet Revolution (late 1960s), and is now seen much more rarely.

Ireland

Many surnames in Ireland of Gaelic origin derive from ancestor's names; nicknames; or descriptive names. In the first group can be placed surnames such as McMurrough and McCarthy, derived from father's names, or O'Brien and O'Toole, derived from ancestral names.

Gaelic surnames derived from nicknames include O'Doherty (from dochartaigh, "destroyer" or "obtrusive"), Garvery (garbh, "rough" or "nasty"), Manton (mantach, "toothless"), Bane (bán, "white", as in "white hair"), Finn (fionn, "fair", as in "fair hair"), and Kennedy (cinnéide, "ugly head").

In contrast to England, very few Gaelic surnames are derived from place names. Among those that are included in this small group, several can be shown to be bastardizations of Gaelic personal names or surnames.

In areas where certain family names are extremely common, extra names are added that sometimes follow this archaic pattern. In Ireland, for example, where Murphy is an exceedingly common name, particular Murphy families or extended families are nicknamed, so that Denis Murphy's family were called The Weavers and Denis himself was called Denis "The Weaver" Murphy. (See also O'Hay.)

For much the same reason, nicknames (e.g. the Fada Burkes, "the long/tall Burkes"), father's names (e.g. John Morrissey Ned) or mother's maiden name (Kennedy becoming Kennedy-Lydon) can become colloquial or legal surnames. The Irish family of de Courcy Ireland became so-named to distinguish them from their cousins who moved to France in the 17th and 18th centuries.

In addition to all this, Irish speaking areas still follow the old tradition of naming themselves after their father, grandfather, great-grandfather and so on. Examples include Mike Bartly Pat Reilly ("Mike, son of Bartholomew, son of Pat Reilly"), John Michel John Oge Pat Breanach ("John, son of Michael, son of young John, son of Pat Breanach"), Tom Paddy-Joe Seoige ("Tom, son of Paddy-Joe Seoige"), and Mary Bartly Mike Walsh ("Mary, daughter of Bartly, son of Mike Walsh"). Sometimes, the female line of the family is used, depending on how well the parent is known in the area the person resides, e.g. Paddy Mary John ("Paddy, son of Mary, daughter of John"). A similar tradition continues even in English-speaking areas, especially in rural districts.

Irish surname prefixes

Bean: "Wife", pronounced as ban.
De: "of the": a Norman-French habitational prefix used by some of of the most common Irish surnames among which are De Búrca, De Brún, De Barra, De Cíosóg and de Faoite. 'De' historically has signalled ownership of lands and was traditionally therefore a mark of prestige.
Mac: Irish for "son", usually shortened to Mc, but left as "mac" in Scottish names.
Mac Giolla: Irish for "son of the devotee of a saint", or "son of a man whose name was perhaps Giolla Pádraig or (Mac) Giolla Bhrighde". Similar is the use of St. George and St. John as forenames in England in the 18th and 19th century.
Maol: In Pagan times this was expressed as Mug, as in the case of Mug Nuada. The literal expression of this is "slave of Nuada", i.e. "devotee of Nuada". In the Christian era the word Mael was used in its place for given names such as Mael Bridget, Mael Padraig,Mael Lagan Mael Sechlainn, and Mael Martain. In later times, some of these given names evolved into surnames, e.g. Ó Máel Sechlainn and Mac Mael Martain or Mael Lagan, which became after the 15th Century the name Milligan.
Fitz: a Norman-French word derived from the Latin word filius ("son"). It was used in patronymics by thousands of men in the early Norman period in Ireland (e.g. fitz Stephen, fitz Richard, fitz Robert, fitz William) and only on some occasions did it become used as an actual surname, the most famous example being the FitzGerald Earls of Kildare. Yet well into the 17th and 18th century it was used in certain areas dominated by the Old English of Ireland in its original form, as a patronymic. The Tribes of Galway were especially good at conserving this form, with examples such as John fitz John Bodkin and Michael Lynch fitz Arthur, used even as late as the early 1800's. Despite claims to the contrary, the use of Fitz in a surname never denoted illegitimacy. This misunderstanding may have originated because a number of illegitimate members of the British royal family were given such surnames: some of the illegitimate children of King Charles II were named FitzCharles or FitzRoy ("son of the King"); those of King James II were named FitzJames; those of Prince William, Duke of Clarence and St Andrews (later King William IV) were named FitzClarence.
Ó: In Old Irish as ua ("grandson", "descendant"). E.g., the ancestor of the O'Brien clan, Brian Boru (937-1014) was known in his lifetime as Brian mac Lorcán mac Cennéide ("Brian, the son of Lorcán, the son of Cennéide"). Not until the time of his grandsons and great-grandsons was the name O'Brien used as a surname, used to denote descent from an illustrious ancestor. It has for some three hundred years been written as O', but in recent years the apostrophe is often dropped, bringing it into line with early medieval forms.
Uí: This is the plural of Ó and is used in reference to a kin-group or clan, e.g. Uí Néill, in reference to the O'Neill clan. Pronounced "ee".
Ní: This is used in the Irish Language instead of O before a surname and comes a shortened form of the Irish word for a daughter, e.g. Máire Ní Bhriain ("Mary O'Brien").
Nic: Compressed form of iníon mhic ("daughter of Mac..."), e.g. Máire Nic Charthaigh ("Mary, daughter of McCarthy").

