family name

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The family name is part of a person's name . It completes the first name and expresses the affiliation of the name bearer to a family .

The expressions surname and surname are usually used synonymously ; in parts of central Germany the word is behind name familiar. In Switzerland one also says gender name (from family gender ).

In contrast to the married name, the original family name acquired through descent is called maiden name (for married women also maiden name ; in Switzerland single name ) and expresses belonging to the parent family. In many modern legal systems of naming , birth and married names can be combined in double names (Switzerland: alliance names ). Artist names can also be used as family names without a family relationship. Contrary to what the expression "birth name" suggests, this name can change long after the birth. In Germany, the maiden name is defined as the name "which is to be entered in the birth certificate of a spouse at the time of the declaration [on the choice of a married name] to the registry office" ( § 1355 Paragraph 5 BGB ), whereby it follows from the civil status law, that the maiden name noted in the birth entry can change ( Section 36 (1) PStV), in particular through adoption, naming or official name change; only in the case of changes due to a marriage does not change the maiden name, but a married name is acquired. In Switzerland, this birth name is called Ledigname , in Austrian legal terminology it corresponds to the gender name .

The house name (farm name) fulfills a similar function to the family name in rural areas. In everyday language usage it is usually placed in front of the first name (first name), u. a. in Hesse, especially in southern Germany and Austria. If the family name is only used in correspondence, it is also known as a spelling name . Historically, women were still addressed in writing with the first and last name of their spouse in the 20th century.

A person's family name can change in the course of their life, for example through marriage , divorce , adoption or official name change. Arbitrary adjustments are also possible, e.g. B. the adoption of the name of a new spouse by the premarital children of one of the partners, so that the new family can appear as a unit in social and administrative dealings.

Naming is regulated very differently around the world and depends on culture, tradition, social order and origin (e.g. from the nobility ). Not all surname systems in Europe and in the world use family names. For example, in the Spanish-speaking world, the two-part surname ( apellido , literally "first name") used there is not a family name in the true sense because it does not have a common surname for the members of a family. Instead, this system provides for each person an individual and unchangeable ancestral name ( father's and mother's name), so that the family members have different surnames. Similar systems also exist in other countries, such as Italy . This article deals with the different regional surname systems even if, strictly speaking, they are not family names.

History in Europe

Family names in today's sense have developed from epithets that were initially only given to individual people, but have not yet been passed on to subsequent people. An epithet was first inherited in Venice in the 9th century . This custom spread from there in the 10th century to northern Italy and southern France . It was used in Catalonia and northern France in the 11th century, and in England and Switzerland in the 12th century . After that, the use of a fixed family name also became common in the western and southern German cities . At the beginning of the 15th century, family names were found everywhere in the German-speaking area, but not consistently. The family name could also change, for example when moving away or because of a new job or until about 1800 when marrying into a farm.

While the nobility had been using fixed family names since the fiefs were inherited in 1037 in order to be able to assert their inheritance claims, the patricians and townspeople only followed later . In the patriciate in particular, the preservation of family property has contributed to the formation of permanent surnames, while in the rest of the bourgeoisie the formation of surnames was promoted primarily through the expansion of the administrative system with increasing written certification. The family had to the 18th century, mostly of secondary importance, while the first name of the actual name stuck. Rural areas got by without a fixed family name until the 17th or 18th century, in Friesland it was not legally introduced until the 19th century.

As a result of emigration , surnames can also spread to regions and language areas that are far away from the place of origin of the name.

Derivation of family names

Most surnames are derived from:

Reference is made to the linked articles for an explanation.

An overview of the origin of German family names can also be found here .

Perception of surnames

An evaluation of around 225,000 data records from German users of the XING network showed in 2013 that last names could have an impact on professional success. These were evaluated for last names and their professional position. The researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Ecole HEC in Paris found that noble-sounding names were more often represented in higher positions with 2.7%.

Family names by region

Europe

German-speaking area

The German family names have gradually established themselves in German-speaking countries since the 12th century. In 1875 the registry offices were introduced in the German Empire and the names were established. Since then, every German has a first name , a possible intermediate name and a family name, in this order. In some German areas, based on the professional, family or geographical origin, the surname (sometimes also in the genitive) is put in the first position in colloquial language. This reverse order is particularly widespread in rural southern and western Germany, especially in Bavaria ("the Huber Sepp"), Baden , Swabia and East Belgium .

