Many years ago, the last names where given to the people by their skills or profession. Smith, Taylor, Cook and so on...
If this way were still on use..Could you imagine people name as Bitcoiner, YouTuber, Gamer, Skater or TikToker???
What other last names do you know that come from professions from the past? And for the future? 😀
I've never really thought about when we stopped creating new last names. It's an interesting question.
Some others that come to mind: Tanner, Miller, Skinner, Gardner, Brewer, Fisher, Mason
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My friends gave their kid a new last name, the combination of their two family names.
It's a kinda cute name. I guess their relationship is on the rocks tho whoops
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imo this kind of baning evolved to our nicknames. No need to create new last names, you can be just Bitcoiner1
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Some jewish names are probably linked to occupations like Zuckerberg (mount of sugar), Goldenstein (golden stone) and Silverman (guess it).
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I didn't know we stop... when was that? I must have dosed off... :-)
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It's everywhere. In India what we call castes these days are actually names as per profession. But it's sad to see that this has become a big issue here. People are fighting or have been trying to put down in the basis of these names lately. There's even reservation in jobs and subsidies to some names in India. This reservation was given temporarily but they aren't ready to leave it now. Even elections are fought so much on the basis of these names (castes). Political parties are created to benifit one name and they only seem to benifit their names once they get into power.
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I think people still do it. It's just harder to do given all the legalities of it. If I didn't like my family name, I'd change it. I wonder if we'd choose professions now, given the choice, or something else.
Kind of related, but my last name is "Kousha" which means "hard worker" in Persian. (I didn't learn this until I was 30.)
Everyone would call my Persian grandfather "engineer" rather than by his first name and despite him not being college educated.
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We didn't stop creating last names. E.g.
  • people that migrate from Germany to the US still often translate their last names - which creates new last names.
  • Nordic countries create new last names with the -son suffix. With the still standing creativity in first names and immigration from other countries this is a never ending source of new last names
  • Eastern Europe sometimes have gendered last names (Zelenskys wife is called Zelenska) which might become new last names when people migrate there or out of there
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So, If Zelenska divorce Zelensky she will need to change the name again... Plenty of paperwork to deal with...
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I think they still give paternal names in some parts of the world. I think that is kind of cool. Some cultures really treasure their last name, or their family name.
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Shall I change my last name to Stacker?
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I find it crazy being the last of ones name. You could have had your blood for thousands of years, and one could die at any moment and poof - there goes all the thousands of years of future bloodlines.
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cool question to ponder. im wondering now in what circumstances surnames are created. is it when someones lineage or their history has been disrupted. say, a refugee that needs to take on a new name? but in that case they are likely given a name, not choosing one. when would one have the opportunity, need and stamina to choose to start their a new last name?
stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.