Italy

See also: Italian surnames category.

Italian names are mostly derived from Latin, but since Italy has been often ruled by foreigners, many surnames are of Spanish, French, German, Norman or Swiss origin (and thus often Romance language names). Beginning in the 14th century, it became necessary to add a second name to distinguish between individuals with the same surname.

Italian surnames are especially easy to recognize because most end in a vowel, like nearly all words in Standard Italian, and many of them have been derived from descriptive nicknames.

Italian surnames developed from four major sources: patronym (e.g. Francesco di Marco, "Francis, son of Mark"), occupation (e.g. Giovanni Fabbri, "John the Smith"), personal characteristic (e.g. nicknames or pet names like Dario Forte, "Darius the Strong"), and geographic origin (e.g. Elisabetta Romano, "Elisabeth from Rome").

Few family names are still in the original Latin, and usually they indicate from or with pretensions to antiquity, e.g. de Judicibus or de Laurentis. If the family was noble, the de has lowercase d, otherwise it is uppercase.

Usually, family names are written after any given name in most uses. However, the surname is written before given names when used in most official documents (for example, Giovanni Fabbri may be referred to Fabbri Giovanni in official documents). In speech, the "informal" use of given name first, family name last is the most common.

Greece

Greek surnames usually describe occupation or characteristics.

Some are prefixed with papa-, indicating ancestry from a priest. Other prefixes include hadji- and kara- of Turkish origin which derive from occupations during the Ottoman Empire era.

Common patronymic suffixes are -poulos (Peloponessus), -idis, -iadis (Pontus), -akis (Crete), -atos (Ionian sea), -ellis (Lesvos Island). The suffix -idis survives from the ancient times (-ides) for patronymic epithets. Zeus, for example was also referred to as Cronides ("son of Cronus").

Pakistan

Pakistani surnames are basically divided in three categories: Arab naming convention, tribal names and ancestral names.

Muslim surnames include those of Arab heritage, e.g. Shaikh, Siddiqui, Abbasi, Syed, Farooqi, Osmani, Alavi, Hassani, Hussaini, and Suhrawardi. Khan is the most common surname in Pakistan and Afghanistan indicating Turkish, Mongol and Central Asian ancestory. Other family names indicating Turkish heritage include Mughal, Mirza, Baig or Beg, Pasha, and Barlas. People claiming Iranian ancestry include those with family names Agha, Firdausi, Ghazali, Hamadani, Isfahani, Kashani, Kermani, Khorasani, Mir, Montazeri, Nishapuri, Noorani, Qizilbash, Saadi, Sabzvari, Shirazi, Sistani, Yazdani, Zahedi, and Zand.

Tribal names include Afaqi, Afridi, Amini, Ashrafkhel, Awan, Bajwa, Baloch, Barakzai, Baranzai, Bhatti, Bhutto, Bijarani, Bizenjo, Brohi, Bugti, Butt, Ghaznavi, Ghilzai, Gikchi, Jakhrani, Jamali, Jamote, Janjua, Jatoi, Joyo, Junejo, Karmazkhel, Kayani, Khar, Khuhro, Lakhani, Leghari, Lodhi, Magsi, Malik, Mandokhel, Marwat, Mengal, Palijo, Panhwar, Popalzai, Rabbani, Raisani, Rakhshani, Rathore, Soomro, Sulaimankhel, Talpur, Thebo, and Zamani.

Portugal and Brazil

In the Portuguese naming customs, the main surname (the one used in alphasorting, indexing, abbreviations, and greetings), appears last (reverse the order of Spanish surnames).

Each person has at least two family names: the first is the maternal family name; the last is the paternal family name. A person can have up to six names (two first names and four surnames — he or she may have two names from the mother and two from the father).

