WestminsterResearch http://www.westminster.ac.uk/westminsterresearch Family Names Hanks, P. and Parkin, H. This is a pre-copy edited, author-produced PDF of a chapter accepted for publication in Hough, C. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Names and Naming, Oxford University Press, pp. 214-236 . The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available from the publisher at: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-names... The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or copyright owners. Whilst further distribution of specific materials from within this archive is forbidden, you may freely distribute the URL of WestminsterResearch: ((http://westminsterresearch.wmin.ac.uk/). In case of abuse or copyright appearing without permission e-mail
[email protected] OXFORD HANDBOOK OF NAMES AND NAMING CHAPTER 16 - FAMILY NAMES 16.1 Origins of Hereditary Surnames 16.1.1 Personal naming systems of the world Every human society has a naming system for identifying individuals within it (see Chapter 14). This normally consists of one or more given names (see Chapter 15) and an additional name whose function is to identify the individual as a member of a family within society. With very few exceptions, there are just three such systems of personal naming throughout the world: the patronymic system, the binomial system, and the Arabic system. The focus of this chapter will be on family names within the binomial system, but first we give a brief account of the other two systems, both of which have contributed to the development of family names within the binomial system in the English-speaking world and in other European languages.