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Information on surname history and origins; Italian Surnames, free searchable online database of Italian surnames. Short explanation of Polish surname endings and their origin Archived 15 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine; Summers, Neil (4 November 2006). "Welsh surnames and their meaning". Amlwch history databases. Archived from the original on ...
Unlike modern surnames (family names), they were specific to a person and were not transferred to a person's children. Before 1500, hereditary surnames (family names) were almost unheard except among a few, select elite families. For a long time after that, they were inconsistently used and only found in the upper strata (often urban) of society.
The 50 most frequent surnames in Portugal are listed below. [53] [54] [55] A number of these surnames may be preceded by of/from (de, d') or of the/from the (do, da, dos, das) as in de Sousa, da Costa, d'Oliveira. Those elements are not part of the surname and are not considered in an alphabetical order.
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In Denmark and Norway patronymics and farm names were generally in use through the 19th century and beyond, though surnames began to come into fashion toward the end of the 19th century in some parts of the country. Not until 1856 in Denmark [98] and 1923 in Norway [99] were there laws requiring surnames.
These surnames were initially characteristic of patrician families, but over time cognomina were also acquired by the plebeians. However, a number of distinguished plebeian gentes, such as the Antonii and the Marii , were never divided into different branches, and in these families cognomina were the exception rather than the rule.
By the 19th century, this practice fell into disuse due to the influence of the West-European surname tradition. In Western Finland, agrarian names dominated, and the last name of the person was usually given according to the farm or holding they lived on. In 1921, surnames became compulsory for all Finns.
Patronymics were common in the Dutch United Provinces until the French invasion in 1795 and subsequent annexation in 1810. As the Netherlands were 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. [18]