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. Each is a means of conveying
lineage.
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 and daughter of Pétur Marteinsson would have different last names - Pétursson (for his son) and Pétursdóttir (for his daughter).
Many
Irish,
Scottish,
Welsh,
Spanish,
Slavic,
Manx,
English, 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, e.g.,
Slobodan Milošević). Similarly, other 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 (as in Ethiopia).
Patronymics can simplify or complicate
genealogical research. A father's first name is easily determinable when his children bear a patronymic; however, migration has frequently resulted in a switch from a patronymic to a surname due to different local customs. 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.
Worldwide
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, Danish -datter) 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 characteristic 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 the
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 genitive 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 Jans'zoon' 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 Gaelic,
Irish and
Manx. "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 "MacCoinnich" - or the anglicized 'Mackenzie' - son of Coinneach/Kenneth. Less well known in the
Anglosphere is the female equivalent of ''Mac'', ''Nic'', condensed from ''nighean mhic'' (in Scottish Gaelic) or ''iníon mhic'' (in Irish). For example, the Scottish Gaelic surname, ''Nic Dhòmhnaill'' meaning 'daughter of a son of Dòmhnall' (in English, Donald), as in ''Mairi Nic Dhòmhnaill'', or Mary MacDonald. In
Ireland, the use of ''Ó'' (and its feminine equivalent ''Ní'', from ''iníon uí''), anglicised "O'" and meaning 'grandson' predominated over "Mac". 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)). An interesting crossover variation in the use of "O'" for grandson in Irish and "Ap" for son in Welsh, was that the West Waleian name Ho-well was derived from Ui'Well of old Irish, which then became O'Well... then Howell in their Welsh relatives. As for Ap Howell, that does mean, 'the son of the grandson of...Well'
In
Wales, before the
1536 Act of Union all Welsh people used patronyms and matronym as the sole way of naming people, so Rhydderch ap Watcyn was Rhydderch son of Watcyn (''ap'' is a variant of ''mab'', 'son'). Daughters were indicated by ''verch'' (from ''merch'', meaning 'girl, daughter'), as in ''Angharad Verch Owain'' or 'Angharad, daughter of Owain'. This gave rise to names such as ''ap Hywel'' being - after the Acts of Union - used as Anglicised surnames; in this case the name ''ap Hywel'' became the surnames Howell/Powell. Up until the
Industrial Revolution the use of patronyms was still widespread, especially in the South West, Mid West and North of Wales. There was during the 20th century, a revival of patronyms; this trend continues into the 21st century
The archaic
French, more specifically,
Frankish, 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.
In
Portugal, there are some common surnames which had a patronymic genesis, but are no longer used in such way. For instance, ''Álvares'' was the son of ''Álvaro'' and ''Gonçalves'' was the son of ''Gonçalo'' (it was the case of
Nuno Álvares Pereira, son of Álvaro Gonçalves Pereira, son of Gonçalo Pereira). Other cases include ''Rodrigues'' (''Rodrigo'') and ''Nunes'' (''Nuno'').
In the same way the surname Soares means son of Soeiro (in Latin Suarius). It comes from Latin Suarici (son of Suarius); the Latin
genitive suffix ''-icius/a'' was used to indicate a patronymic. After it became Suariz, Suarez and eventually Soares.
Spanish patronyms follow a similar pattern to the Portuguese (e.g., Lopez -- of Lope, Hernandez -- of Hernando, Alvarez -- of Alvaro). Common endings include -ez, -az, -is, and -oz. (Note: Not all names with similar endings are necessarily patronymic. For example: Ramas, Vargas, and Morales.)
Eastern Europe
In
East Slavic languages, endings such as pronounced as "vich" are used to form patronymics for men. 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, -ovna or -ichna. For masculine names ending in a vowel, such as Ilya or Foma, the corresponding endings are -ich and -inichna. The patronymic is the official part of the name, which stands in all documents. It 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' Ianna" (Марьванна), short for "Maria Ivanovna" (Мария Ивановна), a young female teacher who is a constant character in
Vovochka jokes.
In
Bulgarian, the patronymics are -ov/-ev and -ova/-eva for men and women, respectively. These are identical to the common endings of Bulgarian and some other Slavic family names (Russian and Czech, for example.)
Some South Slavic surnames look morphologically identical to Slavic patronymics, but they do not change form between
masculine and
feminine:
Milla Jovovich 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 were once formed with the ending ''-fi'' (sometimes spelled as ''-fy'' or ''-ffy''). This system is no longer in common use, though it was 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 the Old Hungarian period (
10th−
16th century, see
History of Hungarian) when surnames were not in common use the full genitive was represented such in ''Péter fia András'' (''Peter's son Andrew''); these forms are in frequent use in charters and legal documents dated back to that time.
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.
Caucasus
Armenian
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.
