Subject: Re: Patronymics From: Elida Date: May 17, 1999 Another, Elida ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- From: INTERNET:[email protected], INTERNET:[email protected] TO: PADUTCHgenONLY-L, INTERNET:[email protected] DATE: 5/16/99 12:18 PM RE: Re: Re:Patronymics Back when people lived in small clans or villages, everyone had just one name -- what we would call a "given" name. That's all they needed because everyone knew each other. As the population increased, it became necessary to distinguish between people with the same given name. One obvious way to distinguish between, for example, two "John's" in the same village, would be to indicate whose son they are. In other words, John, son of William, or John, son of Robert, or more simply, William's son, or John, Robert's son. These have come down to us as Williamson, Robertson, and all the other "-son's" and "-sen's" in several European languages, not just English. These are the "patronyms." ("Patronym" is a noun, "patronymic" is an adjective.) At some point in time, surprisingly late in some regions, the patronym became fixed as a surname. But before discussing the fixation of patronyms as surnames, it's important to know how patronyms work. In the days before surnames, a person's given name (John, Ann, Matthew, etc.) was followed by the name of their father, usually with a grammatical ending indicating the name is a patronimic. I'll use Danish as an example, because I'm most familiar with Danish patronyms, so here would be an example of a series of fathers and sons, before the use of surnames began: Søren Hansen Niels Sørensen Hans Nielsen Lars Hansen and so on. There is a feminine ending for a daughter: Søren Hansen Agate Sørensdatter Jacob Larsen Christina Jacobsdatter Peter Andresen Katrine Petersdatter and so on. Danes were very late in adopting surnames. They were not mandated until ca. 1850. I can use my own Danish ancestry as an example showing when surname fixation took place, that is, the generation in which the person did not use a patronym based on their father's given name, but instead adopted the father's patronym as a fixed surname (distinguised in ALL-CAPS). Hinrich ?sen Mathias Hinrichsen Søren Mathiesen (c1784-1840) Andreas MATHIESEN (1819- ) Carsten MATHIESEN (1842-1904) Andreas MATHIESEN (1867-1921) Arthur MATTHIESEN (1895-1967) Arthur MATTHIESEN (living) Diana MATTHIESEN (living) As you can see, Søren used a traditional patronym, based on his father's given name. If the tradition had been maintained, his son Andreas would have been called "Andreas Sørensen," but we can see that in this generation, Søren's patronym was fixed as a modern surname. (For unknown reasons, the second "T" got added after immigration.) There are some important ramifications from this process, other than the obvious. One is that people, today, whose surname is based on a patronymic, may be totally unrelated to other people with the same surname. Picture, if you will, that ca. 1850, everyone in Denmark adopted their father's patronym as a surname. Two brothers, Mathias and Søren, now have all their descendants named, respectively, MATHIESEN and SORENSEN. But these families are closely related! Yet, two Søren's, on opposite sides of Denmark, now both have all their descendants named SORENSEN, but they are not related at all!! The other important ramification is that once you've reached the point where surnames disappear (as with my Mathias Heinrichsen), it becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible, to trace your ancestry further back -- unless you happen to be descended from nobility or royalty, in which case your ancestry was carefully recorded. Not all cultures dropped the use of patronyms when surnames were adopted. They simply added the surname, and the patronym became what we would call a "middle name." Russians follow this custom and are more likely to call each other by their given name and patronym, than by their surname. Here is an example: Ivan Petrovich ZOKOLOV Sergei Ivanovich ZOKOLOV Ivan Sergeivich ZOKOLOV Anna Ivanova ZOKOLOV Lastly, patronyms take many forms in different languages. In French/English, there is Fitz, as in FitzGerald, FitzAlan, etc. There is Scots Mac- and Mc-, Irish O', Welsh Ap, and so on... Diana ==== SCROOTS Mailing List ==== Go To: #, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, Main |