Naming Traditions Around The World 

How are names formed in your part of the world?

Japanese names being flipped in English introduces just enough uncertainty that you always think you know which is which, but are never sure

For Slavic names you forgot to talk about patronyms. A lot of westerners confuse them for middle names

The Portuguese tradition of marriage was not to take your spouses last name at all. The reason why it started was because it was popular in France so many started copying that tradition but it’s not a native tradition.

In Russian and Arabic the "middle name" is actually the patronymic (name of the father), and there are no independent middle names like in the Western naming tradition.

Dutch surnames can be pretty funny and strange, like "Naaktgeboren" (Born Naked), "De Dikke" (The Fat), "Piem/Piemel" (Willy/Penis), Iemandszoon (Someone's Son). This is because Napoleon Bonaparte occupied the Netherlands and in 1811 required all Dutch people to have and register a surname by law. Many Dutch people didn't really have one, or wanted to troll their French occupiers so they made up funny surnames that still last til today. EDIT I'm incorrect about Naaktgeboren. The surname existed before Napoleon.

In Kenya, our given names are based around what happened during our birth, so the weather, time in the day, or location influence it. for example, the name Atieno means you were born at night while Achieng means you were born in the day, etc. there are tons of different naming systems in africa, though; but this is the one my tribe uses :)

The Spanish tradition of double family name, is amazingly useful for genealogical studies, especially if coupled with a great variety of family names in a given group, like the Basque. it makes research extremely easy.

In Slavic countries, there is also a patronymic used as a middle name. So if a man named Mikhail had a son Nikolai, the son's name would be Nikolai Mikhailovich. Mikhail's daughter Ivana would be Ivana Mikhailovna. There is a protocol for when to use just the forename, just the patronym, and both.

Malay-Muslim people in Malaysia follow a patronymic system. "Fatimah binti Zakaria" means Fatimah daughter of Zakaria. "Omar bin Azman" means Omar son of Azman. "Bin/Binti" here means "son of/daughter of", not middle names.

I'm from Hungary, living in Japan and people here have just begun to recognize that we have the same order of names, "family name, given name". However, in Hungarian we have "middle name" too which goes to the very last, being a "second given name". In Hungary, it was also common in aristocracy to use both paternal and maternal family names since neither of them wanted to lose their noble names, and also the name of the place they newly inherited. While in Japan, noblemen in the old era sometimes used just one 'kanji' from each families and created a new family name that refers to all of them.

In Indonesia, most of the names don't have surname system. They just use any names and make each kids their own surnames. Like one child can be named Cantika Sastrawati, the second child can be different like Faisal Yuda Alvaro, or even just one name like Asep. But then again, there are also other ethnic groups having the surname system, like the Batak ethnic, which has their own family surnames like Sihombing, Hutapea, ButarButar, etc. Edit: And once someone is married, they don't need to change any surnames. Birth names are usually kept, regardless.

I am lithuanian and love the fact you mentioned my country's last name conventions. Your pronunciation isn't the correct one, but that's is completely fine, since it is extremely hard to pronounce for non-natives. Also, you pronunciated it as every non-lithuanian does, so no worries. Thank you for this entertaining video ❤❤

In Portugal and Brazil (and other portuguese colonies), back in Ye Olden Days (roughly between the early 16th century and the early 20th century) it was commonplace for women to pass their last times on to their daughters, and last names would survive (and still do survive) across several generations exclusively through the female line. In fact, last names in general were very chaotic, and full siblings from a single family, sharing both parents, could have completely different last names (as means to pay homage to grandparents, godparents, saints, catholic holidays, etc).

In Ireland,your surname is actually the name of your ancestor, and the prefixes's Mac/Mc and O/Ó in front of an Irish surname mean son and descendant respectively. So for example, the surname O'Neill, literally means "descendant of Neill.

While Pablo Picasso is best known by his last name, his full name is 25 words long. At his baptism, Picasso was christened Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso.

