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Guild of One-Name Studies

One-name studies, Genealogy

Is your surname here?

    • 2,686 members
    • 2,390 studies
    • 8,458 surnames

Name elements

(This section is indebted to the LAS website for ideas and examples.)

Ask your class to analyse how their own name is constructed.

  • Can they categorise each element?
  • Does their name remain the same whatever the context e.g. between home and school?

Some attempts at definitions (try this yourself):

    Surname:

    In the Western Tradition, that part of a name that is inherited by all siblings, and is intended in turn to be passed on to offspring, and indefinitely through the male line.

    Points to consider.

    • In the Hispanic system both parents names are inherited, but only the father’s name is a surname.
    • Some surnames are used as given names if there is a family connection to a famous name.

    Forename:

    • The first name element accompanying a surname. A type of ‘Given’ name. A Personal name may just be composed of ‘Given Names.’

    Family Name-

    Patronymic –

Consider the names:

Anthony Aloysius Hancock
Given name – lead Given name -secondary Surname
Anthony Aloysius Hancock
Aziz Hamid Sabah
The components of this name express the person’s lineage, and none is a family name.
Given name – lead Father’s Given name – secondary Grandfather’s Given name – tertiary
Aziz Hamid Sabah

In the western tradition,

  • the surname is often immutable – it passes unchanged to children
  • and given names are subject to the fashion of the age.

Adaptations to the given name can change its form.

Western names
Initials e.g. Anthony A. Hancock or A. Aloysius Hancock
Omission e.g. Anthony [ ] Hancock or [ ]Aloysius Hancock
Shortened & ‘pet’ forms e.g. Tony Hancock, or Tone
Nickname + Surname
(often rhyming with given name)
e.g. Boney Hancock
Nickname alone e.g. Monica (and any guesses how could that be derived from Hancock??)
Name substitution i.e. where a person decides to use a name other than that on the birth certificate
Non-Western Personal names
Infixes: de, vde., ben…”conjoined to the rest of the name,
separated from it by white space or hyphens or dropped altogether
e.g. Abdalsharif ~ Abd al-Sharif ~ Abd-Al-Sharif ~ Abdal Sharif (source: LAS)
Cultural variations : Imhemed/Mohamed (at least 40 ways of expressing the name Mohammed)
Spelling transcription In Arabic names, the letters K and Q can be used interchangeably
so that “Qadafi” and “Kadafi” are variants of the same name

Surnames

Single surnames can be modified through affixes which may be:

  • Surname Suffixes: -aldin, -oglu, -ski/-skaya
  • Surname Prefixes: Fitz, O’, De La

Double names

  • Double-barrelled surnames : hyphenated or unhyphenated
    Hispanic names usually have two surnames, but it is the first of these that is the family name.
    The final name is the mother’s maiden name – and may or may not be used
  • Patronymic + Surname

Different forms of the same name

Transliteration

Arabic names

Although an Arabic name might be written the same way in Arabic script, it can be transliterated into Roman script in different ways in differing countries:

  • West Africa Haj Imhemed Otmane Abderaqib
  • Levantine Muhamad Usman Abdel Raqeeb
  • East Africa Hag Muhammad Osman Addur’ib
  • Iraq Hajj Mohamed Uthman Abd Al Ragib
  • Persian Gulf Haj Mohd Othman Adbul Rajeeb

Chinese names

The mapping of a chinese character to the Roman alphabet can result in different forms. The pictogram depicting ‘Chang’ could be alphabetised (reflecting Mandarin) as Chang, Zhang, Tsjang, Tchang, Jang

Other factors

Titles and Qualifiers

The whole name can be circumscribed by: Titles Dr., Rev., Haj, Sri, San, Senora

Qualifiers: Jr., fils, neto, sobrinho, Ph.D

Titles do not necessarily commence a name compound: Dr Mohd Ali Hajj Abd el Rahman Jr. (Title Given Given Title Prefix infix Family Name Qualifier)

* Filing order

In the Western tradition, the order of socially-expressed names may not be that of the names as entered in a class register.

However, In Hungary, China and Korea, the surname comes first, before the given name. When placed in a Western context, Chinese may reverse the order to fit the Western model. If they go further, and add a Western given name, it might appear anywhere in the name order e.g. Yi Kyung Hee becomes Kathy Yi Kyung Hee

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Modern British Surnames

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  • Modern British Surnames
    • About the research
    • Distribution
    • Variance
    • Statistics
    • Bibliography
    • Teaching
      • Name systems
      • Name elements
      • Identity
      • Your surname
      • Given names
      • Onomastics
    • Taxonomy

Other Guild Websites

You may find our other Guild websites of interest:

  • Members’ Websites Project
  • Surname Cloud
  • Guild Members’ records on FamilySearch
  • Guild Marriage Locator

Contact Us

Email: guild@one-name.org
Address for correspondence:
c/o Secretary, 113 Stomp Road,
Burnham, Berkshire, SL1 7NN, U.K.
Registered office address:
Box G, 14 Charterhouse Buildings,
Goswell Road, London EC1M 7BA U.K.
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