Origin of surnames in different countriesĭespite the fact that having a given name and one or more surnames is something that occurs in most societies today and the exceptions are really very rare, the surnames for the common population were established at different times in history for different cultures. However, it is also possible to find names of Germanic origin, and this would be due to the incorporation of people of Visigothic origin to the Hispano-Roman populations of ancient Hispania. Thus, finding the presence of certain anthroponyms originating from one language among the speakers of another can point to the incorporation of people from one linguistic group into another, as well as the influence of one cultural group on another.Īs an example of the above we can find that in Spanish, the presence of names of Hebrew origin is due to the influence of the Judeo-Christian religion on the Latin speakers who inhabited the Iberian Peninsula and who gave rise to Castilian. These are studies of great interest in the field of social sciences, as they allow us to learn more about social changes, migrations and the interaction that has taken place during history between different societies. The study of the origin of surnames is something that onomastic etymology is responsible for, but also genealogy and heraldry.

The need for all people to have at least one surname derives from the Middle Ages, a time when the flourishing of the cities, and with them the bureaucracy, forces the identification of individuals, beyond their own name. Thus, in many Western societies an etymological study is needed to try to find the origin of surnames, although many of them respond to certain patterns or 'formulas' with which surnames used to be created.

Despite this in many societies the original meaning of the anthroponym is unknown. The vast majority of anthroponyms are believed to derive historically from common names. Origin of the anthroponyms, the first surnames The establishment of a hierarchy also meant that those in the upper strata of these societies had to be recognized as belonging to a specific family, which gave rise to what we would today consider the first surnames, or family names. This increase in the number of individuals brought the need for hierarchy, and also the need to have, at the very least, a given name. These settlements, along with advances in agriculture and animal husbandry, led to an increase in population at specific points. The abandonment of nomadic societies led humans to settle permanently in one place. Often this had some descriptive or symbolic meaning. Antroponyms before surnamesīefore the existence of what we know as states, the anthroponym was just the proper name of the person. In the case of surnames, they identify the bearer as belonging to a specific family. This is a necessity that has been present in most human cultures since the existence of human beings. As an anthroponym is known as the complete designator element that identifies a person from the rest. The surname consists of the anthroponymic name of the people, which identify the family.

Surname origin