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Apatronymic surname is a surname originated from thegiven name of the father or apatrilinealancestor. Different cultures have different ways of producingpatronymic surnames.
In the Old Testament of the Bible, men are identified by their lineage through use of their father's first (and only) name.
Last names were ‘normalized’ and became more standardized with the advent of mass literacy, paper availability and documentation, and mobility. For example, passports vs early letters of introduction for travel.
For example, early patronymicWelsh surnames were the result of theAnglicizing of the historical Welsh naming system, which sometimes had included references to several generations: e.g., Llywelyn ap Gruffydd ap Morgan (Llywelyn son of Gruffydd son of Morgan), and which gave rise to the quip, "as long as a Welshman's pedigree".
As an example of Anglicization, the name Llywelyn ap Gruffydd was turned into Llywelyn Gruffydds or Griffiths, i.e., the "ap" meaning "son of" was replaced by thegenitive suffix "-s". Some Welsh surnames, such asJohn (a biblical name) orHowell (Hywel), did not acquire the suffix "-s". In some other cases, the suffix was affixed to the surname much later, in the 18th or 19th century.[1] Likewise, in some cases, the "ap" coalesced into the name in some form, as in Bevan (ab Evan), Broderick (ab Rhydderch), Price (ap Rhys), Powell (ap Hywel; Hywel itself was anglicized toHowell), and Upjohn (ap John).[2][3]
Similarly, last names or surnames were not set in Russia, but patronymic and based on a father's first name: Peter's children might be Jan and Roman Petrovich; Peter's grand children could be Aleksandr Janowicz and Ivan Romanowicz/Romanovich. Peter's great grandchildren could be Nicolai Aleksandrovich and Dmitri Ivanovich.
Nearly allIcelandic names are strictly patronymic, or in some casesmatronymic, asIcelandic society generally does not make use of hereditary family names. A similar situation could, until relatively recently, be found in the continental Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, where hereditary family names came into widespread use for the general population during the course of the 19th century or the beginning of the 20th century, ultimately as a consequence of legislation. As the outcome of this, a large majority ofScandinavian family names originated as the patronymics borne by the heads of family at the times when these laws came into effect, and these surnames mostly display a limited variety reflecting the popularity of male given names during the 18th and 19th centuries in those countries.
MostMauritanian surnames are also patronymic, with names consisting of "Ould" or "Mint" followed by the ancestor's name or names.
In Turkey, under theSurname Law, all patronymic surnames from other languages had to be changed to the Turkish patronymic-oğlu.