Translating spirit and deeds names makes sense because these names are not just sounds we make when we talk to each other, but they are meant to intrinsically convey some meaningful attribute of the bearer. If I don’t speak Lakota, Tatangka Iyotanke(sp) means little to me until I get to know the person well, or until it is explained to me. If I hear the translated name “Sitting Bull”, as an English speaker, I can much more quickly discern: “This is an individual of great power, who yet restrains himself unless provoked.” So given what appears to be the intended purpose of such a name, translating it is a better way of accomplishing that purpose, as it removes a step in conveying its meaning to the hearer and allows it to make its impact faster.

I am Indian American, and my family is Marathi. The tradition is that the middle names of all the children are the father's name, which only changes for girls when they are married, when they then become their husband's name. So me, my sister, and my mother all had the same middle name, while my dad's middle name was my grandfather's. In school, everyone was always so confused that my middle name was a boy's name. Edit: Also, something that I always found icky was that during the wedding, the husband can choose to change his wife's name to something else. This has happened to both of my grandmothers and both my maternal aunts (one by blood, the other by marriage). In the case of my uncle's wife, it was because she was born with the same name as his little sister, my mother, and that would have apparently caused too much confusion, since my mom still lived with them when they got married.

4:13 Extra trivia: The 2 surnames tradition, it is hinted, it came because one of the old Spanish monarchy lines was cut off because of bad genetics caused by marrying their cousins, and it was about the same time as the Darwin's publications started to take weight on society. So that way, having 2 surnames allowed people to be more alert for cousin's red flags...

Some Hungarian women adopt their husband's name, like if Kovács Júlia married Szabó János, she could be called: 1. Szabóné (wife of Szabó) Kovács Júlia 2. Szabó Jánosné (wife of János) Kovács Júlia

I once had a Swedish co-worker that when he married, he and his wife combined their last names. His family name was Johansson but I don't recall his wife's former family name. It's like saying you combined Miller and Smith. It was like creating a new last name Smiller.

In Russian, there are also patronymic middle names. In high school I studied Russian, and my teacher's name was Sergei Stepanovich Rodionov, that is, Sergei Son of Stepan Rodionov. By the way, Stepanovich was pronouncd Stepanich. His sister's middle name was Stepanovna, Daughter of Stepan, and her last name before marriage was Rodionova.

My grandfather’s full name was Fernando Federico Fernando Jose Halla Cruz., born in Oaxaca. He went by Ferd Halla. Currently, full Spanish naming is only used by politicians in the US by and large. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez went by Sandy Ocasio in High School.

In Mali, a married woman is always referred as her maiden name in every day life. For example, it would always be Jennifer Lopez. Then French colonisation happened and a married woman in official documents or even on an envelope would be called Mrs. Affleck Jennifer Lopez.

In Spain we have name + name(optional)+ surname(mother or father)+surname(mother or father) And i think the parents can choose which of their own two surnames to choose. And you die with the same names that you're born. I particularly like this.

I think naming traditions in my country are interesting. In Greece we have family surnames with male and famale versions e.g. Papadopoulos (male) and Papadopoulou (female), but for a weird reason we only use the male version in English. Those surnames' meanings could either refer to an ancestor's job e.g. Fournaris (baker) or an ancestor's father e.g. Giannopoulos (John's son) etc. Mostly kids take only their father's surname and rarely have middle names. Kid's names traditionally MUST be either a grandparent's or a highly revered saint's. Although recently people name their kids with random names. As for wives in the old times they would not only take their husband's surname, but people would give them names that refer to their husband e.g. if a woman's husband was named Costas, she would most likely be called Costena (Costas' wife). Obviously this has changed and ladies keep both their names and surnames since the 80s. As for naming order, in my opinion it is the weirdest part of naming because we either use the western or the eastern version. For example, someone's name in Greek could be written as Markos Antoniou or Antoniou Markos. Its really weird, but I guess this is the case because Greece is culturally in between the Western and Eastern worlds. What do you guys think?

