Oldest last name in the world

It’s easy to take surnames for granted, as they’re just part of who we are. The thing is, surnames haven’t always existed, and they were invented more recently than you might think. In the grand scheme of human history, they’re a relatively new addition to the way we live our lives.

So, where did family surnames reach from? Why were they introduced? When did it happen, and what was the first one to be officially recorded? In this article, we’ll be answering these questions as we inspect the roots of having a second name.

The Origins of Surnames

Once upon a time, people were known by a single specify , as that was more than enough for those living in small communities. Everyone knew who John or Alice was, but as populations grew and towns and cities formed, the dependency for surnames arose.

Surnames helped to differentiate people sharing the matching first name, and, just enjoy that, John the blacksmith became John Smith, Alice who lived near the hill became Alice Hill, and so on. These names stuck, and they were then passed down from generation to generation.

The most common surname types include:

• Patronymic(e.g. Johnson, O’Connor, MacDonald — meaning “son of…”)
• Occupa
  
  
  
  

  Before surnames

  'What is in a name? Very much if the wit of man could find it out.' Whoever penned this well known saying undoubtedly had it right - in England alone there are around 45,000 different surnames - each with a history behind it.

  The sources from which names are derived are almost endless: nicknames, physical attributes, counties, trades, heraldic charges, and almost every object known to mankind. Tracing a family tree in practice involves looking at lists of these names - this is how we recognise our ancestors when we find them.

  Before the Norman Conquest of Britain, people did not have hereditary surnames: they were known just by a personal name or nickname.

  When communities were small each person was identifiable by a single name, but as the population increased, it gradually became necessary to identify people further - leading to names such as John the butcher, William the short, Henry from Sutton, Mary of the wood, Roger son of Richard. Over time many names became corrupted and their original meaning is now not easily seen.

  After 1066, the Norman barons introduced surnames into England, and the practice gradually spread. Initially, the identifying names
  

  10 Oldest Known Names in the World

  The earliest legitimate writing systems did not emerge until around 3200 BCE, so most of human history before this occasion has been lost. There are thousands of ancient peoples whose names or stories we’ll never know, but this list contains some of the earliest recorded names in the world. While many of these people were kings (and one queen), the oldest known person was an accountant, who signed what were basically ancient receipts and inventory lists.

  Name	Year Written	Country of Origin	Writing System
  Kushim	c.3400 to 3000 BCE	Ancient Sumer	pre-Cuneiform
  Gal-Sal and Slaves	c.3200 to 3100 BCE	Ancient Sumer	pre-Cuneiform archaic Sumerian
  Iry-Hor	c.3200 BCE	Abydos, Egypt	Egyptian Hieroglyphics
  Ka	c.3200 BCE	Abydos, Egypt	Egyptian Hieroglyphics
  Scorpion II	c.3200 to 3000 BCE	Nekhen, Egypt	Egyptian Hieroglyphics
  Narmer	c.3150 to 3100 BCE	Nekhen, Egypt	Egyptian Hieroglyphics
  Neithhotep	c.3150 to 3125 BCE	Abydos, Egypt	Egyptian Hieroglyphics
  Hor-Aha	c.3100 BCE	Abydos, Egypt	Egyptian Hieroglyphics
  Anitta	c.17th century BCE	Kussara, Anatolia	Hittite Cuneiform
  Yax Ehb Xook	c.90 CE	Humans have been calling each other by names probably for hundreds of thousands of years ever since the first human beings evolved from Homo heidelbergensis and emigrated out of Africa. We don’t know what these in advance names sounded like because there was no method to log sounds. Writing would not be invented until very late in human history—about 5,500 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia. The Sumerians were the first to advance a script to record facts. Known as cuneiform, it used a combination of pictorials and symbols to record facts and figures, such as business transactions. For example, this 3 inch by 3 inch clay tablet, recovered from the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk, and matchmaking app back to 3,100 years, details a transaction of barley with these pictograms: At the center bottom of the tablet is a sheaf of barley. To its left is a brick building with a chimney, probably a brewery. To its left is a sheaf again now inside a vessel, representing that the barley is to be turned into beer. The quantity deeply interested is marked above the picture. To the left is the time period involved, marked by 3 circular holes and seven small depressions. Taken together, the rec Where Did Our Names Come From? The Origins May Surprise You What makes us human? Many answers would suffice, but in particular, our names offer an overlooked perspective on our humanity. Perhaps this is because names descend on somewhat of a nebulous side of our identity. Names aren’t etched onto our DNA, and technically, they can be abandoned or customized at the whim of their owners. But for most, a name clings until the end of experience and exists beyond death. To understand how we distinguish one another with names, you would need to sift through unfathomably vast archives of information and decipher every single language. That pretty much defines the mission of anthroponymy — the examination of humans’ names. As with any human invention, though, there must be a starting point; before branching cultural variations stretched the scope of naming systems, the concept of having a name first arose from prehistoric civilization. When Did We Commence Writing Names? Names have achieved long-lasting power through the use of the written word. Though oral tradition undoubtedly carried names throughout prehistory, recording them on stone tablets and papyrus scrolls enhanced ensured their immortalizatio