Patronymic
From Freepedia
A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother is a matronymic, or matronym.
In some Slavic languages, endings such as -vich, -vič, -vić, -wicz (all pronounced as "vich") are used to form patronymics. For example, in Russian a man named Ivan whose father's name is Nikolay would be known as Ivan Nikolayevich or "Ivan, son of Nikolay" (with Nikolayevich as a patronymic). For women, the ending is -yevna or -ovna. For masculine names ending in a vowel, such as Ilya or Foma, the corresponding endings are -ich and -inichna. The patronymic is used when addressing somebody both formally as well as among friends. A Russian will almost never formally address a person named Mikhail as just 'Mikhail', but rather as 'Mikhail' plus his patronymic (for instance, 'Mikhail Nikolayevich' or 'Mikhail Sergeyevich' etc). However, on informal occasions when a person is using the diminutive of a name, such as Misha for Mikhail, the patronymic is never used. Alternatively, on informal occasions the ending of a patronomic may be commoquially contracted: Nikolayevech -> Nikolaich, Stepan Ivanovich -> Stepan Ivanych -> Ivanych (the given name may be omitted altogether). In the case of this omission of the first name the contraction, if possible, is obligatory: Ivan Sergeyevich Sidorov may be called simply "Sergeich", but never simply "Sergeyevich". The contraction never happens with a surname that has a form of patronymic. The latter Russian surnames are usually of West Slavic or South Slavic origin: Mikhail Andreyevich Miloradovich, Vladislav Khodasevich
In Scandinavian languages, the patronymic was formed by using the ending -son (later -sen in Danish) to indicate "son of", and -dotter (Icelandic -dóttir) for "daughter of". This name was generally used as a last name although a third name, a so-called byname based on location or personal charateristic was often added to differentiate people.
In Dutch, patronymics were often used in place of surnames or as middle names. Patronymics were composed of the father's name plus an ending -zoon for sons, -dochter for daughters. For instance, Abel Janszoon Tasman is "Abel son of Jan Tasman", and Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer: "Kenau, daughter of Simon Hasselaer". In written form, these endings were often abbreviated as -sz and -dr respectively eg. Jeroen Cornelisz "Jeroen son of Cornelis". The endings -s, -se and -sen were also commonly used for sons and often for daughters too. Patronymics were common in the Dutch United Provinces until the French invasion in 1795 and subsequent annexation in 1810. As the Netherlands was now a province of France, a registry of births, deaths and marriages was established in 1811, whereupon emperor Napoleon forced the Dutch to register and adopt a distinct surname. Often, they simply made the patronymic the new surname, and modern Dutch patronymic-based surnames such as Jansen, Pieterse and Willemsen abound. (Others chose their profession as surname: Bakker (baker), Slagter (butcher) etc. Still others may have thought this "surname thing" was a passing fashion and chose fantasy names such as Keizer (emperor) or even Naaktgeboren (born naked).)
In Gaelic, the prefix "Mac" is used to form a patronym, such as "Mackenzie" - son of Kenneth. (In many Gaelic-based names, the "Mac" form can also appear as "Mc", the distinction being simply a matter of usage and preference - Highland (the full form) v. Lowland (Mc)).
In Romanian, the endings -escu and -eanu were used, like Petrescu - son of Petre (Peter); many of the current Romanian family names were formed like this.
In Armenian, the endings -ian and -yan are used, e.g. Jafarian. Many of the current Armenian family names were formed like this, though the root is often based on a trait of the namesake rather than the actual name. -oglu and -ov are also sometimes used by Armenians in Turkey and Russia, respectively.
In Aramaic, the prefix bar- is used, thus Peter is called Bar-jonah in Matthew 16:17 and possibly Nathanael is called Bartholomew because he is the son of Tolmai. The titles can also be figurative, for example in Acts 4:36-37 a man named Joseph is called Barnabas meaning son of consolation. The prefix ben- is used the same way in Hebrew.
In Arabic, the word "ibn" (or "bin") means "son of", and "bint" "daughter of". Thus, for example, "Ali ibn Amr" means "Ali son of Amr". The word "Abu" means "father of", so "Abu Ali" is another name for "Amr". In medieval times, a bastard of unknown parentage would sometimes be termed "ibn Abihi", "son of his father" (notably Ziyad ibn Abihi.) In the Qur'an, Jesus (Isa in Arabic) is consistently termed "Isa ibn Maryam" - a matronymic - because, in Muslim belief, he had no biological father. An Arabic patronymic can be extended as far back as family tree records will allow: thus, for example, Ibn Khaldun gives his own full name as "Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn Jabir ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Khaldun". Patronymics are still standard in parts of the Arab world, notably Saudi Arabia; however, most of the Arab world has switched to a family name system. As in English, the new family names are sometimes based on what was formerly a patronymic.
The Arabic patronymic tradition has been adopted by the Malaysian Malays, who give both sons and daughters patronyms with the structure of bin (for sons) and binti (for daughters) as the middle word of the name. An example name of "Ahmad bin Fadzil" means "Ahmad son of Fadzil", while the example of "Aina binti Md. Daud" means "Aina daughter of Md. Daud".
Patronyms and surnames
In many areas patronymics predate the use of surnames. They are still used in Iceland - along with the less common matronymics - where few people have surnames.
Many English, Welsh, Spanish, Slavic, and Scandinavian surnames originate from patronymics, e.g. Wilson (son of William), Powell (ap Hywel), Fernández (of Fernando), Carlsson (son of Carl, e.g. Erik Carlsson), Milošević (son of Miloš). Other Norse cultures formerly used patronyms, but have since switched to the more Judeo-Christian style of passing the father's last name to the children (and wife) as their own.
Genealogical research can be complicated by patronymics. Immigration usually resulted in a switch to surnames, so depending on the country, family research in the 19th century or earlier needs to take this into account.