In Brazil the rule is the same except that it is now very common for a person to have only one family name, the paternal one. In the ancient ages the patronymicum was commonly used — surnames like Gonçalves ("son of Gonçalo"), Fernandes ("son of Fernando"), Nunes ("son of Nuno") and many more are used today as usual family names.

Brazilians usually call people only by their given names, omitting family names, even in many formal situations. When formality or a prefix requires a family name, the given name usually precedes the surname, e.g. João Santos ("John Saints"), or Sr. João Santos ("Mr. John Saints").

Spain and Hispanic areas

In medieval times, a patronymic system similar to the one still used in Iceland emerged. For example, Álvaro, the son of Rodrigo would be named Álvaro Rodríguez. His son, Juan, would not be named Juan Rodríguez, but Juan Álvarez. Over time, many of these patronymics became family names and are some of the most common names in the Spanish-speaking world. Other sources of surnames are personal appearance or habit, e.g. Delgado ("thin") and Moreno ("dark"); occupations, e.g. Molinero ("miller") and Guerrero ("warrior"); and geographic location or ethnicity, e.g. Alemán ("German").

However, nowadays in Spain and in some countries of Hispanic culture (former Spanish colonies, e.g. México, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Venezuela), most people have two surnames. Although in some situations only the first is used. The first surname is the paternal one, inherited from the father's paternal surname. The second surname is the maternal one, inherited from the mother's paternal surname. Since both surnames come from the paternal surnames of the previous generation, their transmission can be seen as a patriarchal feature of the Hispanic society.

Depending on the country, the surnames may or may not be linked by the conjunction y ("and"), i ("and", in Catalonia), de ("of") and de la ("of the", when the following word is feminine). However, in many South American countries people have now adopted the English-speaking custom, thus having a single surname (e.g. in Argentina). Sometimes a new father transmits his complete surname by creating a new one, combining his two surnames, e.g. the paternal surname of the son of Javier (given name) Reyes (paternal surname) de la Barrera (maternal surname) may become the new paternal surname Reyes de la Barrera.

At present day in Spain, women upon marrying keep their two family names intact. In certain situations she may be addressed as if her maternal surname were substituted with her husbands paternal surname often linked with de. For example, a woman named Ana García Díaz, upon marrying Juan Guerrero Macías, could be called Ana García de Guerrero. This custom, begun in medieval times, is decaying and only has legal validity in Ecuador and Peru. In Ecuador, a couple can choose the order of their children's surnames. Most choose the traditional order (e.g. Guerrero García in the example above), but some invert the order, putting the mother's paternal surname first and the father's paternal surname last (e.g. García Guerrero from the example above). Such inversion, if chosen, must be maintained for all the children.

The Philippines

Until the middle of the 19th century, there was no standardization of surnames in the Philippines. There were native Filipinos without surnames, others whose surnames deliberately did not match that of their families, as well as those who took certain surnames simply because they had a certain prestige, usually ones dealing with the Roman Catholic religion, such as de los Santos and de la Cruz.

In 1849, the Spanish governor Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa decreed an end to these arbitrary practices, the result of which was the Catálogo Alfabético de Apellidos ("Alphabetic Catalog of Surnames"). The book contained many words coming from Spanish and the Philippine languages such as Tagalog.

The actual application of this decree varied from municipality to municipality. Some municipalities received only surnames starting with a particular letter. For example, the majority of residents of the island of Banton in Romblon province have surnames starting with F such as Fabicon, Fallarme, Fadrilan, and Ferran. Thus, although there perhaps a majority of Filipinos have Spanish surnames, such a surname does not imply Spanish ancestry.

There are other sources for surnames. For example, in Muslim-dominated areas of the southern Philippines, surnames are usually of Arabic origin such as Hassan and Haradji.

Many Filipinos also have Chinese surnames which yield clues as to when their Chinese ancestor immigrated to the Philippines. For example, a hispanicized Chinese surname like Cojuangco suggests an 18th-century immigration while a Chinese surname like Lim suggests a relatively recent immigration. Some Chinese surnames like Tiu-Laurel are composed of the immigrant Chinese ancestor's surname as well as the name of that ancestor's godparent.

There are also Filipinos, particularly from rural tribes, who have no surnames at all.

The vast majority of Filipinos follow a naming system which is the reverse of the Spanish one. Children take the mother's surname as their middle name, followed by their father's as their surname; for example, a son of Juan de la Cruz and his wife Maria Agbayani may be David Agbayani de la Cruz. Women take the surnames of their husband upon marriage; so upon her marriage to David de la Cruz, the full name of Laura Yuchengco Macaraeg would become Laura Yuchengco Macaraeg de la Cruz.

