Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Family Name |
Family NameNoun1. The name used to identify the members of a family (as distinguished from each member's given name). Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definitions |
General | Name by which all immediate family members are known. Women usually(but not always)adopt their husband's family name upon marriage. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The word "surname" is "name" prefixed by the French word sur, which derive from Latin super. It was sometimes spelled sirname and sirename because of the paternal origin.
In English-speaking and French-speaking countries (e.g., U.S, U.K, Australia, Canada, France), people often have two or more given names (first and middle), and the family name goes at the end, which is why it's sometimes called a "last name." Generally the last name is usually the last name of the father. More rarely, a hyphenation of both parents' last names, known as a "double-barreled name." Very rarely is the mother's name by itself used.
It has been the custom for women to give up their original last name (called the birth name or maiden name) upon marriage, and to use husband's last name in its place. Nowadays, more women choose to keep their birth name when they are married. Even in families where a wife has kept her birth name, parents often choose to name their children with the name of the father.
It is rare in the extreme in Western countries for the man to take the name of his wife; this was chiefly done in the Middle Ages, if the man was from a low-born family and was marrying an only daughter, and was thus designated to carry on his wife's "family name." In the 18th and 19th centuries in Britain, bequests were sometimes made contingent upon a man changing (or hyphenating) his name, so that the name of the legator continued. Now, some men choose to take their wives' names rather than the reverse. Sometimes, a married couple choose a new last name rather that that of either the husband or the wife.
In civil law jurisdictions such as France or Quebec, name change upon marriage is no longer recognized. Those who wishes to change their name upon marriage must follow the same legal procedure as would be used under any other circumstance. Otherwise, although one may use a married name, one's legal name remains unchanged.
In some jurisdictions, contrariwise, it used to be the case that the woman's legal name changed automatically upon marriage. This is no longer the case in most jurisdictions; now, women may easily change to their married name, though it is no longer automatic. In some jurisdictions, civil rights lawsuits were used to change the law so that men could easily change to a married name, too.
In areas where certain family names are extremely common, extra names are added that sometimes follow this archaic pattern. In Ireland, for example, where "Murphy" is an exceedingly common name, particular Murphy families or extended families are nicknamed, so that Denis Murphy's family were called "The Weavers" and Denis himself was called Denis "The Weaver" Murphy.
In Spain and countries of Hispanic culture (former Spanish colonies), each person has two family names: the first is the first family name of the father; the second is the first family name of the mother. As in the case of the English-speaking middle name, the second family name can be omitted or reduced to the initial.
In other places like Iceland, most people have no real family name; the last name of a person is a modified form of the first name of the father (a patronymic custom) or, sometimes, of the mother. For example, when a man called Karl has a daughter called Anna, her name will be Anna Karlsdóttir ("daughter of Karl").
In Scandinavia, particularly in Sweden, family names often, but certainly not always, originate from a patronymic. These family names are today passed on similarly to family names in other western countries. Karlsson for example means Karl's son, but today Karlsson is a family name, and your father doesn't have to be called Karl if you have the surname Karlsson. In Denmark and Norway family names ending with -sen are common. Karlsen for example means Karl's son. Noble persons in Sweden often have family names referring to their coat of arms. Before the 19th century there was the same system in Scandinavia as in Iceland today, but not everyone had a patronymic. Family names such as Bergman, Holmberg and Lindgren, were quite frequent and remain common today.
Similar patronymic customs exist in some parts of India and Indonesia. However, many Indians (from India) living in English-speaking countries give up on this tradition because many English speakers so consistently misunderstand the custom; therefore many Indian fathers simply follow the English-speaking custom to pass on their last name instead of their first.
In Russia, names are typically written with both family name and patronymic, a modified version of the father's name. For example, in the name "Lev Ivanovich Chekhov," "Chekhov" is the family name or surname whereas "Ivanovich" is the patronymic; we can infer that Lev's father was named "Ivan". The same is true in Bulgaria.
In other cultures, like Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Hungarian, the family name is placed before the given names. So the terms "first name" and "last name" carry opposite meanings when used outside of English speaking cultures. In many non-English-speaking countries, names are referred to as surname and given name to avoid ambiguity. Some Chinese add a Christian name in front of their Chinese name, so an example would be is Martin LEE Chu-ming. In addition, many Chinese Americans have an English name which is commonly used and a Chinese name which is used as a middle name, that is to say, Martin Chu-ming Lee. Chinese living in the US are willing to rearrange their real names to avoid misunderstanding. However, no one in China would rearrange Mao Zedong into Zedong Mao in English writings.
