Attitudes - History of Surnames

Probably, the most influential part of this development was the introduction of feudalism into England by the Normans. Within three or four generations of their victory at the Battle of Hastings (1066), the Normans had worked an almost complete transformation of the previous English culture. The Anglo-Saxon and Celtic languages were blended in with the Norman language. Over time, hereditary surnames began to achieve a well defined order. Then, in the seventeenth century, this system was transferred more or less intact to the American colonies by the new settlers.

The Romans started using the "given-name plus clan-name plus family-name" around 300 B.C. The Domesday Book, compiled by William the Conquerer (1086) required surnames, yet hereditary surnames seem to have only become commonplace by the late 1200's.

William Camden wrote in Remaines of a Greater Worke Concerning Britaine (1586):
"About the yeare of our Lord 1000...surnames began to be taken up in France, and in England about the time of the Conquest, or else a very little before, under King Edward the Confessor, who was all Frenchified.... but the French and wee termed them Surnames, not because they are the names of the sire, or the father, but because they are super added to Christian names as the Spanish called them Renombres, as Renames."

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