Iceland

In Iceland, most people have no family name; a person's last name is a patronymic, i.e. a modified form of the father's first name or, sometimes, the mother's. For example, when a man called Karl has a daughter called Anna and a son called Magnús, their names will be Anna Karlsdóttir ("daughter of Karl") and Magnús Karlsson ("son of Karl").

Finland

Until the early 20th Century, Finland was a strong agrarian society and Finns' names were based on their association with a particular area, farm, or homestead, e.g. Jaakko Vilippunen ("Jaakko, Vilippu with the -nen suffix). People began treating the agrarian names as proper surnames, which practice produced many surnames ending with -nen, e.g. Häkkinen, Halonen, Lipponen, and Räikkönen. Surnames became compulsory for all Finns in 1921.

However, a considerable minority of Finnish surnames have suffixes that describe the place where an ancestor lived, like -mäki ("-hill"), -järvi ("-lake"), and -joki ("-river"). Finnish women do not usually change their surname when they get married.

Due to Finland's legal protection of names, many people cannot change their surnames to legally protected ones, e.g. to famous names like Mannerheim or Ståhlberg. Finns also can legally only have a maximum of three given names and two surnames (double barrelled only). Some immigrants have had difficulty naming their children, as they must choose from an approved list based on the family's household language.

Scandinavia

In Scandinavia family names often, but certainly not always, originate from a patronymic. In Sweden, the patronymic ending is -sson, e.g. Karlsson ("Karl's son"). In Denmark and Norway, the corresponding ending is -sen, as in Karlsen. Names ending with dotter/datter (daughter), such as Olofsdotter, are rare but occurring, and only apply to females. Today, the patronymic names are passed on similarly to family names in other Western countries, and a person's father doesn't have to be called Karl if he or she has the surname Karlsson.

Before the 19th century there was the same system in Scandinavia as in Iceland today. Noble families, however, as a rule adopted a family name, which could refer to a presumed or real forefather (e.g. Earl Birger Magnusson Folkunge) or to the family's coat of arms (e.g. King Gustav Eriksson Vasa). In many surviving family noble names, such as Cederqvist ("cedar-twig") or Stiernhielm ("star-helmet"), the spelling is obsolete, but since it applies to a name, remains unchanged.

Later on, people from the Scandinavian middle classes, particularly artisans and town dwellers, adopted names in a similar fashion to that of the nobility. Family names such as the Swedish Bergman, Holmberg, Lindgren, Sandström and Åkerlund were quite frequent and remain common today. The same is true for similar Norwegian and Danish names.

These names often indicated the place of residence of the family. For this reason, Denmark and Norway have a very high incidence of names derived from those of farms, many signified by the suffix -gaard -- the modern spelling is gård in Danish and has changed to gard in Norwegian, but as in Sweden, archaic spelling persists in surnames. The most well-known example of this kind of surname is probably Kierkegaard (original meaning: the farm located by the Church or also churchyard and cemetery [although this is unlikely in the context] which, with kierke, actually includes two archaic spellings), but many others could be cited. It should also be noted that, since the names in question are derived from the original owners' domiciles, the possession of this kind of name is no longer an indicator of affinity with others who bear it.

In many cases, names were taken from the nature around them. A family name such as "Dahlgren" is dervied from "dahl" meaning valley and "gren" meaning branch.

The Netherlands

Many Dutch names start with a prefix like van ("of/from"), de/het/'t ("the"), der ("of the"), van de ("of the/from the"), and in het ("in the"). Examples are 't Hooft ("the head"), de Groot ("the great"), van Rijn ("from Rhine"), but be careful of such verb-derived names that end in -en that are often occupations, like van Bruggen ("bridge builder"). These prefixes are not spelled with a capital when used in combination with the first name, e.g. Piet de Groot. When written without first name, a capital is used, e.g., Mr. Van Rijn. In name directories, the prefixes are always ignored for sorting. Many Dutch surnames originated from different personal qualities, geographical locations, and occupations. Surnames were not required until 1811 when Napoleon invaded the Netherlands. As many of the Dutch thought this convention would only be temporary, many chose deliberately confusing or comical names, particularly in the northwestern province Friesland. For example: "Rotmensen" ("nasty people") is nowadays often changed to "Rotensen" (has no translation). Before 1811, many Dutch people used their first name plus their father's name. Names ending in the letter 'a', especially in suffixes like -stra or -inga, are usually older.

