family name
Also known as last name, fam name, family surname, surname, clan name
thumb|300px|First/given/forename, middle, and last/family/surname with John F. Kennedy|John Fitzgerald Kennedy as example. This shows a structure typical for Anglophonic cultures (and some others). Other cultures use other structures for full names.
AI overview
A family name, also called a surname or last name, is the portion of a person's full name that they share with other members of their family. In many cultures, including English-speaking ones, it comes last in a person's name (as in John Fitzgerald Kennedy, where Kennedy is the family name), though the position and structure of names varies across different cultures around the world.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Most common last name.jpg
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- equivalent class
- dbpedia.org/ontology/Surname
- Commons category
- Surnames
- P8168
- Segudet
- entry in abbreviations table
- Familienn.
- P13411
- Bengaluru
Sources (3)
~31 min read
Article
29 sectionsContents
- History
- Origin
- Medieval era and beyond
- Modern era
- Origins of particular surnames
- Patronymic and matronymic surnames
- Examples
- Cognominal surnames
- Ornamental/artificial surnames
- Acquired/assigned surnames
- Occupational surnames
- Toponymic surnames
- Patronage
- Other
- Order of names
- Gender-specific versions of surname
- Surname law
- Surname of women
- Compound surnames
- English
- Chinese
- Multiple surnames
- Spanish-speaking countries
- Compound surnames
- Prevalence of particular surnames
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|300px|First/given/forename, middle, and last/family/surname with John F. Kennedy|John Fitzgerald Kennedy as example. This shows a structure typical for Anglophonic cultures (and some others). Other cultures use other structures for full names.
In many societies, a surname, last family name, or first family name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several given names and surnames are possible in the full name. In modern times most surnames are hereditary, although in most countries a person has a right to change their name.