A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (i.e., an avonymic), or an even-earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage. In such instances, a person is usually referred to by their given name, rather than their patronymic.
Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many places worldwide, although their use has largely been replaced by or transformed into patronymic surnames. Examples of such transformations include common English surnames such as Johnson (son of John).
In
England, names ending with the suffix "son" were often originally
patronymic. In addition, the archaic French
(more specifically, Norman)
prefix fitz (cognate with the modern French fils,
meaning "son"), appears in England's aristocratic family lines dating
from the Norman
Conquest, and also among the Anglo-Irish.
Thus there are names such as Fitzgerald and Fitzhugh. Of particular interest is
the name "Fitzroy", meaning "son of king", which was used
by illegitimate royal children who were acknowledged as such by their fathers.
In Dutch, patronymics were often used in place
of family names or as middle names. Patronymics
were composed of the father's name plus an ending -zoon for sons, -dochter
for daughters. For instance, Abel Janszoon
Tasman is "Abel son of Jan Tasman", and Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer:
"Kenau, daughter of Simon Hasselaer". In written form, these endings
were often abbreviated as -sz. and -dr. respectively e.g. Jeroen
Cornelisz. "Jeroen son of Cornelis", or Dirck Jacobsz.
The endings -s, -se
and -sen were also commonly used for sons and often for daughters too.
In the northern provinces, -s, as genitive
case, was almost universally used for both sons and daughters.
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.[6] Often, they simply made the
patronymics the new family names, and modern Dutch patronymic-based surnames
such as Jansen, Pietersen and Willemsen abound. Others chose their profession
or habitat as family names: Bakker (baker), Slachter (butcher), van
Dijk (of dike) etc.
When
the first census of 1671 of the residents of Delaware, their existed naming
problems that had existed as early as 1638-1682 - is the fact that few of the
Swedes, Finns and Dutch actually had surnames. Most of them stayed with the
patronymic naming system which prevailed in their native countries. Thus, Eskil
Larsson's son Bärtil was known
as Bärtil Eskilsson and the latter’s son Anders, was known as Bärtilsson, which
became modified to Andrew Bartleson in the hands of the English scribes.
Nicknames
were also common. Thus, Gerrit Jansen, the Dutch blacksmith at New Castle, was
also known as Gerrit de Smith (his
occupation) and Gerrit van Beck (his
place of origin). In the patronymic tradition, however, his sons were known as
Gerritsen (later Garretson.
Similarly,
among the Swedes, Finns and Dutch, women kept their maiden names throughout
their life. Thus, the Dutch woman Sarah Neering was twice married. She was
still called Sarah Neering in the will of her second husband, Foppe Jansen
Outhout. A Swedish orphan named Christina Ollesdotter was known by that name
throughout her life, surviving two husbands, the Dutch soldier Walraven Jansen
de Vos and the Swedish barber-surgeon Timen Stiddem.
Under
the influence of English custom, most of the Swedes, Finns and Dutch had
adopted surnames by the end of thr 17th century. Sometimes the patronymic
formed the basis for the surname (e.g. Mårtensson to Morton, Gustafsson to Justice,
Jochimsson to Yocum). Sometimes the surname was invented, such as Långåker, meaning “long field” in Swedish, which
became Anglicized to Longacre.
(excerpt
Pg viii, 1671 Census of the Delaware, Peter Stebbins Craig)
