Patronymic
A
patronymic, or
patronym, is a component of a
personal name based on the name of one's father. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother is a
matronymic, or matronym.
In many areas patronymics predate the use of
surnames. They, along with the less common matronymics, are still used in
Iceland, where few people have surnames. For example, the son of Pétur Marteinsson would have a different last name - Pétursson.
Many
English,
Welsh,
Spanish,
Slavic, and
Scandinavian surnames originate from patronymics, e.g.
Wilson (son of William), Powell (ap Hywel), Fernández (of Fernando), Carlsson (son of Carl, e.g.
Erik Carlsson),
Milošević (son of Miloš). Similarly, other Norse cultures which formerly used patronyms have since switched to the more widespread style of passing the father's
last name to the children (and wife) as their own.
Patrynomics can complicate
Genealogical research. Migration has frequently resulted in a switch to surnames due to different local customs and so, depending on the countries concerned, family research in the nineteenth century or earlier needs to take this into account.
In biological
taxonomy, a patronym is a
specific epithet which is a Latinized surname. These often honor associates of the biologist who named the organism rather than the biologist himself. Examples include
Gopherus agassizii, named by
James Graham Cooper after
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz, and
Acacia greggii, named by botanist
Asa Gray after explorer
Josiah Gregg.
Western Europe
In Western Europe, the patronymic was formerly widespread, but latterly confined to the Nordic and Scandinavian peoples in the north west.
In
Nordic languages, the patronymic was formed by using the ending -son (later -sen in
Danish and
Norwegian) to indicate "son of", and -dotter (
Icelandic -dóttir) for "daughter of". In Iceland, patronymics are in fact compulsory by law, with a handful of exceptions ("
Halldór Laxness" for example was the
pen name of "Halldór Guðjónsson"). This name was generally used as a last name although a third name, a so-called byname based on location or personal charateristic was often added to differentiate people. The use of Scandinavian-style patronymics, particularly in its Danish variation with the ending -sen, was also widespread in northern
Germany. This reflects the strong influence of
Scandinavia in this part of Germany during the centuries.
In
Finnish language, the use of patronymics instead of surnames was very common well into the 19th century. They fell out of use however, when the law was changed so that a surname was required of everyone. Patronymics were composed similarly as in
Swedish language or other Scandinavian languages: the father's name and the suffix -n for genetive plus the word
poika for sons,
tytär for daughters. For example Tuomas Abrahaminpoika and Martta Heikintytär.
In
Dutch, patronymics were often used in place of
surnames or as middle names. Patronymics were composed of the father's name plus an ending
-zoon for sons,
-dochter for daughters. For instance,
Abel Janszoon Tasman is "Abel son of Jan Tasman", and
Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer: "Kenau, daughter of Simon Hasselaer". In written form, these endings were often abbreviated as
-sz and
-dr respectively eg. Jeroen Corneli
sz "Jeroen son of Cornelis". The endings
-s,
-se and
-sen were also commonly used for sons and often for daughters too. In the northern provinces,
-s was almost universally used for both sons and daughters. Patronymics were common in the Dutch
United Provinces until the
French invasion in
1795 and subsequent annexation in
1810. As the Netherlands was now a province of France, a registry of births, deaths and marriages was established in
1811, whereupon
emperor Napoleon forced the Dutch to register and adopt a distinct surname. Often, they simply made the patronymic the new surname, and modern Dutch patronymic-based surnames such as Jansen, Pietersen and Willemsen abound. (Others chose their profession as surname:
Bakker (baker),
Slagter (butcher) etc. Still others may have thought this "surname thing" was a passing fashion and chose fantasy names such as
Keizer (emperor) or even
Naaktgeboren (born naked).)
The use of "Mac" in some form, was prevalent in
Scottish,
Irish and
Manx Gaelic. Notably "Mac" also appears in many
Lowland surnames, particularly in south west Scotland; "Mc" is also a frequent anglicisation in both Scotland and Ireland. In Ireland, the forms "Mag" and "M'" are encountered. The prefix "Mac" is used to form a patronym, such as "MacCoinneach" - or the anglicized 'Mackenzie' - son of Coinneach/Kenneth. Less well known is the female equivalent of 'Mac'; 'Nic', such as NicDhòmhnaill meaning daughter of Dòmhnall or, in English, Donald; an example would be the Gaelic
Mairi NicDhòmhnaill, or Mary MacDonald. In
Ireland, the use of """ (anglicised "O'") meaning grandson predominated over "Mac" in Gaelic there, and at the north end of the
Irish Sea, in
Ulster, the
Isle of Man and
Galloway (indeed as far north as
Argyll), "Mac" was frequently truncated in speech, leading to such anglicisations as "Qualtrough" (Son of Walter) & "Quayle" (son of Paul, cf MacPhail) - usually beginning with "C", "K" or "Q". Colloquial Scottish Gaelic also has other patronymics of a slightly different form for individuals, still in use (for more information please see:
Scottish Gaelic personal naming system)).
In
Wales, before the
1536 Act of Union all Welsh people used patronyms as the sole way of naming people, so Rhydderch ap Watcyn was Rhydderch son of Watcyn (ap corresponds to mab - son). This gave rise to names such as Watcyn being - after the Acts of Union - used as Anglicised surnames; in this case the name Watcyn became the surname Watkin/Watkins. Up until the
Industrial Revolution the use of patronyms was still widespread, especially in the South West, Mid West and North of Wales.