According to the German Civil Code (BGB, in force since January 1, 1900), the surname is considered to be the surname that is transferred from the parents to the children as a result of descent. The indication of the maiden name of a single person (example: "born ...") is not part of the family name that is passed on from parents to children. The family name can consist of several words (examples: "Breuer called Nattenkemper", "Olde grote Beverborg"). Naming rights

See also: German surnames , List of the most common surnames in Germany , surnames in Austria , surnames in Liechtenstein , naming law (Germany)

Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, the child receives the father's first name as the "father's name", which is inserted before the family name. The ending “-ow” or “-ew” is added for boys, the ending “-owa” or “-ewa” for girls, unless the father's first name does not allow these suffixes to be added or these contradict Naming traditions. A child whose parents are not married to each other is given the mother's name as an intermediate and family name at birth.

Greece

In Greece the feminine form is usually different: here the surname of a married woman is formed as the genitive form of the surname of her husband, e.g. B. Kolidis (nominative / husband) / Kolidi (genitive, wife) or Tataros (nominative / husband) / Tatarou (genitive, wife). The wife's family name therefore means "(wife) of XY". Recently (especially for Greeks living abroad) the same form has been chosen for wives as for husbands, e.g. B. with the actress Susan Sideropoulos . In the genitive form, her name is Sideropoulou.

Hungarian language area

In Hungary and in the areas where the Hungarian language is spoken, the family name comes first and the first name comes second.

Ireland

Iceland

In Iceland a few people have surnames in the Central European sense. These are mostly families from Denmark . As a rule, however, the second name consists of the father's name (in the genitive) extended by -son (son) or -dóttir (daughter). Names after the mother used to be rare (illegitimate birth with an unknown father), but are now legally possible in the course of equality and are now common. Names after the mother no longer mean that the father is unknown. Example of a generation succession: Gústav Jóhannsson - his son: Helgi Gústavsson - his son: Ívar Helgason - his son and daughter: Lars Ívarsson and Jóhanna Ívarsdóttir etc. The former Icelandic president Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was the daughter of Finnbogi Rútur Þorvsson . Frequently, however, the chosen first name combinations suggest a relationship, since many families use certain first names over and over again. Alternating two names for father and son over several generations occurs again and again (example: Jón Gunnarsson - his son: Gunnar Jónsson - his son: Jón Gunnarsson etc.).

Italy

Family names existed a little earlier in Italy than in German-speaking countries. If you compare the most common of these with those in Germany, you can see that professions did not play such a large role in the creation of Italian surnames. The following are the most common ones, taken from the dtv atlas :

  • Esposito (given name Esposito, Expositus, foundling)
  • Bianchi (white, blonde)
  • Colombo (nickname Columbus)
  • Ferrari (blacksmith)
  • Romano (Roman, first name Romano)
  • Rossi (red, red-haired)
  • Russo (red, red-haired)

In Germany these seven places only contain job names.

The greatest percentage share in Italy as a whole are the names of origin. One such is the name of Giorgio Napolitano, who was elected president in 2006 (from Naples ); other examples are Toscano , Calabrese or Forlan . About 10 percent of all Italian surnames come from first names of Germanic origin. Examples are: Endrizzi (from Enrico - Heinrich), Gualtieri (from Gualtiero - Walter), Fedrizzi (from Federico - Friedrich).

A name change when getting married is unusual in Italy, so that traditionally wives always keep their personal maiden name.

In official writings and when signing, the last name often comes first.

Russia

In Russian , the father's first name ( patronymic ) is placed between first and last names; the female form is given a -na: Mikhail Pavlovich Lasarew (son of Pavel), Lidija Andrejewna Lasarewa (daughter of Andrei). In official written and oral communication, people are usually only addressed by their first name and their patronymic. In schools and universities, too, teachers / lecturers are only addressed by their first name and patronymic, although it is also unproblematic to address a professor as “Gospodin professor” (ie only “Professor” without a surname). Salutations with family names are only common in written communication.

Scandinavia

In Sweden , Denmark , Norway and partly also in Northern Germany (especially Schleswig-Holstein ), family names often end with -son or weakened -sen (patronymic, patronymic). The ending means son, so that Jensen / Jenson / Jensson actually means son of Jens . The full ending -son occurs in Swedish , the weaker ending in -sen is found in Danish , Norwegian and North Frisian .