Belgium

Since Belgium has three official languages — Dutch, French and German — Belgian names are similar to those in the neighbouring countries: the Netherlands, France and Germany. Some differences exist: for example, Belgian Dutch names (Flemish names) commonly have prefixes as mentioned above, except that the prefixes usually always start with a capital letter, and are often written connected to the main word. Thus, de Bakker or van der Steen is probably Dutch while De Bakker and Vandersteen are Belgian, although names, which have older spellings like De Backer, are more common. The most common Flemish surnames are Peeters, Janssens, Maes, Jacobs, Willems, Mertens, Claes, Wouters, Goossens, and De Smet. Flemish family names often resemble first names, e.g. the following first names relate to above surnames: e.g. Peter, Jan, Jacob, Willem, Maarten, Klaas, and Wouter. The trailing s reportedly once meant "son of", so Willems would be "Willem's son". Furthermore ancient spelling remains visible in many names, e.g. usage of c instead of k and ae instead of aa (compare Claes with Klaas). The most common Walloonian (French Belgian) names are Dubois, Lambert, Martin, Dupont, Dumont, Leclercq, Simon, Laurent, Lejeune, and Renard.

Russia

A full Russian name consists of personal (given) name, patronymic, and family name (surname).

Most Russian family names originated from patronymics, that is, father's name usually formed by adding the adjective suffix -ov(a) or -ev(a)). Contemporaty patronymics, however, have a substantive suffix -ich for masculine and the adjective suffix -na for feminine.

For example, the proverbial triad of most common Russian surnames follows:

Ivanov (son of Ivan),
Petrov (son of Petr),
Sidorov (son of Sidor).

Feminine forms of these surnames have the ending -a:

Ivanova (daughter of Ivan),
Petrova (daughter of Petr),
Sidorova (daughter of Sidor).

Such a pattern of name formation is not unique to Russia or even to the Eastern and Southern Slavs in general; quite common are also names derived from professions, places of origin, and personal characteristics, with various suffixes (e.g. -in(a) and -sky (-skaia)).

Professions:

kuznets (smith) → Kuznetsov—Kuznetsova
portnoi (tailor) → Portnov—Portnova
pastukh (shepherd) → Pastukhov—Pastukhova

Places of origin:

Moskva (Moscow) → Moskvin—Moskvina,
Smolensk → Smolensky—Smolenskaia,
Riazan → Riazanov—Riazanova,

Personal characteristics:

tolsty (stout, fat) → Tolstov—Tolstova, Tolstoy—Tolstaya,
nos (nose) → Nosov—Nosova,
sedoi (grey-haired or -headed) → Sedov—Sedova.

A considerable number of “artificial” names exists, for example, those given to seminary graduates; such names were based on major Orthodox holy days or Christian virtues.

Major Orthodox holy days:

rozhdestvo (Christmas) → Rozhdestvensky—Rozhdestvenskaia,
voskresenie (Resurrection) → Voskresensky—Voskresenskaia,
uspenie (Assumption) → Uspensky—Uspenskaia,

Christian virtues:

philagathos (one who loves goodness) → Dobrolubov—Dobrolubova, Dobrolubsky—Dobrolubskaia,
philosophos (one who loves wisdom) → Lubomudrov—Lubomudrova,
theophilos (one who loves God) → Bogolubov—Bogolubova.

Many freed serfs were given surnames after those of their former owners. For example, a serf of the Demidov family might be named Demidovsky, which translates roughly as "belonging to Demidov" or "one of Demidov's bunch".

Grammatically, Russian family names follow the same rules as other nouns or adjectives (names ending with -oy, -aya are grammatically adjectives), with exceptions: some names do not change in different cases and have the same form in both genders (for example, Sedykh).

Poland

In Poland and most of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the surnames first appeared in late Middle Ages. They initially denoted the differences between various people living in the same town or village and bearing the same name. The conventions were similar to those of English surnames, using denoting occupations, patronymic descent, geographic origins, or personal characteristics. Thus, early surnames indicating occupation include Karczmarz ("innkeeper"), Kowal ("blacksmith"), and Bednarczyk ("young cooper"), while those indicating patronymic descent include Szczepaniak ("Son of Szczepan), Józefski ("Son of Józef), and Kaźmirkiewicz ("Son of Kazimierz"). Similarly, early surnames like Mazur ("the one from Mazury") indicated geographic origin, while ones like Nowak ("the new one"), Biały ("the pale one"), and Wielgus ("the big one") indicated personal characteristics.

