I like how a lot of nordic last names are just telling you whose son you are
"This is the son of Hans... You know, Hanson"
IIRC this was partially an ellis island thing: immigrants had no last names so they would just say who their dads were
Patronyms were fairly common all over Europe at the time. It was around the 1600s that names started being inherited among non-nobles. Usually either a patronym or an occupation name otherwise.
But it's also true of Scandinavians. For example Kevin Magnusson, son of magnus I guess
Don't they do that in the middle east too? Ali bin Hussein. Ben-Gurion.
Yes, and the same goes for Russian, where you have your father's first name with an -ich suffix as your middle name. The Ilyich in Vladimir Ilyich Lenin just means "son of Ilya"
The Mac- prefix in Scottish Surnames also means "son of", so Angus MacDonald would mean Angus, son of Donald.
It is just a patronym. So unless your father's given name was Hansonsonsonson that wouldn't happen.
I’m also curious how hyphenated names work. After a certain point you have to go back down and cut some out right? Who’s names are dropped?
Wish the west adapted the Japanese style of naming people after whatever you want. “This is my wife Treeshade Snowmountain, my son Windwisdom, and my daughter Kayleigh”
pretty sure phones weren't around back when a lot of surnames were invented so i give this post 5 pinocchios
It's a tradition in the south Wales valleys to give people nicknames related to their occupation (e.g. calling a baker named Ned, Ned the Bread).
This is complicated further by the fact that the most common surnames all derive from jobs.
to give people nicknames related to their occupation
tell me you have a caste system without saying you have a caste system
Had a neighbour with surname that meant "Not drinking water".
Knew a guy who’s surname was ‘bread and water’ in Spanish. Thought that was pretty cool
