Who was the first person to have a last name?

[Dave Slayer]

Who was the first person to have a last name?

 

[JoJo]

I've often wondered that myself!

 

[Nick]

Interesting question, and I'd be interested to know the answer.

 

[animal]

That's like asking who was the first hominid to speak. A more appropriate question would be "Who was the first person to have what our culture considers to be a 'last name'?" There's no way to know that and I'm sure there were many people all over Europe.

Surnames evolved pretty much like language itself. What our culture considers to be our last name or surname used to be a number of different things from a persons birthplace to their occupation. For example John of Whales or Fred the Blacksmith, Goldsmith, etc. or Chandelier (candle maker) from which we get the surnames Smith and Chandler. My family on my mothers side if you go back a few hundred years went from McGregor to Gregor and now Gregory just to show you how quickly things like surnames change. And many cultures today don't use surnames at all.

 

[Nick]

That's like asking who was the first hominid to speak. A more appropriate question would be "Who was the first person to have what our culture considers to be a 'last name'?" There's no way to know that and I'm sure there were many people all over Europe.

Surnames evolved pretty much like language itself. What our culture considers to be our last name or surname used to be a number of different things from a persons birthplace to their occupation. For example John of Whales or Fred the Blacksmith, Goldsmith, etc. or Chandelier (candle maker) from which we get the surnames Smith and Chandler. My family on my mothers side if you go back a few hundred years went from McGregor to Gregor and now Gregory just to show you how quickly things like surnames change. And many cultures today don't use surnames at all.

Yes, well certainly it would be hard to say when it happened, and as you said people were called John the Blacksmith. But when that changed into John Smith, I'm not completely sure, but I"m thinking not longer than 1200 years ago.

 

[JoJo]

What about Judas Iscariot and Mary Magdelane?

 

[JoJo]

Surnames evolved pretty much like language itself. What our culture considers to be our last name or surname used to be a number of different things from a persons birthplace to their occupation.

And don't forget people taking their father's name and adding "son" (e.g. Adamson, Johnson, Jackson, etc.)

 

[animal]

Yep. And words, places, occupations from different languages as well.

As far as Judas goes his name is our.. version I guess of his Hebrew name. It may look like what we consider to be a surname but it wasn't at his time. But I don't know Hebrew and I'm no biblical scholar.

Here's what wikipedia says.

The most likely explanation derives Iscariot from Hebrew ×Âיש־קריות, ÃŽÅ¡-Qrîyôth, that is "man of Kerioth." The Gospel of John refers to Judas as "son of Simon Iscariot" (John 6:71), implying that it was not Judas, but his father, who came from here.[3] Some speculate that Kerioth refers to a region in Judea, but it is also the name of two known Judean towns.[4]

A second theory is that "Iscariot" identifies Judas as a member of the sicarii. [5] These were a cadre of assassins among Jewish rebels intent on driving the Romans out of Judea. However, many historians maintain that the sicarii only arose in the 40s or 50s of the 1st century, in which case Judas could not have been a member.[6]

 

[Blazin Bones]

My guess is that the first person to have a last name was the one who was the last person to have just a first name. Then again. maybe they used to use their middle names as last names... this could get deep...

 

[heather]

It would be Cain.

Children were given their first name then bar then their father's name. Bar means son of. So, it would be Cain bar Adam.

 

[animal]

Cain Adams.

We figured it out.

 

[kenan]

Cain Adams.

We figured it out.

lol