In the early 16th century, geographical names became common, especially among the szlachta. Initially, the surnames were in a form of "[first name] z ("of") [location]", e.g. Jan z Kolna ("John of Kolno"). Later, most surnames were changed to adjective forms, e.g. Jakub Wiślicki ("James of Wisła") and Zbigniew Oleśnicki ("Zbigniew of Oleśnica"), with masculine suffixes -ski, -cki and -dzki or respective feminine suffixes -ska, -cka and -dzka. Names formed this way are adjectives grammatically, and therefore change their form depending on gender. Jan Kowalski and Maria Kowalska are collectively the plural Kowalscy.

Names with masculine suffixes -ski, -cki, and -dzki, and corresponding feminine suffixes -ska, -cka, and -dzka became associated with noble origin. Many people from lower classes successively changed their surnames to fit this pattern. This produced many Kowalskis, Bednarskis, Kaczmarskis and so on. Today, although most Polish speakers do not know about noble associations of -ski endings, such names still sound somehow better to them.

A separate class of surnames derive from the names of szlachtas coats of arms. These are used either as separate names or the first part of a double-barrelled name. Thus, persons named Jan Nieczuja and Krzysztof Nieczuja-Machocki might be related. Similarly, after World War I and World War II, many members of Polish underground organizations adopted their war-time pseudonyms as the first part of their surnames. Edward Rydz thus became Marshal of Poland Edward Śmigły-Rydz and Jan Nowak became Jan Nowak-Jeziorański.

Ashkenazi Jewish surnames

Until a few hundred years ago, Ashkenazim (Jews from Northern and Eastern Europe) followed no tradition of surnames, but used patronymics within the synagogue, and matronymics in other venues. For example, a boy named Joseph of a father named Isaac would be called to the Torah as Joseph ben Isaac. That same boy of a mother named Rachel would be known in business as Joseph ben Rachel. A male used the Hebrew word ben ("son") and a female used bat ("daughter").

When Northern European countries legislated that Jews required "proper" surnames, Jews were left with a number of options. Many Jews (particularly in Austria, Prussia, and Russia) were forced to adopt Germanic names. In 1781, Emperor Joseph II of Austria announced an Edict of Toleration for the Jews, which established the requirement for hereditary family names. The Jews of Galicia did not adopt surnames until 1785. He issued a law in 1787 which assumed that all Jews were to adopt German names. The city mayors were to choose the name for every Jewish family. A fee was charged for names related to precious metals and flowers, while free surnames were usually connected to animals and common metals.

Many took Yiddish names derived from occupation (e.g. Goldschmidt "Gold-smith"), from their father (e.g. Jacobson), or from location (e.g. Berliner, Warszawski or Pinsker). This makes Ashkenazi surnames similar to Scandinavian and especially Swedish ones.

Many Jews also took names of their Jewish lineage. A person of Priestly (Cohanite) decent could take the last name related to his lineage (e.g. Cohen - Hebrew/Yiddish or Colons - Spanish). If a Jew was a descendant of the Levites, then he could take a surname like Lavine or Levenson.

In Prussia, special military commissions were created to choose the names. It became common that the poorer Jews were forced to adopt derogatory, offensive or simply bizarre names. Among those created by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann were:

Ochsenschwanz ("oxtail")
Temperaturwechsel ("temperature glitch")
Kanalgeruch ("sewer stink")
Singmirwas ("sing me something")

The Jews of Poland adopted names much earlier. Those who were adopted by a szlachta family usually changed the name to that of the family. Christened Jews usually adopted either a common Polish name or a name created after the month of their baptism. Thus, many Frankists adopted the name Majewski after the month of May in 1759.

Both the given names and surnames of Ashkenazim today may be completely European in origin, though many will also possess a traditional Hebrew name for use only in the synagogue.

Romania

In Romania family names traditionally have an English-like usage: a child inherits his father's family name, and a wife takes her husband's last name. There are however exceptions and social pressure to follow this tradition is not particularly strong in most families.

Until the 19th century, the names were primarily of the form "[given name] [father's name] [grandfather's name]". The few exceptions are usually famous people or the nobility (boyars). The name reform introduced around 1850, had the names changed to a western style, most likely imported from France, consisting of a given name followed by a family name.

As such, the name is called prenume (French prénom), while the family name is called nume or, when otherwise ambiguous, nume de familie ("family name"). Although not mandatory, middle names (Romanian numele mic, literally, "small name") are common.

