Why is it that people can have the same last name but not be related?
In: Biology
In some areas, people changed their last name to correspond to a family in power. That was somewhat common after Europeans brought the concept of a ‘last name’ to Vietnam. It’s one reason for so many similar last names in Vietnam.
Because last names do not tend to have a single progenitor, but are rather based on professions or birthplaces. Just like all blacksmiths are not related, not everybody named Smith is related.
Last names often developed from things like where they lived, what they did for a living, who their parent was… those aren’t unique factors. Many people were black/silversmiths and took the last name Smith. Many people had fathers names John and thus became Johnsons.
Different families can have the same last names depending on their origin, for example Smith, there were a lot of blacksmiths, it’s probably likely several got the last name Smith or you could be related, but only a long time ago and there are no records
To answer this you need to understand where the names come from and that, in England at least, hereditary names didn’t take hold until the 16th century when parish records became more commonplace.
Amongst English speaking countries (I can’t speak for others but they are likely similar) there are many reasons for the use of names, including:
– the changing of surnames to fit in, something immigrants have been doing for centuries (such as the surname Schmit being changed to Smith upon arrival to the US etc).
– the adoption of a name related to a profession, some well known still (Smith, Cook, Miller etc) and some not commonly known as professions today (such as Fletcher, Devine, Fowler etc).
– the adoption of a surname related to a physical place (Underhill, Smallwood, York etc)
– the adoption of a surname based to match the feudal power you were living under, sometimes confused with the last point as the last names of the lord often denoted a title or claim to the land (Dudley, Warwick, Ireland)
– the adoption of a surname based on a physical trait (Short, Armstrong, Hardy).
– the adoption of a surname based on your lineage (Robetson, Peterson, Thomson). Interestingly, the name Fitz added to the beginning of a surname was to denote illegitimacy (Fitzroy indicating the illegitimate child of a king).
Lack of control.
Historically, people consciously decided on what to call themselves, all by their own doing. Or got a name appointed to them by some royalty, for one reason or another.
Sometimes, the name came with a certain appointed official office. And if you died on your post, your children would go on using your appointed name.
And so would eventually family of whoever was appointed as a successor.
But most of the time, the problem was pretty much that if you thought out a cool name and decided to start using it…you could be damn sure that someone else, somewhere else in the world, also fancied and officially changed to that name.
(not to mention, of course, that there was a time when “officially changing your name” pretty much meant that you verbally told the local post office representative that you would now get mail from home with another name on it…)
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