Names are an important part of
any language. What kinds of names do
people have? Are they named for plants,
animals, places, ancestors? Do you give
your children names that mean nice things, or names that make them sound
unattractive (to ward off elves and other child-stealing creatures)? Do children get middle names, and if so, are
these always the names of their mothers or fathers?
Names can be very simple (“John”)
or very complex (“Edward Valsey Raymonds-son d’Auburn-et-Champagne”). One part of the name that tends to only
appear in societies with centralized bureaucracies for tax collection is the
last name (a.k.a. the family name or surname).
People who live in rural villages often feel no need for formal family
names; they make do with informal descriptions that can change from day to day
(So John may be referred to as John Robertson, John Baker, Big John, Ruddy
John, Emily’s John, John of Lockhaven…).
This is one reason why few people other than aristocrats had formal last
names during or before the Medieval period.
It’s only when outside officials turned up wanting to know who exactly
owned that meadow that many of our ancestors were assigned formal last names.
Informal “last names”—A
speaker may use any last name to describe someone that will help his listener
to identify the person. A given
individual may have many “last names,” and his children may or may not have
some of the same ones.
Formal last names – A
given individual is assigned a single last name, often due to official
pressure, and his children will inherit it.
For those of us in America, it
can be hard to remember that our last names mean something. We may not speak the language that our last
names come from, or may simply have forgotten the significance of the
names. Our names often feel like
collections of random, maybe nice-sounding syllables. This impacts the way that we create names
for story characters. We give them
names that don’t mean anything—thereby losing a wonderful opportunity to think
about the language and culture of the people we’re creating!
Classes of Last Names
There are four main classes of
last names (as well as many minor ones).
1. Patronymics (Father’s
name). Thomas, the son of Daniel, might
be referred to as Thomas Danielson.
If he is Scottish, he may be Thomas MacDaniel; if Irish, he may
be Thomas O’Daniel. In the Middle
East, he could be Thomas ben Daniel or bar Daniel. Different languages have different ways of
showing “son of” in last names. Some
languages also use matronymics (the mother’s name), especially for daughters. Aristocrats
may use multiple patronymics (for example, both the father’s name and the
grandfather’s name).
(Informal) Daniel Michael-son
Thomas Daniel-son
Peter Thomas-son Census takers arrive!
(Formal) Paul Thomasson
Michael
Thomasson
2. Place Names. The lower classes were often named for
the town or village where they were born.
Aristocrats were named for their important land-holdings. So Emile, who holds the town of Metteneye in
France, will be Emile d’Metteneye.
John, born in Lockhaven, will be John of Lockhaven—or John of the
Millrace, John of the Forest, John of the White Hill, John of Sixth
Street. Place names can be pretty
descriptive! Thus in English we have
John Stone-bridge, John White-ford, John Hampton (Hemp-town), John Hill-man,
John Braid-wood.
3. Occupation Names. Many last names refer to people’s
occupations. Think about names like
Smith, Baker, Chandler, Farr(i)er, Wagoner, Knight, Bishop, Farmer, Lord, Chamberlain,
Freeman, Cook, Gardiner, Carter, Parsons, Carpenter. We have lots of these—many of them in
languages others than English, so that we don’t recognize them anymore. Names like Knightman, Ladyman referred to the
servant of the knight or lady, not the knights and ladies themselves.
4. Adjectival Names. Many last names describe someone’s
physical appearance. Back in the day,
names like Eric the Red (Haired) and John the Tall and Patrick Left-handed and
Bob the Sad and Arthur Crook-leg were very common. Some of these survive in English: Moody,
Peart, Sadd, Stout, Quick, Slight, Beard, Suckling, Ambler, Little, Blythe,
Handy, Savage, Bachelor, Curtis (courteous), and so on.
5. Minor classes of last
names include names of days or holidays (St. Thomas for the Feast of St.
Thomas, Christmas, Easter, Munday, etc.); names of animals and plants
like Oliphant, Tannenbaum, Drake, Bird, Rose, Nightingale; numbers like
Twentyman; kinship terms like Eames (uncle), Cosens, Neves (nephew); names
of virtues and vices like Love, Bliss; names of money like
Pennyfarthing, Shilling, Pfennig; oath and curse forms like Godbehere
and Purdue (par Dieu); names formed from an imperative verb and a noun like
Dogood, Shakespeare, Ben(d)bow, Dolittle, Cutbush, Horniblow, She(a)rlock,
Gotokirke, and Golightly; and probably many more!