Historically, when the family name reform was introduced in the mid 19th century, the default was to use a patronym, or a matronym when the father was dead or unknown. The typical derivation was to append the suffix -escu to the father's name, e.g. Anghelescu ("Anghel's child") and Petrescu ("Petre's child"). The other common derivation was to append the suffix -eanu to the name of the place of origin, especially when one came from a different region, e.g. Munteanu ("from Munte") and Moldoveanu ("from Moldova"). These uniquely Romanian suffixes strongly identify ancestoral nationality.

There are also descriptive family names derived from occupations, nicknames, and events, e.g. Botezatu ("baptised"), Barbu ("bushy bearded"), Prodan ("foster"), Bălan ("blond"), and Fieraru ("smith").

Romanian family names remain the same regardless of the sex of the person. In contrast, most Slavic languages add the suffix -a to the family names of women.

Although given names appear before family names in most Romanian contexts, official documents invert the order, ostensibly for filing purposes. Correspondingly, Romanians often introduce themselves with their family names first, especially in official contexts, e.g. a student signing a test paper in school.

India

For more details on this topic, see Indian family name.

Indian surnames, where formalized, fall into seven general types.

Patronymics and Ancestry, where the father's name or an ancester's given name is used in its original form or in a derived form (e.g. Aggarwal or Agrawal or Agrawala derived from the ancestor Agrasen).
Occupations ( Chaudhury, Patel or Patil meaning Village Headman, Gandhi, Kulkarni, Kapadia, Nadkarni, Patwardhan, Patwari, Chamar) and priestly distinctions (Trivedi, Chaturvedi, Twivedi, Purohit, Bhattar, Mukhopadhyay.) In addition many Parsi, Bohra and Gujrati families have used English trade names as last names since the 18th and 19th centuries (Contractor, Engineer, Builder).
Caste or clan names (Gaudar, Vaish, Parmar, Kamma).
Place names or names derived from places of ancestral origin (Marwari, Gawaskar, Mangeshkar, Kapoor, Karnad).
Bestowed titles or other honorifics (titles bestowed by Kings, Nawabs and other nobles before British Raj (Wali, Rai, Rao) and those bestowed by the British (Rai, Bahadur). In Bengal, it is also common custom to create hybrid surnames based on the previous last names and new titles (Raichoudhury)
Names indicating nobility or feudal associations or honorifics (Varma, Singh, Burman, Raja, Tagore, Thakur)
Colonial Surnames forced on natives based on tax or after religious conversion, particularly in Goa which was under Portugese control (DeCruz, Pinto). Often, surnames of Portugene noble families were used as the surnames of the converted.

The convention is to write the first name followed by middle names and surname. It is common to use the father's first name as the middle name even though it is not universal. In some Indian states like Maharashtra, official documents list the family name first, followed by a comma and the given names.

It is customary for wives to take the surname of their husband after marriage. In modern times, in urban areas at least, this practice is not universal. In some rural areas, particularly in North India, wives may also take a new first name after their nupitals. Children inherit their surnames from their father.

In some parts of Southern India, no formal Surname is used, either because none is designated or because the family has decided to forgo its existing clan name. This practice is prevalent in Kerala where someone who belongs to the Nair (a corruption of "Nyakar" pointing to a warrior past) clan for example, could forgo its usage completely in modern times, preferring just to use the initials of the father, ancestral village or "house" instead. An example of this usage is the name of olympian P. T. Usha (ilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha, where the first name indicates the geographical origin and the second is the name of her "house".) Wife or child takes the given name of the husband or father (Usha married to Satish, will therefore may be called Usha Satish or simply, S. Usha.)

Sikhs generally use the words Singh ("lion") and Kaur ("princess") as Surnames added to the otherwise unisex first names of men and women, respectively. It is also common to use a different surname after Singh in which case Singh or Kaur are used as middle names (Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Surinder Kaur Badal.) In modern times, many Sikh women aslo use "Singh" as their last name following the western concept of patronymic or marital inheritance (Surinder K. Singh.) Other middle names or honorifics that are sometimes used as surnames include Kumar, Dev, Lal, and Chand.

The modern day spellings of names originated when families translated their surnames to English, with no standardization across the country. Variations were regional, based on how the name was translated from the local language to English in the 18th, 19th or 20th centuries during the British rule. Therefore, it is understood in the local traditions that Agrawal and Aggarwal represent the same name derived from Uttar Pradesh and Punjab respectively. Similarly, Tagore derives from Bengal while Thakur is from Hindi-speaking areas. The officially-recorded spellings tended to become the standard for that family. In the modern times, some states have attempted at standardization, particularly where the surnames were corrupted because of the early British insistence of shortening them for convinience. Thus Bandopadhyay became Banerji, Mukhopadhay became Mukherji, Chattopadhyay became Chatterji etc. This coupled with various other spelling variations created several surnames based on the original surnames. The West Bengal Government now insists on re-converting all the variations to their original form when the child is enrolled in school.