The archaic
French prefix
fitz, which is cognate with the modern French
fils, meaning son, appears in England's aristocratic family lines dating from the
Norman Conquest, and also among the
Anglo-Irish. Thus there are names like Fitzpatrick and Fitzhugh. Of particular interest is the name
Fitzroy, meaning "King's son", which was used by Royal bastards who were acknowledged as such by their fathers.
Eastern Europe
In some
Slavic languages, endings such as -vich, -vič, -vić, -wicz (all pronounced as "vich") are used to form patronymics. For example, in
Russian a man named Ivan whose father's name is Nikolay would be known as Ivan Nikolayevich or "Ivan, son of Nikolay" (with
Nikolayevich as a patronymic). For women, the ending is -yevna or -ovna. For masculine names ending in a vowel, such as Ilya or Foma, the corresponding endings are -ich and -inichna. The patronymic is used when addressing somebody both formally as well as among friends. A Russian will almost never formally address a person named Mikhail as just 'Mikhail', but rather as 'Mikhail' plus his patronymic (for instance, 'Mikhail Nikolayevich' or 'Mikhail Sergeyevich' etc). However, on informal occasions when a person is using the
diminutive of a name, such as Misha for Mikhail, the patronymic is hardly ever used. Alternatively, on informal occasions the ending of a patronomic may be
colloquially contracted: Nikolayevich -> Nikolaich, Stepan Ivanovich -> Stepan Ivanych -> Ivanych (the
given name may be omitted altogether). In the case of this omission of the first name the contraction, if possible, is obligatory: Ivan Sergeyevich Sidorov may be called "Sergeich" or, more rarely, "Sergeyevich". Such contractions are not used by all as they tend to bring a shade of
muzhik-style familiarity. And they are as common with women's patronymics as men's. A very famous example is "
Mar' Ivanna" ("Марь Иванна"), a young female teacher - constant character of
Vovochka jokes.
Some West Slavic or South Slavic surnames look morphologically identical to Slavic patronymics, but they do not change form between
masculine and
feminine:
Mila Jovovic stays "Jovovic", not "Jovovna"; and these surnames cannot be contracted using the pattern mentioned above. Examples of them are
Mikhail Andreyevich Miloradovich and
Vladislav Khodasevich.
In
Hungarian patronyms are formed with the ending
-fi (sometimes spelled as
-fy). Actually it's not in use any more but it was more common centuries ago and can still be found in some frequent present-day surnames such
Pálfi (son of Paul),
Győrfi,
Bánfi or in the name of the famous poet
Sándor Petőfi.
In
Romanian, the endings -escu and -eanu were used, like
Petrescu - son of Petre (Peter); many of the current Romanian family names were formed like this.
Middle East
In
Armenian, the endings -ian and -yan are used, e.g. Jafarian. Many of the current Armenian family names were formed like this, though the root is often based on a trait of the namesake rather than the actual name. -oglu and -ov are also sometimes used by Armenians in Turkey and Russia, respectively.
In
Aramaic, the prefix bar- means "son" and is used as a prefix meaning "son of." In the Bible, Peter is called Bar-jonah in
Matthew 16:17 and Nathanael is possibly called Bartholomew because he is the son of Tolmai. The titles can also be figurative, for example in Acts 4:36-37 a man named Joseph is called Barnabas meaning son of consolation. The prefix ben- is used similarly in
Hebrew.
In
Arabic, the word "
ibn" (or "bin" and sometimes "ibni" and "ibnu" to show the final declention of the noun) is the equivalent of the "son" prefix discussed above. In addition, "binte" means "daughter of". Thus, for example, "Ali ibn Amr" means "Ali son of Amr". The word "Abu" means "father of", so "Abu Ali" is another name for "Amr". In medieval times, a
bastard of unknown parentage would sometimes be termed "ibn Abihi", "son of his father" (notably
Ziyad ibn Abihi.) In the
Qur'an,
Jesus (
Isa in Arabic) is consistently termed "Isa ibn Maryam" - a
matronymic - because, in Muslim belief, he had no biological father. An Arabic patronymic can be extended as far back as family tree records will allow: thus, for example,
Ibn Khaldun gives his own full name as "Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn Jabir ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Khaldun". Patronymics are still standard in parts of the Arab world, notably
Saudi Arabia; however, most of the Arab world has switched to a family name system. As in English, the new family names are sometimes based on what was formerly a patronymic.
The Arabic patronymic tradition has been adopted by the Malaysian Malays, who give both sons and daughters patronyms with the structure of
bin (for sons) and
binti (for daughters) as the middle word of the name. An example name of "Ahmad bin Fadzil" means "Ahmad son of Fadzil", while the example of "Aina binti Md. Daud" means "Aina daughter of Md. Daud".
Jewish usage
The
Jewish people historically used patronymic names. Permanent family surnames exist today but this did not come until much later in history. The Jewish patronymic system is done with the first name followed by
ben or
bat depending on the gender, and then followed by the father's name. Examples include David ben Yitzhak or Miryam bat Yaakov where ben means son of and bat means daughter of. While Jews now have permanent surnames for everyday life, this form is still exclusively used in religious life. It is used in
synagogue and in Jewish legal documents such as the
ketubah (marriage contract). Some famous Jews who have used this patronymic system include the first
Israeli Prime Minister,
David Ben-Gurion.
Names for the entire family gained popularity among
Sephardic Jews in Spain, Portugal and Italy as early as the tenth or eleventh century, but did not catch on among the
Ashkenazic Jews of Germany or Eastern Europe until much later.
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Arabic name*
Icelandic name*
Jewish name*
Pakistani name*
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Scots Gaelic name*
Russian name*
What's the story with Dutch surnames?*
17th Century Dutch Surnames*
Welsh Patronymic Surnames*
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