You missed the best one: In Myanmar (according to a Myanmarese person I met) a person at around 18 gets to pick his or her own last name and can basically pick whatever he or she wants. There’s no relation between a person’s last name and that of his or her parents. (That inevitably raises some questions in some situations in other countries where one is listing one’s parents on some applications.)

you should’ve included ghanaian day names, based on the day of the week you were born + other variables

What it's referred to as the "western" tradition for names, is the "anglo-saxon" way of forming names... Spain and Portugal are even more to the west in fact 😅

In the United States, by strictly enforced decree, all male babies are named Jason and all female babies are named Ashley. Not true, but seemed that way in the ‘90s.

Serbian here: Marko Petrović, can be understood as Marko Petr-ov-ić Petrov means 'of Peter' and '-ić' is suffix for 'little one' So, this is Marko, little one of then Peter. Now, Peter could be his father, or some other more famous male ansestor. Bulgarians use the same, but drop '-ić', so there would be Marko Petrov. Also, in Makedonia they might use '-ski', sill meaning similar to '-ian', so Marko Petrovski

In Korea, females keep their family names after their marriage. It's because a spouse was still considered to be part of the family and lineage which they were born from. So both keep their last name on marriage. On marrage, husband and wife also needs to form an agreement to decide whose lineage the potential children would follow and submit it to the government. (95% choose to follow the father's) The decision is final and permanent. (means you can't change it after you're married, you can't fight it in court) China and Taiwan has similar customs. In Japan, the wife takes the husband's last name.

An interesting naming tradition is the surname "Nguyen," an estimated 40% of Vietnamese people have it, and it basically just means they're from Vietnam.

In Polish there are "adjective" last names (like "of something", "von something", "del something" in other languages) but instead of an auxillary word they use a suffix: -ski/-cki/-dzki for men and -ska/-cka/-dzka for women. These names are always gendered. Now other "noun" last names aren't officialy gendered but they can be in common speech (but in, for example, Czech these names would still be officially gendered). So if some man's last name is "Kowalski" - his wife's and daugthers' last name would be "Kowalska" but if his last name would be "Wilk" then all the women in his family officially would also be named "Wilk". However, in common speech his wife could be refferd to "Wilkowa" and his (unmarried) daughter "Wilkówna" (though this naming convention would be considered somehow archaic)

Lithuanian here, you actually pronounced them really well except Degutytė (de-goo-ty-te) with emphasis on the "ty." I do want to note that this system is going away a bit in the younger generation, and now a lot of people just choose a gender distinction, like Račkauskas - Račkauskė, that doesn't say anything about marriage

I think that in slavic languages you forgot the patriarcal middle name for example if a guy named Sergei Romanov had a son named Ivan, the son would be called Ivan sergeeivich Romanov

7:03 Belarus and Ukraine are not highlighted on the map for Slavic languages. And also, the patronymics for the slavic languages were omited.

In Slavic languages, there are a lot more traditions. Gender surnames are one. But East Slavic languages have patronymics as well. Women in Ukrainian get the second last name after their father's name (yes it has Viking roots). In Poland, we used to have Last names in Baltic style (showing your marital status), but it faded away in the last century.

The one thing that turns Greek last names interesting is when the finally lives on a different country and the kid is registered with their naming system. Let's give an example. Some of the last names (not all, not in the same way like Russian last names) are conjugated for female members of the family. So when a girl is born she is given the fathers name conjugated. eg with the most famous Greek name Papadopoulos which turns into Papadopoulou for girls. Another would be Mastakouris to Mastakouri. other names that already end in -ou like in many Greek-Cypriot names (Georgiou) remain the same for boys and girls. But when the kid is born aborad the registry automatically would give the father's name unchanged to the girl.She would then be "Maria Papadopoulos" which for many Greek ears it give a funny effect to introduce a girl with an unconjugated name to the world.

