Editing Patronymic (section)

==History==
{{Unreferenced section|date=December 2013}}
In many areas around the world, patronyms predate the use of [[family name]]s. Family names in many [[Celtic languages|Celtic]], [[Germanic languages|Germanic]], [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberian]], [[Georgian language|Georgian]], [[Armenian language|Armenian]] and [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] languages originate from patronyms, e.g. [[Wilson (surname)|Wilson]] (son of [[William (name)|William]]), [[FitzGerald (surname)|FitzGerald]] (son of [[Gerald]]), [[Powell (surname)|Powell]] (from "ap [[Hywel]]"), [[Fernández]] (son of [[Fernando]]), [[Rodríguez (surname)|Rodríguez]] (son of [[Rodrigo]]), [[Andersson (surname)|Andersson]] or [[Andersen]] (son of [[Anders]], [[Scandinavian languages|Scandinavian]] form of [[Andrew (given name)|Andrew]]), [[Carlsen (name)|Carlsen]] (son of [[Carl (name)|Carl]]), [[Ilyin]] (of [[Ilya]]), [[Petrov (surname)|Petrov]] (of [[Peter (given name)|Peter]]), [[Grigorovich]] (son of [[Grigory]], Russian form of [[Gregory (given name)|Gregory]]), [[Stefanović]] (son of [[Stefan (given name)|Stefan]], little Stefan), [[MacAllister]] (from "mac Alistair", meaning son of [[Alistair]], anglicized Scottish form of [[Alexander]]) and [[O'Conor]] (from "Ó Conchobhair", meaning grandson/descendant of [[Conchobhar]]). Other cultures which formerly used patronyms have switched to the more widespread style of passing the father's last name to the children (and wife) as their own.
In [[Iceland]], [[Icelandic name|family names]] are unusual; Icelandic law favours the use of patronyms (and more recently, matronyms) over family names.