In English writings originated from non-English culture (e.g. English newspapers in China), the surname is often written with all capital letters to avoid being mistaken as the middle name: "Martin LEE Chu-ming" (this practice is common on the Internet), or in small capitals (except the first letter), as "Martin LEE Chu-ming" (this is more common in books) or AKUTAGAWA, Ryunosuke to make clear which one is the family name, particularly often in mass-media reporting international events like the Olympic Games. The CIA The World Factbook stated that "The Factbook capitalizes the surname or family name of individuals for the convenience of [their] users who are faced with a world of different cultures and naming conventions." On the contrary, Wikipedia follows a strict guideline on not to use all capital family names. As a result, non-English names appearing in Wikipedia articles are ambiguous to most laymen. For example, Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing might be mistaken as Mr. Wing by reader unaware of Chinese naming conventions.
In Japan, a convention that a man uses his wife's family name if the wife is an only child is sometimes observed.
English- and French-speaking countries
Ireland
Spain and Hispanic areas
Iceland
Scandinavia
India and Indonesia
Main article: Indian family nameRussia
China, Hungary, Japan, and Korea
Main articles: Chinese family name, Korean name#Family namesSee also
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Family name."
Synonyms: Family NameSynonyms: cognomen (n), last name (n), surname (n). (additional references) |
| Synonyms by domain: by-name (general), to-name. |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Your family name ain't the best in the Navy. (Top Gun; writing credit: Ehud Yonay; Jim Cash) Besmooze the family name like that? (All in the Family; writing credit: Johnny Speight; Norman Lear) Somebody's gonna have to carry on my family name. (Friends; writing credit: Jörn O. Jensen; Birger Larsen) You're a disgrace to our family name of Wagstaff, if such a thing is possible. (Horse Feathers; writing credit: Will B. Johnstone; Bert Kalmar) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Saving the Family Name (1916) Family Name (1997) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Travel | Singapore | Those who do not will have only their Chinese name on their business card, in which case the family name is listed first. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "family name"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | الشهرة (reputability, reputation). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | фамилно име (cognomen, surname). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | " (name, surname). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | efternavn (last name, name, surname). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | familienaam (last name, name, surname), naam (appellation, identifier, last name, name, proper name, reputation, surname). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | sukunimi (surname). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | nom de famille, nom. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | familienname (last name, name, surname), nachname (last name, surname). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | επώνυμο (cognomen, last name, name, surname). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | שם משפח" (surname). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | nisbah. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | stirpe (ancestry, birth, bloods, descent, extraction, family, ilk, offspring, pedigree, stock, strain), cognome (appellation, cognomen, last name, name, surname), casato (family, stock, surname). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 氏 (birth, lineage). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | ファミリーネー , うじ (birth, grub, lineage, maggot), せいし (authentic history, check, chief delegate, control, filature, full name, heir, history, imperial command, inhibition, life and death, looking straight ahead, meditation, oath, paper making or manufacturing, pledge, repose, restraint, senior envoy, silk reeling, sperm, spinning, standing still, stillness, successor, viewing sincerely, vow, written oath), せい (cause, companion, control, energy, establishment, fault, gender, government, height, holding back, imperial command, laws, -made, make, military strength, organization, reason, regular, regulation, restraint, sex, spirit, stature, suppression, surname, system, threaten, true), かめい (affiliation, alias, command, family honour, house name, nom de plume, order, participation, pen name, pseudonym, undermentioned, undersigned), みょうせき, みょうじ (surname). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | amilyfay amenay nome de família (surname), homem casado (Benedict), apelido (byname, cognomen, denomination, epithet, first name, last name, name, nickname, surname). (various references) частое в роду, фамилия (cognomen, name, surname). (various references) nombre familiar, apellidos (last name, name, surname). (various references) familjenamn (cognomen, patronymic, surname), efternamn (last name, second name, surname). (various references) ชื่อสกุล. (various references) soyadı (last name, patronymic, surname). (various references) họ (surname, them). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | cognomen, nomen, nomenque, nomina, nomine, nomini, nominibus, nominis, nominum. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-e-f-i-l-m-m-n-y" | |
-3 letters: inflame, laminae, mailman, mailmen. | |
-4 letters: aflame, ammine, anemia, animal, family, famine, finale, finely, flamen, flyman, flymen, immane, infamy, lamiae, lamina, layman, laymen, mainly, maline, manila, meanly, menial, myelin, namely. | |
-5 letters: alane, alien, aline, aliya, amain, amine, amnia, anile, anima, anime, elain, elfin, email, faena, filmy, final, flame, flamy, fleam, inlay, lamia, lanai, leafy, leman, lemma, liana, liane, liman, limen, limey, liney, mafia, maile, malmy, mamey, mamie, mania, manly, mayan, mealy, meany, meiny, minae, nyala, yamen. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)46 61 6D 69 6C 79 4E 61 6D 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000110 01100001 01101101 01101001 01101100 01111001 00100000 01001110 01100001 01101101 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)F a m i l y   N a m e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0046 0061 006D 0069 006C 0079 004E 0061 006D 0065 |
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)406779757891248677971 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Non-fiction 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Translations: Ancient 10. Anagrams 11. Orthography 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
