Editing Surname (section)

===Origin===
While the use of given names to identify individuals is attested in the oldest historical records, the advent of surnames is relatively recent.<ref name="Doll1992">{{Cite news|last=Doll|first=Cynthia Blevins|year=1992|title=Harmonizing Filial and Parental Rights in Names: Progress, Pitfalls, and Constitutional Problems|volume=35|page=227|work=Howard Law Journal|publisher=Howard University School of Law|issn=0018-6813}} ''Content available by subscription only. The first page of content is available via [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=info:LBmZUSt6tbgJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&lr=&output=viewport&shm=1&pg=1 Google Scholar]''.</ref> Many cultures have used and continue to use additional descriptive terms in identifying individuals. These terms may indicate personal attributes, location of origin, occupation, parentage, patronage, adoption, or clan affiliation.<ref name="e082">{{cite web|last=Lederer|first=Richard|title=Our last names reveal a lot about our labor days|website=San Diego Union-Tribune|date=5 September 2015|url=https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-last-names-english-language-lederer-2015sep05-story.html|access-date=2024-06-02}}</ref>

In China, according to legend, family names started with Emperor [[Fuxi|Fu Xi]] in 2000 BC.<ref name="Danesi2007">{{Cite book|last=Danesi|first=Marcel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=as6_qARSebIC|title=The Quest for Meaning|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-8020-9514-5|page=48|access-date=21 September 2008}}</ref> His administration standardised the naming system to facilitate census-taking, and the use of census information. Originally, [[Chinese surname]]s were derived matrilineally,<ref name="naming">{{cite web|url-status=dead|website=Berkeley Linguistics|date=2004|url=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/~rosemary/55-2004-names.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519142616/http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/~rosemary/55-2004-names.pdf|archive-date=19 May 2011|title=Naming practices|at=Chinese naming practices (Mak et al., 2003)}}</ref> although by the time of the [[Shang dynasty]] (1600 to 1046 BC) they had become patrilineal.<ref name="naming" /><ref name="Zhimin">{{Cite journal|last=Zhimin|first=An|year=1988|title=Archaeological Research on Neolithic China|journal=Current Anthropology|volume=29|issue=5|pages=753–759 [755, 758]|doi=10.1086/203698|jstor=2743616|s2cid=144920735}}</ref> Chinese women do not change their names upon marriage.<ref name="q448">{{cite book|last=Ch'ien|first=E.N.M.|title=Weird English|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-674-02953-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fx6o5NXOLoQC&pg=PA310|access-date=2024-06-02|page=310}}</ref> In China, surnames have been the norm since at least the 2nd century BC.<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Koon|first=Wee Kek|date=18 November 2016|title=The complex origins of Chinese names demystified|url=http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2046955/complex-origins-chinese-names-demystified|magazine=Post Magazine|access-date=3 October 2017|archive-date=4 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171004035355/http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2046955/complex-origins-chinese-names-demystified|url-status=live}}</ref> 

In the early [[Islamic]] period (640–900 AD) the use of [[patronymics]] is well attested. The famous scholar [[Rhazes]] ({{circa|865–925 AD}}) is referred to as "al-Razi" (lit. the one from Ray) due to his origins from the city of [[Ray, Iran|Ray]], Iran. In the [[Levant]], surnames were in use as early as the [[High Middle Ages]] and it was common for people to derive their surname from a distant ancestor, and historically the surname would be often preceded with 'ibn' or 'son of'. Arab family names often denote either one's [[tribe]], [[profession]], a famous ancestor, or the place of origin; but they were not universal. For example, [[Hunayn ibn Ishaq]] (fl. 850 AD) was known by the nisbah "al-'Ibadi", a federation of Arab Christian tribes that lived in [[Mesopotamia]] prior to the advent of [[Islam]].

In Ancient Greece, as far back as the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic Period]] clan names and [[patronymic]]s ("son of") were also common, as in [[Aristides]] as Λῡσῐμᾰ́χου – a genitive singular form meaning son of Lysimachus. For example, [[Alexander the Great]] was known as [[Heracleidae|''Heracleides'']], as a supposed descendant of [[Heracles]], and by the dynastic name [[Caranus of Macedon|''Karanos''/''Caranus'']], which referred to the founder of the [[Argead dynasty|dynasty to which he belonged]]. These patronymics are already attested for many characters in the works of [[Homer]]. At other times formal identification commonly included the place of origin.<ref name="Gill2008">{{Cite book|url=http://ancienthistory.about.com/|title=About Ancient / Classical History|publisher=The New York Times Company|editor-last=Gill|editor-first=N.S.|chapter=Ancient Names – Greek and Roman Names|chapter-url=http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/nameetymologies/p/AncientNames.htm|access-date=13 May 2016|archive-date=28 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071128112818/http://ancienthistory.about.com/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Over the course of the Roman Republic and the later Empire, naming conventions went through multiple changes. (''See [[Roman naming conventions]].'') The [[Nomen gentilicium|''nomen'']], the name of the [[gens]] (tribe) inherited patrilineally, is thought to have already been in use by 650 BC.<ref name="Salway">[[Benet Salway]], "What's in a Name? A Survey of Roman Onomastic Practice from c. 700 B.C. to A.D. 700", in ''[[Journal of Roman Studies]]'', vol. 84, pp. 124–145 (1994).</ref> The ''nomen'' was to identify group kinship, while the ''[[praenomen]]'' (forename; plural ''praenomina'') was used to distinguish individuals within the group. Female ''praenomina'' were less common, as women had reduced public influence, and were commonly known by the feminine form of the ''nomen'' alone.