In Sweden, however , names of origin such as Lindberg, whose first bearer came from Lindesberg, or Widmark, originally from Vebomark, are also widespread. Names of origin can also be freely added, so the Almgren, Almlind and Almlöf originally come from Almby. A special group of these are the so-called soldier names such as Norman, Norberg, Norström, Nordgren or Norrby, which in this case all refer to the first name bearer belonging to the Upplands regemente . Finally, names of the Hyllén, Norrén, Wessén , etc. type come from the Baroque period . Names of origin such as Ljones, Ødegaard, Fjell or Tønsberg are also very common in Norway .

In Finland, family names often have a relationship with nature, for example Virtanen (river / stream), Mäkinen (mountain / hill), Järvinen (lake), where -nen is a suffix.

Family names outside the aristocracy took hold in these countries later than in the rest of Europe, and first in the upper class. In Sweden, the upper class began to adopt family names in the 16th century, mostly in Latin for clergy and scholars. Farmers and craftsmen were given only the patronymic. In Denmark, surnames were made mandatory by the law of May 30, 1828 against popular opposition. According to this, the father's name (first name + sen ) was to be recorded as the family name. In this way, large parts of the population were given the same family name. In Sweden, women have been carrying their husbands' names since 1901: Since then, one of Mr. Larsson's (son of Lars) wife, who previously had the patronymic Jönsdotter (daughter of Jön), is also listed as Larsson in the family register (since 2017, however, the use of real patronymics has been possible again); The use of family names has been mandatory since 1904. In Norway, finally, the Personal Names Act of February 9, 1923 stipulated that children must have a family name when they are entered in the birth register. Adults were free to choose a family name. Unless the patronymic with the appropriate ending was chosen as the family name, the name of the farm that the family owned or used for a long time was to be used. In this way a high accumulation of family names as in Denmark was avoided.

Spain

In Spain, as in most of the Hispanic American countries , a person's surname is always made up of two single names: Traditionally, children are given the first surname of their father (patronymic) and the second name of their mother (mother's name). The children of Mr. Méndez Aznar and Ms. Sánchez Hernández are given the personal surname Méndez Sánchez . In contrast to German double names, no hyphen is used in Spanish . The surnames are passed on patrilinearly ; part of the mother's name still passes on to her children, but no longer to her grandchildren. However, this is no longer mandatory in Spain since 1999. Parents can choose to put the mother's first surname in front of them so that the child can later pass on their mother's name to their own children. Spouses keep their maiden names after the marriage, a name change is not planned. Occasionally, regularly in the nobility , a y (“and”) is placed between the first and second surnames , originally a predicate of nobility . For Catalan names, this practice is also compulsory in civil usage, so when using Catalan names, the Catalan i (“and”) is always placed between the surnames (for example in Jordi Pujol i Soley ).

Both parts of the name are always used in formal use and in official correspondence. In everyday life, however, the second part of the name is not mentioned. An exception are people whose first surname is very common. For better identification they are often referred to by their second name, omitting the first; said the former Spanish Prime Minister used Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero , instead of the very frequent in Spain name Rodríguez his mother names Zapatero .

The ten most common surnames in Spain are in this order (numbers from the INE from 2017): García, González, Rodríguez, Fernández, López, Martínez, Sánchez, Pérez, Gómez, Martín. All ten are of patronymic origin, eight of them have the typical ending in -ez. The rarer non-patronymic names are mostly names of origin (Gallego, Medina, Catalán) or nicknames (Rubio [= blond], Moreno [= dark-skinned], Calvo [= bald man], Bravo [= wilder]).

Portugal

In Portugal and similarly in Brazil and the other areas of the Lusophonie , the surname of a child is basically determined by the paternal surname of both parents, which usually come second in the surname of the parents. The mother's second surname is mentioned first.

Felipe Faria Duarte, for example, is the son of Henrique Coelho Duarte and Carolina Lemos Faria .

As in Spanish-speaking countries, the surnames are passed on patrilinearly, as the children receive the second, paternal surname from both the father and the mother.

Exceptions are children whose parents have an identical paternal last name. Then the child only receives a surname. As an example, the child of Antonio da Costa Moreira and Maria Sousa Moreira is simply called Josefina Moreira .