Not all family names in East Slavic languages change with gender. In essence any family name may fall into a noun (Poroshenko) or an adjective (Zelenskyi) category. As regular adjectives change their endings depending on the gender of the object they're applied to so do adjective family names. Also you could have mentioned that in Slavic countries people have patronyms (name of the father + a gendered suffix: -vych for men and -vna for women). Since recently you're allowed to take a matronym instead of a patronym in Ukraine by the way. Name order in Slavic languages is relatively relaxed. The full name consists of 1) family name + 2) given name + 3) patronym but all three are only used together in paperwork and never to refer to somebody you're speaking to. The most formal way to refer to somebody is to use 1) given name + 2) patronym - you'd use this to speak to an elder, to a teacher or to a boss. The less formal order is 1) family name + 2) given name - this is how you speak of yourself when speaking to a teacher, a service person, a police officer etc and when they're speaking to you back. You shouldn't use this order when calling out somebody though as this would sound weird and too paperworky. Even less formal way is 1) given name + 2) family name which is fine to use in most situations not requiring extra honorifics. One other thing though is that you shouldn't refer to somebody by their family name only when speaking to them directly as this is considered somewhat rude when no special context exists (e.g. quoting somebody). On the other hand it is totally acceptable to use just the family name when speaking of an abscent person.

you ignored that Iceland’s tradition of son and dotter is ancient: it goes back to the Norse people, and was common in Scandinavia and the British Isles due to the Norse invasions. It’s how son is in so many British and Irish names

I'm from the Appalachian region of the United States and I noticed a long time ago but it's really common for people in Appalachia to have two middle names, or hyphenated names. So like, Mary-Kate, John-Paul, Sarah-Lou, James-Robert or Casey-Lee. I've also noticed that these middle names tend to be after people in the family, and I am also guilty of this naming convention. Myself and both of my kids have double middle names that are after family members. My son has two middle names after both of my grandfathers and my daughter's middle names are after a friend of mine who passed away and her paternal grandfather. I know that some other parts of the world do this but I think it's really interesting how pretty much everyone in Appalachia knows someone who has a really weird family middle name and usually it's doubled. 😂

In Poland, some surnames are gendered and some aren't. My surnane is not gendered. But gendered surnames only are this way because of grammar the of Slavic languages.

Balmaceda is pronounced [βalmaˈseða]. Using middle names is very very common in Chile. Using maternal last name is not all that rare, but rather infrequent.

An interesting one you forgot is Southern African names... They can get extremely messy For example, Nelson Mandela was born Rohlihlahla Mvezo (birth name Rohlihlahla, Mvezo after his birthplace), got the last name Mandela from the tribal authorities after his great-grandfather, has the clan name Madiba after his clan in the Thembu tribe, got the name Nelson from his British teacher and after being circumcised got the ceremonious name Dalibungha

In Argentina married woman used add the husband last name "Maria García de Fernandez" been Fernández the husband last name. But this tradition is no longer been use.

As somebody who is half Lithuanian and half Mexican, I've had to deal with both naming conventions frequently

The notion of "middle names" makes very little sense in Brazil. Here there's much more emphasis on given x family names.

Maybe it isnt used anymore but the ancient germanic naming tradition is quite interesting. Instead of family names, your name would form with a piece of your fathers name and your mothers name, for example you have a mother named aldegund and a father named eadberht the child would be named eadgund or aldeberht

As a French person of Basque descent, Basque names are starting to become a lot more common, especially among Gen Z babies, but I'm more interested on how older Basques have the manner of writing full names, which are quite similar to Spanish despite, legally I am from France (Pyrenees-Atlantiques). The Basque naming order should start by the given name, followed by the surname of the father and then the mother's surname. For example "Kattalin Ithurralde Arizmendiarreta", in which, her father's surname is Ithurralde and her mother's maiden surname is Arizmendiarreta. Another fun fact, Basque surnames usually come from the area or the house where the family comes from, and usually they describe the area where the person or family was from. For example, the most common Basque surname "Etxegarai" (usually spelt as Etchegaray in the French custom) is a combination of the words "Etxe" (House) and "Garay" (Upper or Higher), which denotes that the family hails from a house or a homestead located on a high location, such as mountains or hills. Some Basque names even have three or more combinations, making it even more long and confusing, such as Etxemendigarai (The house on the high mountains), Arizmendiarrieta (A holm oak tree on the mountains) and Arroitajauregi (The castle on the mountain pass / gorge) Some rare surnames have a direct or indirect equivalents to English surnames, such as Eiheregi, which, "eihe" comes from "eihera", meaning Mill, and comes close to the English surname "Miller".

