Surnames System

One of the countries last to adopt the surname system is Mongolia. The country is known for its nomadic culture. People grouped themselves according to their herds but with globalization and urbanization, they had to develop a better name system. Therefore, it was only in 1997 when a law was passed for everyone to have a surname. The plan was made to help track the genealogy of people but it failed because fifty percent of the population wanted to get the surname, “Borjigin,” which meant the clan of Genghis Khan.

(pars. 19 to 23)

The Germans, much like most other nations, developed their surnames based on their jobs, characteristics and places of origins in the Germanic Middle Ages. If a family migrated to another area, they would be known by the place they came from. The more popular way that surnames developed was by the occupation and characteristics of the first family members. Examples of German names that refer to what people did for a living are “Bauer” which means farmer, “Kramer” which means merchant and “Wagner” which means wagon maker.

Some German names that show the physical characteristics of people are “Klein” which means short, “Dick” which means a fat person and “Stock” which means a stick or tree trunk. German names based on a family’s residential area are “Meer” which means from the sea or ocean, “Borg” or “Burg” which means near a fortified castle and “Cullen” a derivative from Cologne or Koln. (Shea 1996) In the Czech Republic, there are more than 40,000 variations of surnames which could be understood as with 10 million Czechs, about 250 individuals would be carrying a specific surname.

However, the first 20 most frequent surnames only cover 6. 92 percent of the population and the first hundred most popular surnames belong to only 17. 18 percent of Czechs. The Czech surnames originated from nine different ways of getting a last name. The first is by identification as a new addition to a village. The most popular Bohemian and Moravian surname is “Novak” which means “new man. ” This surname was usually given to someone who recently resided in a closed community of old village inhabitants. The second way is by the social status based on the feudal system or the size of his house.

Surnames like “Svoboda” meant “free man” and “Dvorak” meant farmer. The name, “Lanik” means a farmer with a big land while “Chalupa” means someone with only a small house and hardly any land. The third way by which one can get a surname is by personal attributes. The surname “Cerny” or “Schwarz” refers to people with either dark hair or face while “Vesely” means a cheerful man. The fourth way is by deriving Christian names. The Christian name, Benedict, for example, was translated as Benes, Benisek or Benak while Marcus became Marek, Markovic, Mares or Marsalek.

Another way they adopted surnames was dependent on the locality or country one came from. The surname, Kolinsky, for example means someone from Kolin while the last names, Prazan or Prazak, means someone who came from Prague. Like other cultures, the surname can also be developed from a trade or occupation. The surname, Kadlec, means weaver while the name, Miler, means carpenter. The tools by which one earns a living was also used to adopt surnames. The Czech name, Kladivo, for example, means hammer and Moucka means flour. Animals and plants were also resources used to create surnames.

The surname, Myska, means mouse while Vrabec means sparrow. Jahoda means strawberry while Doubek means oak tree. A funny way the Czechs developed certain surnames come from forming the present or past participle of verbs. Examples of these are the surnames “Stojespal” which means “he slept standing” and “Snedlditetikasi” which means “he ate the squash to the child. ” The last way that Czechs were able to adopt surnames is by foreigners retaining their own family names such as Bauer (German) and Buteau (French). (“Czech Surnames”) Italians also have an interesting way of creating their surnames.

In its ancient history, people’s names were usually composed of three parts. The first part is the individual’s name , the second carries the family name while the third is a person’s nick name. Thus one can actually be called Marcus Tullius Cicero wherein Marcus is the first name, Tullius the family name and Cicero the nickname. This way of naming people became lost and replaced by the baptism of Italians using only one name. By the year 1000, Venice initiated the move to have a second name and the nobility were the first to adopt it.

By the 1564, everyone had to have a surname because the Council of Trent obliged everyone to register themselves in their parishes. Like the other nationalities, many Italians got their surnames from their relations to the father of the family. For example, Giovanni son of Berardo was given the surname Di Berardo or Berardi. In cases wherein the father of the person came from a different place, his origin or occupation would be used to make the surname. An example is the surname, “di Genova,” which means from Genova. They also used the occupations to derive surnames from.

The surname Zappa, for example, means farmer while “Tenaglia” means carpenter. (Italian Surnames: Ethymology and Origin) Surnames are also developed from original family names into other terms because of spelling and adaptation to new cultures. There are many incidences wherein people are forced to register last names and end up misspelling them because of illiteracy. There are also last names that were derived from foreign cultures which had to adapt to their new land. An example would be the Dutch name “Van Roosevelt” (meaning from the rose field) which later became “Roosevelt” in the U.S. (Smith, par. 3) Surnames are very important aspects of a person. Many nations have come to develop the system of having last names to trace their population and cultural identity.

Works Cited

1. Campbell, Mike. 2007. Behind the Name. 27 November 2007 from <http://www. behindthename. com/glossary/view/spanish_names>.
2. “Czech Surnames. ” 27 November 2007 from < http://members. tripod. com/~zlimpkk/Genealogy/ czechsurnames. html>.
3. Irish Names. 2005. The Information about Ireland Site. 27 November 2007 < http://www. ireland- information. com/heraldichall/irishsurnames. htm>.