If a couple marries in Portugal, the woman can also get a third surname if she wants to add her husband's second surname (this is voluntary, however). Since all children of the family also have this name, the father's second surname is usually the actual main family name (in the above examples, the Duarte family or the Moreira family). In everyday life, the other parts of the name are usually not mentioned and only the main family name is used; For example, the former EU Commission President José Manuel Durão Barroso is often referred to as Manuel Barroso in the media .

In Brazilian areas, where the naming is shaped by Italian, German or other immigration influences, family names are often inherited according to the customs of these ethnic groups, that is, the children usually only receive the father's surname. Sometimes, however, the Portuguese name tradition is still followed here.

In theory, a person in Portugal can have up to six names (two first names and four family names). Sometimes ancestral names are carried on for reasons of deference. It is also customary to document the family relationship by adding an explanatory surname, for example Tobias de Almeida Neto is the grandson ( port. Neto ) of the older Tobias de Almeida if the name is the same as the father, uncle or grandfather .

Ottoman Empire or Turkey

It was not until eleven years after the founding of Turkey that family names were made mandatory in 1934 by the President Kemal Ataturk by Law No. 2525 . Before, in the Ottoman Empire , tribal names followed by the first name of the father and one's own first name were used to introduce them; in between was the term "son" ( oğlu ). This is also reflected in some modern Turkish surnames. Names looked something like this: Sarıpaçalı-nın oğlu Ahmet-in oğlu Hasan (Hasan, son of Ahmet, son of Sarıpaçalı). A similar structure can also be found in Arabic names with ibn . Shorter forms such as Sarıpaçalı-lardan Hasan (Hasan from the Sarıpaçalıs) were also used. If there was no particularly well-known tribe name, the father's occupation was important; the German Müller, Schmidts and Meyers show a certain parallelism. This form of recognition is still used in some areas and towns today: Marangoz Ali-nin oğlu Ibrahim (Ibrahim, son of the carpenter Ali). Matronyms are rather unusual (the corresponding female counterpart for son of, i.e. the daughter of , would be called kızı ).

The names adopted in 1934 are often expressions of self-affirmative references to the young republic, which arose as a reaction to the fall of the Ottoman Empire , the resistance since 1919 under Kemal Ataturk and the subsequent Kemalism . The linguistic images relate to topics such as courage, fearlessness, strength and resistance, such as Öztürk (“the real Turk”), Demir / Özdemir (“[real] iron”), Kaya (“rock”), Yılmaz (“the Fearless ”), Yıldırım (“ lightning ”), Aslan (“ lion ”), Şahin (“ falcon ”), Çelik (“ steel ”), Aydın (“ bright ”), Çetin (“ hard ”).

Asia

China, Korea and Vietnam

Family names in China , Korea and Vietnam are traditionally written almost exclusively with exactly one Chinese character . There is a multitude of pronunciations in the different East Asian languages ​​for each Chinese character used. Outside of China, these names are no longer given in Chinese characters, but in Korean or other alphabets . The used transcriptions of the same name can be very different, mainly because of the different pronunciations of the same name in Vietnamese , Korean and the various Chinese languages . Therefore, in recent international usage, different transcriptions of the same traditional family name are often interpreted as different names.

Although there are over 700 Chinese family names, most Chinese people only have a few very common names. Typical examples of East Asian family names are:

Characters Pinyin ( Standard Chinese ) other transcriptions of Chinese dialects Korean Vietnamese Number of name bearers Word meaning
李 Lǐ Lee, La, Lei5 lee Lý about 100 million plum
張 / 张 Zhāng Chang, Cheung, Cheong, Chong, Tsan, Tsaon, Tiu, Teo, Teoh, Zoeng, Zang Yerk Trương about 100 million Surface, arch
王 Wáng Wong, Vong, Ong, Heng Wang Vương about 100 million king
陳 / 陈 Chén Ch'en, Chan, Chun, Tan, Zen Jin Tears over 50 million expose, exhibit
阮 Ruǎn Yun2 Weon Nguyễn about 40 million,
in Vietnam about 40% of the population		 beautiful prosperity
金 Jīn Chin, Gam1, Kam, Gum Kim , Gim, Ghim Kim about 20 million,
in Korea over 20% of the population		 gold

The family name is mentioned first in China, Korea and Vietnam. The part of the name that is referred to as the first name in German-speaking countries is added afterwards in these countries.

