Find out what is last name or surname in different cultures?
Each person has a name. Still, what is last name? Is there a special meaning? Is your last name the same thing as your surname or not? How did this term receive its title?
Last name term
The history of this term is pretty simple. Last name means what it says. It is the ‘last’ name because it historically goes in the English language and culture that the first person’s name is always followed by the ‘last’ name.
Since nothing else follows the ‘last name’ in English, there is no need to think of other terms, titles, and definitions.
However, what works for English culture doesn’t necessarily work for other cultures across the world. This is the reason why the term ‘last name’ has many synonyms that are widely used in the countries that don’t speak English language or have a different historical tradition of giving names to people.
Surname term
The countries that don’t traditionally write First name followed by Last name but also use the given names, middle names and patronymic names refer to the ‘last name’ as to the surname.
READ ALSO: What is first name and last name and what other names do people have?
It is also appropriate to refer to ‘last name’ as to family name because most families share the identical surnames. Some countries write family name before the given name or place it before the forename and this is why that ‘part of the full name’ cannot be called ‘last’ as it is not standing in the end of the phrase.
Let us look at one simple example. Imagine a full name Esther Aduba. It contains the ‘first’ part Esther (called forename) and ‘last’ part Aduba (called surname, last or family name).
Meaning of last name
The influence of the surnames on persons' lives is tremendous. There are many books that describe the meanings of our names. Some of them truly have an interesting historical explanation or a legend behind it, and others just sound pretty but are meaningless.
Many countries have a true ceremony while giving the forename to their child as it identifies a person throughout the whole life. The last name is also an identification, but it better recognizes the history of the whole family and previous generations (not just a single person).
In old times, surnames could reflect the person’s profession, city, occupation etc. And these identifications were passed over from one member of the family to another one, from generation to generation. Today these names can tell a lot about your descendants and this true meaning of your last name can be tracked thanks to different research services and family trees that can unravel information about the past.
Knowing your last name is a great chance to define your origin roots and track the history of your surname back to your ancestors. Isn’t it curious to learn the meaning of your family name by researching its background?
READ ALSO: Tribal marks in Yorubaland: their names and meaning
Source: Legit.ng