Azeri
In
Azeri, patronymics are formed through ''oğlu'' (sometimes transliterated as ''ogly'') for males and ''qızı'' (often transliterated as ''gizi'' or ''kizi'') for females. Prior to the late 19th–early 20th century, patronymics were used as an essential part of a person's full name, i.e. ''Sardar Ilyas oğlu'' ("Sardar, son of Ilyas") and ''Mina Nabi qızı'' ("Mina, daughter of Nabi"), since surnames were mostly non-existent before
Sovietization (with the exception of the upper and some middle class families). After surnames were commonly adopted in
Azerbaijan in the 1920s, patronymics still remained parts of full names, i.e. ''Sardar Ilyas oğlu Aliyev'' ("Sardar Aliyev, son of Ilyas"). Nowadays in Azerbaijan, patronymics sometimes replace surnames in unofficial use. Normally in such case, they are spelled as one word (i.e. ''Eldar Mammadoğlu'', ''Sabina Yusifqızı''). Many Azeri surnames are also derived from Persian-style patronymics ending in ''-zadeh'' (''Kazimzadeh'', ''Mehdizadeh'', etc.). They are found among both Caucasian and Iranian Azeris. However unlike the former, Azeris in Iran do not generally use patronymics in ''oglu'' / ''qizi''. Azeri patronymics are not to be confused with
Turkish surnames in ''-oğlu'' and
Greek surnames in ''-ογλού'' (''-oglou''), which do not have specific female versions and do not reflect names of fathers.
Georgian
Middle East
Arabic
Main articles: Arabic name
In
Arabic, the word "" (or "bin" and sometimes "ibni" and "ibnu" to show the final
declension of the noun) is the equivalent of the "son" prefix discussed above (The prefix ben- is used similarly in Hebrew). 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 (in the Qur'an, Jesus has no father; see
Islamic view of Jesus). 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.
In
Iraq, full names are formed by combining the given name of an individual with the given name of their father (sometimes the father is skipped and the grandfather's given name is used instead, sometimes both father and grandfather are used), along with the town, village, or clan name. For instance, Hayder Muhammed al-Tikriti is the son of Muhammed named Hayder, and he is from the town of Tikrit.
Aramaic
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 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.
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).
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.
Many Sephardic Jews used the Arabic Ibn instead of bat or ben when it was the norm. The Spanish family Ibn Ezra is one example.
In modern Israel, a lot of immigrants changed their names for a Hebrew one. The idea was to erase the sing of ''galuti'' (exiled) life still surviving in family names from other languages. It was specially true and intensive in Ashkenazic Jews, because most of their names were very lately taken and even some of them were imposed by functionaires of German and Austro Hungarian Empires.
A popular form to create a new family name was using BAR or BEN (son in Aramaic or Hebrew); despite the meaning of "Son of", it's not a real patronymic. Very often, the names chosen had a poetic zionist meaning related to nationalistic aims (BEN AMI, son of my people, or BEN ARTZI, son of my country) or the Israeli landscape (BEN KNAAN, BAR ILAN). Some other create a Hebrew name on the basis of a phonetic similarity with their original family name, like Golda Meyersohn became Golda Meir.
Some famous Jews who have used this "patronymic-like" system include the first
Israeli Prime Minister,
David Ben-Gurion, was original family name was GRÜN. However, his father's first name being AVIGDOR, it wasn't a real patronymic.
Indian subcontinent
Patronymy is common in parts of
India and
Pakistan. If a father is named Khurram Suleman, he will name his son, for example, Taha Khurram, who would name his son, for example, Ismail Taha. Surnames are therefore not preserved across generations.
In southern India, in
Tamil Nadu and parts of
Kerala and
Karnataka, patronymy is almost the norm. This is a significant departure from the rest of the country where caste or family names are mostly employed as surnames.
However, rather than using the father's full name, only the first letter—known as initials—is prefixed to the given name. For example, if a person's personal name is ''Saravanan'' and his father's ''Muthukumaran'', then the full name is ''M. Saravanan'' and is seldom expanded, even in official records. Some families follow the tradition of retaining the name of the hometown, the grandfather's name, or both, as initials. The celebrated Indian English novelist
R. K. Narayan's name at birth was Rasipuram Krishnaswami Ayyar Narayanaswami, which was shortened at the behest of his writer friend Graham Greene. Rasipuram, the first name, is a
toponym and Krishnaswami Ayyar, the second name, is a patronym.
Outsiders and fellow compatriots are frequently baffled by this unusual naming convention, as are these individuals themselves by the concept of surnames. Both are often mistaken. That a personal name in south India can comprise several parts only helps add to the confusion. A Tamil name like ''P. Valarmathi Josephine Cynthia
often ends up being broken down, by mistake, into three parts—first name, middle name, and last name—in northern India. A person named M. Saravanan'' is often thought to be using his surname with the given name initialized, where in fact, it is only the given name he goes by.
Nonetheless, the growing trend in cities in southern India and among expatriates is to expand the father’s name and suffix it to one’s given name, thus creating an illusory surname and preventing any possible confusion. The name stated in the earlier example, ''M. Saravanan'' can be rewritten as ''Saravanan Muthukumaran'', bringing it in line with the western naming convention.
See also
★ Arabic name
★ Dutch name
★ Georgian name
★ German name
★ Icelandic name
★ Jewish name
★ Pakistani name
★ Polish name
★ Russian name
★ Scots Gaelic name
★ Somali name
External links
★ What's the story with Dutch surnames?
★ 17th Century Dutch Surnames
★ Welsh Patronymic Surnames
★ Data Wales Surnames
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