Japan

Most Japanese family names are written using two kanji (Chinese characters). Historically, a surname was a privilege of the samurai and other people of higher rank. It was not until the Meiji Restoration that a law made it possible for all families to register with a family name. They mostly use landscape terms, such as Takeda ( 竹田 ) 'bamboo field', but there are also meanings from everyday life and handicraft, e.g. B. Shuzō ( 酒 造 ) 'sake brewer'. Other names, such as Mitsubishi ( 三菱 ) 'Drei Rauten', are derived from the family crest .

The family name is mentioned first in Japan. When dealing with western foreigners in western languages ​​or in Latin script, however, the order that corresponds to the German is often used. Japanese names - in contrast to Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean names - are also frequently changed when translating into German. Historical figures like Oda Nobunaga are an exception . If the family name is put in front, it is often written in capital letters to avoid confusion, such as ABE Shinzō .

India

In India , with its diverse cultural traditions, 21 constitutionally recognized languages ​​alone and over 100 spoken languages, several fundamentally different systems of naming exist side by side.

How the naming is handled is not primarily decided by the state, but by the traditions that the family of the person concerned follows. Although identity cards were introduced in India in the 1970s, much of the rural population does not have one. It often happens that a person's name is not officially recorded. Any changes to first and last names are common and easy.

In northern India, a system similar to that in Germany is preferred: the wife takes the surname of the man, which the children also take. In parts of central India, a patrilineal system is preferred, which makes the father's first name undeclined to the son's last name: Selvarasa Selvarainjan is z. B. the son of Selvarainjan Parthasarathy. A family name does not exist here.

In South India the "house name", ie the family name, comes first. These names are often names of origin, with the place in the genitive (obliquus). Titles and nobility predicates are appended, for example Pusapati Vijararama Raju, Vijayarama Raju from Pusapadu or Kallidaikurichi Aiyah Nilakanta Sastri, The Sastri (scholar) Nilakata, Ayar (Brahmin) from Kallidaikurichi.

Apart from the official naming, the personal address in India, regardless of the different rules for giving a name, is primarily based on the degree of relationship. The persons are addressed as (older) brother: Dada, (older) sister: Didi, father: Baba, grandfather on the paternal or maternal side: Nani or Nana etc. The individuality takes a back seat and the position in the family dominates. You can address strangers in India at any time as older brothers / sisters or father / mother, depending on the obvious age difference and gender. The use of first name relationship is also common, e.g. B. Manorainjan-Da (Da as an abbreviation for Dada). Confidential terms of respect are appended: Shiv (a) -Ji (i) and official prefixed: Shrii Govinda, but only from others, not from yourself. You can append the title Dev (a) or Devi (female) to yourself. The confidential form of address “father” would correspond to Baba-ji.

Indonesia

Indonesian names are generally made up of several parts, none of which are hereditary. In dealings with German authorities, the last “first name” can then take the place of the family name. But there are also people who have no family name and only a first name, the best-known examples are the former presidents Sukarno and Suharto . In the individual tribes and ethnic groups, however, there are different names. The Batak (North Sumatra) ethnic group, for example, always has first and last names. Many members of the Chinese minority were forced to give up their original names during the Suharto government. They then often chose Anglo-American or European first names, e.g. B. Angelina, Steven.

Africa

Ethiopia and Eritrea

Last names are not common in Ethiopia and Eritrea . As a rule, children are given a first name, followed by the first name of the father and, if applicable, of the grandfather, etc. It is therefore a real patronymic .

Democratic Republic of Congo

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo , a distinction is made between the family name on the one hand and the last name on the other. The " authentic " surname (French: postnom ) replaced the "European" first name . From Joseph-Désiré Mobutu Mobutu was Sese Seko . Today the baptismal names, which are still used in the church, are again in use as first names, but the Zairean surnames are still used. As a result, the Congolese have a name chosen by their parents before and after the family name: first the first name, followed by the last name (example: Joseph-Désiré Mobutu Sese Seko ). Congolese passports also have the three headings prénom (first name), nom (name), postnom (surname).

