"Last name" and "Family name" redirect here. For the song, see Last Name (song). For other uses, see Family Name (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Suriname.
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First/given/forename, middle, and last/family/surname with John Fitzgerald Kennedy as example. This shows a structure typical for Anglophonic cultures (and some others). Other cultures use other structures for full names.
A surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family.[1][2] It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person.
Depending on culture, the surname may be placed at either the start of a person's name, or at the end. The number of surnames given to an individual also varies: in most cases it is just one, but in many Spanish-speaking countries, two surnames are used for legal purposes. Depending on culture, not all members of a family unit are required to have identical surnames. In some countries, surnames are modified depending on gender and family membership status of a person. Compound surnames can be composed of separate names.[3]
Using names has been documented in even the oldest historical records. Examples of surnames are documented in the 11th century by the barons in England. English surnames began as a way of identifying a certain aspect of that individual, such as by trade, father's name, location of birth, or physical features, and were not necessarily inherited. By 1400 most English families, and those from Lowland Scotland, had adopted the use of hereditary surnames.[4]
The study of proper names (in family names, personal names, or places) is called onomastics.
^"Surname". Britannica. Archived from the original on 17 March 2023. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
^"surname". Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on 20 January 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
^Haas, Ann; Elliott, Marc N; Dembosky, Jacob W; Adams, John L; Wilson-Frederick, Shondelle M; Mallett, Joshua S; Gaillot, Sarah; Haffer, Samuel C; Haviland, Amelia M (1 February 2019). "Imputation of race/ethnicity to enable measurement of HEDIS performance by race/ethnicity". Health Services Research. 54 (1): 13–23. doi:10.1111/1475-6773.13099. ISSN 1475-6773. PMC 6338295. PMID 30506674.
^"BBC - Family History - What's in a Name? Your Link to the Past". BBC History. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
A surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with...
or composite) and two surnames (the first surname of each parent). Traditionally, the first surname is the father's first surname, and the second is the...
family surname and the father's family surname (rarely only one surname, sometimes more than two). For practicality, usually only the last surname (excluding...
Japanese surnames (姓, sei), as determined by their kanji, although many of these are pronounced and romanized similarly. Conversely, some surnames written...
most common surnames by continent: List of most common surnames in Asia List of most common surnames in Europe List of most common surnames in North America...
Chinese names begin with surnames, unlike the Western tradition in which surnames are written last. Around 2,000 Han Chinese surnames are currently in use...
A Chinese compound surname is a Chinese surname using more than one character. Many of these compound surnames derive from Zhou dynasty Chinese noble...
A toponymic surname or topographic surname is a surname derived from a place name, which included names of specific locations, such as the individual's...
Korean surname Jeong (surname), Korean surname written 정 Zhang (surname), Chinese surname written 張, 张, and 章 Zhong (surname), Chinese surname written...
This is a list of Korean surnames, in hangul alphabetical order. The most common Korean surname (particularly in South Korea) is Kim (김), followed by Lee...
Tiu, Tio, Thio, and Tiew. The romanization "Teo" is the 11th-most-common surname among Chinese Singaporeans, with 46,800 bearers making up 1.9% of that...
Irish name consists of a given name and a surname. In the Irish language, most surnames are patronymic surnames, distinct from patronyms, which are seen...
These are lists of the most common Chinese surnames in China (People's Republic of China), Taiwan (Republic of China), and the Chinese diaspora overseas...
გვარ-სახელი, romanized: kartuli gvar-sakheli) consists of a given name and a surname used by ethnic Georgians. According to the Public Service Hall the most...
(sometimes abbreviated as Ng̃) is the most common surname of the Vietnamese people. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as...
not all) Chinese surnames that are romanized as Lu in Mandarin. It may refer to: Lu (surname 陆) Lu (surname 禄) Lu (surname 逯) Lu (surname 鹿) Luk (band),...
Johnson is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin meaning "Son of John". It is the second most common in the United States. As a common family name in Scotland...
Jewish surnames are family names used by Jews and those of Jewish origin. Jewish surnames are thought to be of comparatively recent origin;: 190 the first...
Bhat (also spelled as Bhatt or Butt) is a surname in the Indian subcontinent. Bhat and Bhatt are shortened renditions of Brahmabhatta or Bhatta. The word...
Czech names are composed of a given name and a family name (surname). Czechs typically get one given name – additional names may be chosen by themselves...
This is a list of the most common surnames in Europe, sorted by country. At the moment, listings for the most common names are unavailable for Albania...
a neighborhood division in Korea Dǒng (surname) or 董, a Chinese surname Dōng (surname) or 東, a Chinese surname Queen Dong (1623–1681), princess consort...
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