Text Whats in a Name?1 Today its only the exceedingly famous who are known by just one name, but even Sting, Cher and Madonna started life with a surname. In England alone there are around 45,000 different surnames. But prior to 1000 AD in Britain, everyone was known by the given name only, or perhaps their nickname.Text 2 Different areas of the world adopted surnames at different periods in time. The Chinese were among the first people to use family names to honour their parents from about 2800 BC. In Europe, the Romans started calling people by their given name and family name in Latin from 300 BC, but it wasnt common practice throughout Europe until the 10th or 11th century, when first, the lords and gentry, then middle-class citizens, and finally everyone used surnames. Text The necessity for surnames arose when the population began to grow. Suddenly there was more than one person with the same name in a village, so surnames were used. Generally, these surnames were not handed down to the next generation, but after the fall of the Roman Empire, Ireland was one of the first countries to adopt hereditary surnames, and Irish surnames are found as early as the 10th century.Text 3 As communities grew, it became necessary to identify residents more specifically with a name which referred to a dominant feature such as a physical attribute, an occupation, or a place of origin. This led to names like John the Butcher, William the Short, Henry from Sutton, Mary of the Wood, and Roger, son of Richard.Text 4 After the Norman Conquest of England, the new rulers (from Normandy in northern France) of the realm obliged people to adopt fixed surnames for administrative reasons, as a form of registration for the census and for taxation. Gradually, most Saxon and Celtic names vanished (Oslaf, Oswald, Oswin Os meaning God), and we see names like Carpenter, Thatcher, Cook and Baker, Hill, Forest. Any man who left his home and moved to another part of the country would be called by the place where he came from, eg John of York, and other immigrants from Ireland, Highland Scotland and Wales (when it became part of Great Britain in 1536) adopted the English system of surnames.Text 5 Surnames from places were most common. In fact, more than half of English surnames today derive from geographic descriptions: Bedford, Berkley, Hampshire could have been names given to people who migrated from these places to live and work elsewhere, or may have been the names of the landowners where they lived.Text 6 A name ending in -man or -er usually suggests a trade or occupation, although as the spelling was only fixed in the 19th century, they often look different from the original word, for example Latimer meaning ranslator, and Jenner, engineer. Personal or moral qualities generated names as well: Good, Goodchild, Thoroughgood, and Blake (Black).Text 7 Many surnames come from someones relationship with another, such as Williamson (Williams son). This naming pattern between a father and his heirs can be seen clearly in Sweden, where each successive generation followed suit: The so-called Hans Peterson would be the son of Peter, and Hans Petersons son would be called Jan Hanson. (On the female side, the daughter of Hans would be called Hansdotter.)Text The Norman French added Fitz- to mean child of as in Fitzpatrick, the child of Patrick. The Irish used O, as in OBrien, the Dutch used van (van Buren), the French used de (de Gaulle), Arabic speakers used ibn (ibn Saud) and the Scottish used Mac (MacDonald). Next time you feel like a hamburger, try asking for a “son of Big Donald“, please a big Mac.Text 8 A historic event, such as invasion by a foreign power, has often had an effect on surnames, especially when the official language of the newly-created colony was changed. This is particularly noticeable in regions of Central and Eastern Europe, where the borders and the language used within them have changed several times over recent years. When the English invaded Ireland in the 1660s, and English became the legal language, Gaelic names were anglicized or translated into English.Text 9 Its often possible for Westerners to recognize the nationality or origin of people by their names, but this is much more difficult for Asians to do. There are as many rules about this as there are names but we can suggest some very general guidelines about given names. Basically, if a given name ends in -e or -a, it may be a womans name. If it ends in a consonant, its probably a mans name. Text If a name ends in -e, -tte, or -elle (Marie, Yvette or Isabelle), it probably belongs to a French woman. Remember also that many French womens names are the male version with the additional -e. If a name ends in -a, its likely to be an Italian or, less likely, a Spanish or Russian name (Maria, Alessandra; Ana, Juliana; Olga, Natal