Other countries

Europe: Polish name , Irish families , Roman name (historical), Icelandic personal name , Faroese personal name , North Germanic personal name (historical)

Asia: Arabic name , Burmese name , Jewish family name , Malaysian name , Thai names , List of Tibetan names and titles

Africa: Gambian personal name

Surname frequencies

The surname frequency is the absolute and relative frequency of family names in a population or part of the population. The inbreeding coefficient of  a population can be calculated from these frequencies, taking into account the variability of family names . The distribution of surname frequencies can also be used to measure the degree of consanguinity between populations and thus their marriage circle , as well as the ancestral community between two or more ancestral lists , but also the catchment area of immigration to cities or central locations . The degree of relationship (or similarity) is the statistical correlation coefficient r normalized from 0 to 1 . Here r = 0.00 means that in the two ancestral lists compared in a specified ancestor generation , for example in the sixth, not a single family name is identical.

The most common family name in the world is the Chinese Wang with over 90 million occurrences in its various spellings. There are only around 700 family names among the Han Chinese . There are almost a million different family names in Germany. Here, Müller / Mueller is just ahead of Schmidt / -tt / -d / -tz with 600,000 occurrences. On the basis of over 20 million names, Duden confirms this order. In Russia, the most common surname is Smirnov .

Graphic representation of the geographical distribution of names

A tool for family name research is the graphic representation of the geographical distribution of family names. The following examples are based on data from fixed telephone lines from 2002. Although this only covers a certain part of the population, these data allow several very useful analyzes.

Distribution of name variants

The following examples can be found in Geogen : The name "Mayer" can be found all over Germany, but a clear accumulation is visible in southern Germany. "Meyer" can also be found all over Germany, but for this variant of the name the focus is on the northwest of the country. The variant “Mayr” can hardly be found in the north-east of the Federal Republic, but in the south-east with a concentration in Bavaria.

Identification of the origin of the name

The geographical distribution of family names also provides valuable information for identifying the historical area of ​​origin. The following examples can be seen at Geogen . For example, B. "Schlöder" to the southern Rhineland, "Herbel" to Hesse and "Züfle" to Württemberg. Old family names, which can also have several origins, such as "Kolbe", usually have a relatively even distribution.

Name bearer research

Name bearer research can be understood as a form of family tree research . Work equipment is usually a name bearer index or file, in which all bearers of the same family name are recorded, whereby different forms of the name are to be considered as one unit, taking into account the variability of the family name and the phonetic alphabet.

If name bearer research does not just document mere collecting, then systematic work and precise lists of the evaluated sources are necessary. Such data collections are particularly useful for relatively rare names. In some cases, they are the only way to solve a genealogical research deadlock. So far there is no comprehensive database in Germany of all publications, card indexes and associations (called One-Name-Societies in England ) that deal with a family name and the family relationships of its bearers.

Naming rights

Germany

In Germany, only the “surname” of a person is referred to as a “family name” in the legal sense. This individual last name can be completely different from the last name of the family of origin, the last name of the spouse or the last name of the children. With the term “married name” the legislature defines in § 1355 BGB that surname that the spouses want to use in a marriage.

According to § 1355 BGB, the spouses should choose one of the two family names as a common family name (married name). The spouses use the married name determined by them. If the spouses do not determine a married name, they will continue to use the name they used at the time of the marriage after the marriage.

The married name is therefore the name that the spouses decide on when entering into a civil marriage in order to use it as their own surname during their marriage. If both partners have decided to use the same married name for the marriage, this married name is the family name. Joint children will be given this as their birth name according to § 1616 BGB. If the wife and husband have different surnames even after they have been married, they must agree on one of the two names as a family name - at the latest when children emerge from the marriage. This surname is given to all children who result from the marriage ( § 1617 BGB).

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the civil provisions on names are only applied to Germans. German authorities and courts apply the law of the state to which the foreigner belongs to a foreigner. Insofar as German regulations are applicable, names are assigned by:

Other countries

See also

literature

Onomatology in general: see literature for the article Anthroponymy
surname lexicons, general German:

