Last names are inherited, so how far back did last names go? Did people initially choose their last name and then passed it down to children? Why are there so many common last names between people who aren’t related?
The original question was asked by a 6 year old, and it got me thinking about all of these other questions too.
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In England, most people were using last names (surnames) by the early modern period. This would have been the time where last names started being passed down by the father. Before this many last names we have today existed as bynames- unofficial titles given to adults. Stuff like “That’s John, he’s a farmer so we call him John the Farmer”, “That’s Robert, he’s from Dover so we call him Robert of Dover”, “That’s Gregory, he’s bald so we call him Gregory the Bald”. Modern “last names” as surnames came into widespread use in Europe following the Black Plague, when people began to travel very far from their villages in search of work, as well as the rise of urban living in the early modern period when tons of people with similar given names would have been living in close proximity.
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