Long time ago a single name (today
known as first name or christian name) was sufficient for each
individual. This name was often invented by the parents of the
newborn, in connection with circumstances of birth, religion or
future personal qualities the person hopefully will possess in
the future.
These first names being given by
parents, should not have any bad significations, or be
associated with misfortune. It is different with surnames (also
known as family names or last names) which were originated later
in life, after the character and habits of the individual had
been formed, and after he had engaged in some permanent
occupation, location, trade, or pursuit. Surnames were given by
the his community, by enemies as well as by friends. Surnames
will be found to be of all shades, from the best to the worst,
the most pleasing to the most ridiculous.
First approaches to the modern
system of nomenclature in Europe is found in the 11th century
soon after the Crusades in Europe, when many people began to
feel the need for family names which would identify them more
distinctly than the names they then bore. The nobles who had
joined the Crusades were aware of the value of surnames and were
first to adopt them, usually from the name of the lands they
owned. The people who remained behind soon did the same. These
were not hereditary surnames as yet, but more of an
identification by which one could be recorded and differentiated
from his fellow workers, neighbors or village. Surname became
popular due to the fact that persons could be identified when
for tax purposes, entering business with each other or
travelling to other villages. Names like John Baker or Mike
Smith rose by this procedure.In other civilisations the same
system was developed long time before.
Generally the formation of
surnames was based on the following classification:
- By
personal names (e.g. Martinson as son of Martin)
- By names
based on business (e.g. Blacksmith or Stone)
- By
nicknames (e.g.
Leblond or Legrand)
- By
geographical and topographic names (e.g. Dupont or
Hindenburg)
Surnames and family names today cover
a wide spectrum of variations from the original name and reflect
the migration of populations. For istance in the US the
distribution of family names reflects the history of immigration
into the country. Many immigrants from non English speaking
countries adopted English family names. Good examples of this
are the popular Swedish name Johansson which was frequently
changed to Johnson, and the German Müller changed to Miller.
Some very common Swedish names were so similar that only a minor
change of spelling was necessary, such as Andersson and Jonsson.
This is why these names are much more common in the U.S. than in
the United Kingdom. Alltogether the US roughly 2 million
surnames are counted. In opposite Chinese family names come in
large numbers. The top 200 family names (out of 3,600) account
for over 90% of the population.
Different surnames in various
countries (including immigrants)
-
USA 2,000,000
-
Germany 900,000
-
France 800,000
-
Italy 130,000
-
Lithuanina 50,000
-
China 3,600
Origin and history of Chinese
surnames
Contrary to popular belief, a
Chinese surname is very different from a Westerner's first name.
The Chinese surname is placed before the person's name while the
latter is placed after. Take the names Woo Teck Hwa and Jason
Smith for example. 'Woo' is the surname of the person named Teck
Hwa while 'Smith' is Jason's surname. Notice the difference in
positioning? Like most Asian surnames, Chinese surnames are
passed down from generations and hold the family history in
perpetuity. Chinese surnames tell others about the person's
history and are always retained even though the name may change.
The surname is often looked-upon as a symbol of a man's pride
and honor. It depicts the past glorious deeds the ancestors have
achieved through 'blood and sweat.' According to legends,
Chinese surnames originated from the Emperor Fu Xi (2852BC). He
standardized all Chinese surnames and defined matrimonial
relationship. Thus a proper system of population census was
established. It was also believed that there is a close
relationship between surnames and totem worship; the early
Chinese adopted the names or symbols of certain animals as their
surname (e.g. Long (2) which means dragon.) A song in the Shi
Jing, recounting the birth of Hou Ji, the earliest ancestor of
the Zhou people, shows clearly the link between surnames and
totem worship. Jiang Yuan the consort of the fiery Emperor
prayed to God for a son. She followed his footprints for a
distance and became pregnant. The giant footprints actually
belonged to a bear the Zhou people then worshipped. They gave
themselves the surname 'Ji', which was made up of the characters
'Nu' and 'Chen'. These characters represented Jiang Yuan and the
bear, respectively. A book of hundred surnames (Bai Jia Xing)
was complied during the 10th century. It recorded about 500 odd
Chinese surnames and was one of the earlier surnames books
written. The surnames are arranged in rhymed lines without
repetitions. In the original copy that was lost, pictures of
famous historical figures were illustrated on the upper part of
every page while the text was printed on the lower part. The
unknown author successfully combined the study of family names,
philology, sociology and pedagogy into one book, making it one
of the most popular books in history.
Origin and history of Japanese
surnames
Japanese surnames can be
classified into those which indicate derivations from some
powerful family in early Japan, those which feudal warriors
chose for themselves after being granted fiefs, and those which
were chosen in the Meiji period by farmers, merchants or other
commoners, who had previously had no family names but were then
required to select and register them. The naming system is
complicated by the writing system, which, providing as it does
an enormous number of ideographs to choose from, multiplies the
possible ways names with the same pronunciation may be written
using different ideographs. Since each ideograph has two or more
possible 'readings' or pronunciations, there is often no way of
being certain, from the ideograph, what the correct
pronunciation of a name may be. In all, there are probably
around 120,000 surnames, among which very common ones are
Tanaka, Kimura, Sato, Shimizu, Suzuki, Watanabe, and Yamada.
This large number of surnames contrasts with the Korean system,
where each village is usually made up of a kinship group with
the same surname (the most frequent being Kim) and where only
about 250 different surnames are found throughout the country.
The Japanese Imperial family is notable in having no surname.
The Japanese personal, or 'given' name (corresponding to the
western Christian name but usually written after the surname) is
chosen either by selecting ideographs having auspicions or
honorific meanings, or by selecting words which show whether the
child is the firstborn, the second or third born, and so on.
This second way of choosing is more common with boys. Sometimes
the two methods of choosing 'given' names are combined. Very
frequently the last ideograph of the name is a specific suffix
indicating sex. Thus boys' names often end in hiko, o, or to,
and girls' names in ko. In the postwar period the government has
attempted to simplify the complicated naming system by limiting
the number of ideographs which can be utilised for personal
names to a special restricted list from which parents are
advised to choose, and which are officially acceptable for birth
registration purposes
Links to surname resources
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