  • Hans Bahlow : German name dictionary. Family and first names explained according to origin and meaning (Munich 1967) . Suhrkamp, ​​1972, ISBN 3-518-36565-7 .
  • A. Bähnisch: The German personal names . Leipzig 1910.
  • Josef Karlmann Brechenmacher : Etymological dictionary of German family names. (= 2nd, completely revised edition of German family names. Deriving dictionary of German family names. 5 volumes, Görlitz 1936) 2 volumes. Starke, Limburg an der Lahn (1957) 1960–1964; Reprint 1985, ISBN 3-7980-0355-6 .
  • Duden surname. Origin and meaning. Edited by Rosa and Volker Kohlheim. 2nd Edition. Dudenverlag, Mannheim 2005, ISBN 3-411-70852-2 . (Explanation of 20,000 surnames)
  • Max Gottschald : German onenology: Our family names according to their origin and meaning. Munich 1932; 3rd edition, obtained from Eduard Brodführer, Berlin 1954; Reprinted there in 1971.
  • Heintze-Cascorbi: The German family names . Berlin 1933.
  • Horst Naumann: The big book of family names . Bassermann, ISBN 3-8094-0729-1 (for Weltbild ISBN 3-8289-1955-3 ).
  • Ernst Schwarz : German name research . tape 1 name and surname. Göttingen 1950.
  • Jürgen Udolph : Professor Udolph's book of names . Munich 2005.
  • Konrad Kunze, Damaris Nübling: German surname atlas . Berlin and New York (2009 ff.).
  • Surname. Journal of Name Research . ISSN  1618-7652 (2006 ff., The only specialist journal devoted exclusively to family names).

Lexicons, German regional:

  • Maria Hornung: Lexicon of Austrian surnames. Vienna 2002.
  • Max Mechow: German family names of Prussian origin . Tolkemita, Dieburg 1991.
  • Swiss Association of Civil Servants (ed.): Family Name Book of Switzerland . tape 1-4, 1968-1970 . Polygraphischer Verlag, Zurich.
  • Reinhold Trautmann: The old Prussian personal names . 1925.

Surname Lexica, English:

  • Patrick Hanks, Richard Coates and Peter McClure (Eds.): The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland . 4 volumes. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York 2016, ISBN 978-0-19-967776-4 .

Manuals, international:

  • Andrea Brendler, Silvio Brendler: European personal name systems. A handbook from Abasic to Centraladin. Baar, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-935536-65-3 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Family name  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: Last name  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: surname  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : surnames  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Family name distributions The following display aids can be used for regional family name distributions.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Art. 24 Paragraph 2 ZStV .
  2. ↑ See e.g. B. Art. 162b ABGB .
  3. ^ Mischke, Jürgen: Family names in medieval Basel. Cultural-historical studies on their origins and contemporary significance . Schwabe, Basel 2015, p. 369 ff .
  4. ↑ See Duden: Family names. Origin and meaning of 20,000 surnames. 2nd, completely revised edition, Mannheim 2005, ISBN 3-411-70852-2 .
  5. ↑ It pays to be called Kaiser in dradio “ Current Research ” - reports (sociology) of October 14, 2013, accessed on October 24, 2013, (source: Psychological Science - doi: 10.1177 / 0956797613494851 ).
  6. ^ Colleague König is more likely to be a manager than colleague Bauer in focus from October 24, 2013.
  7. ↑ Popular-vornamen.de : Bavaria… somehow different
  8. ↑ http://www.verwaltungsrechte-im-internet.de/pdf/BMI-V5a-0016-A002.pdf
  9. ↑ https://www.rechtslupe.de/familienrecht/einbuergerung-und-der-bulgarische-vatersnames-374376
  10. ↑ [1]
  11. ^ Emilio Sánchez Hidalgo: Los apellidos que significan "hijo de" en Europe. In: El País , July 17, 2018, accessed November 1, 2019.
  12. ↑ The digits indicate the tonality in the Cantonese language transcriptions .
  13. ↑ The use of surname frequencies to estimate genetic relationship. A contribution to the population genetics of the Vogtland. Ethnographic-Archaeological Journal (1974) 433–451
  14. ↑ Seminar paper Jan Hemmer Topic: The "Origin and historical development of family names in Germany up to the present" , 2000
  15. ↑ Wilfried Seibicke: The personal names in German. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1982, page 162f. ISBN 3-11-007984-4 .
  16. ↑ Rosa and Volker Kohlheim (Editor): Duden. Surnames. Origin and meaning. Dudenverlag, Berlin 2005, page 51f.
  17. ↑ Frequency of surnames in Russia , click on the left under "База данных" on the sub-item БД по фамилиям . The 250 most common Russian names by rank and a table of 10,000 Russian names with frequency rank are displayed
  18. ↑ Geogen Germany (online service) , accessed on July 17, 2016