Some parts of Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, and Indonesia have similar patronymic customs as that of India.

Ethiopia/Eritrea

The patronymic custom in most of Ethiopia and Eritrea gives children the father's exact first name as their surname. The family gives the child its first name. There is no middle name given in this culture. So for example, a persons name might be Demesie Birhanu. In this case, Demesie is the first name and Birhanu is the last name and also the first name of the father.

China, Hungary, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam

For more details on this topic, see Chinese family name, Korean family name, Japanese name, and Vietnamese name.

In Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Hungarian cultures, the family name is placed before the given names. So the terms "first name" and "last name" are potentially confusing and should be avoided, as they do not in this case denote the given and family names respectively.

Some Chinese add an English given name in front of their Chinese name, e.g. Martin LEE Chu-ming. In addition, many Chinese people who live in English-speaking countries have an English first name which is commonly used and a Chinese name which is used as a middle name, e.g. Martin Chu-ming Lee. Chinese living in English-speaking countries may rearrange their names when written in English to avoid misunderstanding. However, some well-known Chinese names remain in the traditional order even in English literature, e.g. Mao Zedong.

Vietnamese names are generally stated in East Asian order (family name first) even when writing in English. Names of Hungarian individuals appear in Western order in English writing. Koreans write their name either way when writing in English. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism says, "Personal names are written by family name first, followed by a space and the given name". In practice, however, given name first seems to be more common.

In English writings originating from non-English cultures (e.g. English newspapers in China), the family name is often written with all capital letters to avoid being mistaken as a middle name, e.g. Martin LEE Chu-ming or using small capitals, as Martin LEE Chu-ming or with a comma, as AKUTAGAWA, Ryunosuke to make clear which name is the family name. Such practice is particularly common in mass-media reporting international events like the Olympic Games. The CIA World Factbook stated that "The Factbook capitalizes the surname or family name of individuals for the convenience of [their] users who are faced with a world of different cultures and naming conventions." For example, Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing might be mistaken as Mr. Wing by readers unaware of Chinese naming conventions.

Vietnamese family names present an added complication. Like Chinese family names, they are placed at the beginning of a name, but unlike Chinese names, they are not usually the primary form of address. Rather, people will be referred to by their given name, usually accompanied by an honorific. For example, Phan Van Khai is properly addressed as Mr. Khai, even though Phan is his family name. This pattern contrasts with that of most other East Asian naming conventions.

In Japan, women surrender their surnames upon marriage, and use the surnames of their husbands. However, a convention that a man uses his wife's family name if the wife is an only child is sometimes observed. A similar tradition called ru zhui (入贅) is common among Chinese when the bride's family is wealthy and has no son but wants the heir to pass on their assets under the same family name. The Chinese character zhui (贅) carries a money radical (貝), which implies that this tradition was originally based on financial reasons. All their offspring carry the mother's family name. If the groom is the first born with an obligation to carry his own ancestor's name, a compromise may be reached in that the first male child carries the mother's family name while subsequent offspring carry the father's family name. The tradition is still in use in many Chinese communities outside of mainland China, but largely disused in China because of social changes.

In Hong Kong, mainland China, Korea, and Taiwan, women keep their own surnames, while the family as a whole is referred to by the surnames of the husbands.

In Hong Kong, some women would be known to the public with the surnames of their husbands preceding their own surnames, such as Anson Chan Fang On Sang. Anson is an English given name, On Sang is the given name in Chinese, Chan is the surname of Anson's husband, and Fang is her own surname. A name change on legal documents is not necessary.

In Macau, some people have their names in Portuguese spelt with some Portuguese style, such as Carlos do Rosario Tchiang.

Chinese women in Canada, especially Hongkongers in Toronto, would preserve their maiden names before the surnames of their husbands when written in English, for instance Rosa Chan Leung, where Chan is the maiden name, and Leung is the surname of the husband.

In Chinese and Korean, surnames are predominantly monosyllabic (written with one character), though a small number of common disyllabic (or written with two characters) surnames exists (e.g. the Chinese name Ou Yang, the Korean name Namgung).

Mongolia

In Mongolia, it is customary for children to take the first name of their father as their surname. For example the name Yuhjijad Befinsioan indicates that the person's father's first name is Befinsioan.

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