I guess many cultures used "son of" as a suffix, for a second name.
I know that in French, a suffix like "ault" means son of (or something like that); so Renault is "son of Rene", Perrault is likely "son of Pierre" and Theriault is "son of Thierry". I don't know when these things "crystallized", such that those surnames stuck, and one stopped being named after there fathers. As you said, I'm sure there were local variations, and in some areas the custom may have persisted longer than others; indeed, in some areas it may not have happened at all.
Certainly, by the time the French populated what is now Canada, starting in the early 1600's, the surnames were passed from generation to generation.
Interesting post, though. I didn't realize what you said about village names.
It's wonderful having such an international list - I learn more here than from books, sometimes.
cheers, frank
"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
From: Anders Hultman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: About my name Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2004 11:22:24 +0100 (MET)
On Sat, 6 Mar 2004, John Mustarde wrote:
> Thanks for the lesson, Attila. One of the things I like about PDML is > learning a little about many cultures. I never knew about writing > family name first.
Up until the last turn of the century, people here in Sweden generally didn't have family names. As surname, they used the father's name+son or father's name+daughter. If Karl had a son Johan, he would be Johan Karlsson, and if Johan had a son Erik, he would be Erik Johansson. The surname didn't get passed on to the next generation, and people put the emphasis on the first name. Even kings and noblemen got refered to with their first name.
The military, in order to keep track of all the Johanssons and Karlssons, gave the soldiers new surnames. Short names like Quick, Fast, Strong, Brave etc suitable for soldiers. When the soldiers left the army they ususlly took their old names back.
But somewhere around or right before 1900 the son-name or soldier name that people had got stuck, and beacme a family name, that got passed on through the generations. Today most swedes follow the "modern western way" of first name + family name, but in one particular part of the country they use "village names". A person use the name of the farm or village that he or she comes from before the first name. Nyg�rds Anna or Nyg�rds Johan. Those persons formally has a regular surname as well, but they seldom use it.
anders ------------------------- http://anders.hultman.nu/
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