In Italy people used to use patronymics in the past alongside Personal Names and Surname. They started to gradually fade out in the 19th century and people definitely stopped using them in the '70s. But the particular thing was that the patronymic is different for a dead or an alive father. If you are Mario Rossi and your father is named Giovanni, you would have been called Mario di Giovanni Rossi if Giovanni was alive and Mario fu Giovanni Rossi is Giovanni was dead. With "di" meaning "of" and "fu" meaning "was". And to this day even if the western naming order is the most prevalent, in Italy that is hardly fixed and the eastern naming order is often used, especially in writing and formal situations.

Japanese names get their meaning from the kanji (chinese characters used in Japanese) used rather than how they are pronounced, so the same name when spoken (or written phonetically) can often be writen using different kanji and therefore with different meanings. Often these different meaning are around a common theme but sometimes they are totally different.

In the northern part of Germany, in Lower German, there is the possiblity, that an "Eva Müller" could be called "Müllers Eva", as she is the property of the family, or even just the "Müllersche" the person from that family. At least my grandmother sometimes used this method.

A little correction regarding a name: in the case of Pedro Pascal, the last name of "Balmaceda" should sound "BalmaSeda" instead of "BalmaKeda". That works for latinamerican accent, for spanish accent should go "BalmaTHeda" 😁👍

Gotta love when a new name explain video comes out

The majority of Indonesian have no last name at all. In fact, we don't have any system at all. Someone's name may consist of one word, two words, three words or even more, but mostly two. So it's really common to see a family whose each member has totally different name... Some ethnicities like Batak people however use last name to denote their clan name.

Very cool video. For a part 2 you can touch on the classical Chinese literary name system - (性，名，字，号), and also Vietnamese, where people often have 4 name units, it's "eastern" name order with the family name last, but the name people are called is the last name unit of the given name - so Nguyễn Sinh Cung would be called "Cung".

I only recently learned about Thai naming traditions and I find them fascinating.

As someone with three given names and no surname, I think Bangladesh might be the only place where all of the naming traditions mentioned exist simultaneously yet there is no hard and fast tradition when it comes to names.

Legally, Indonesians do not have last names. Although there are some ethnic groups who have the tradition of last names.

Recently in some Spanish speaking countries parents can choose the order of their children last names

common practice in England, generations ago, it was typical of working class people to have their occupation as their last name: Brewer = beer maker Farmer = Farmer Smith = blacksmith Walker = wool maker Mason = stonemason etc....many more like carter, cooper shepherd, miller, taylor, clark, archer, porter....the list goes on

I really wanted to hear something about patronymics and matronymics in some countries especially when you talked about Slavic countries. In East Slavic ones the tradition of giving a child a patronymic is still alive, and I think it's much more unique than changing the surname depending on gender (I mean, in Slavic languages we have a lot of things that change their ending depending on the gender). Also in Iceland, for example, there are no last names, but again there are patronymics and even matronymics. Matronyms also exist in Southeast Asia, if I'm not mistaken. In short, it's a very interesting topic and I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't include it. But the video is still informative, thank you for your work.

You forgot to mention that while in Portuguese the father name comes last, and in Spanish it comes second to last, in both cases they are the "main" surnames, and the ones that get passed down to their childs.

In Irish Gaelic names have for example Ó for son descendant of and Mac for son of for makes but females it is is Ní and Nic respectively.

I'm Mexican (actually from Baja California which you for some reason didn't highlight in your map of Spanish speaking nations?) And my name is, of course, Hispanic, though I use my second name as a middle name. Unlike many people, however, I don't cut out my mother's last name in English since I'm much closer to her than my estranged father. I've actually been thinking about removing his last name entirely and adding on my maternal grandfather's second last name.

About Slavic names: many Slavic people's use patronymics, formed similarly to Icelandic last names, as middle names. So for example, Volodymyr Zelenskyy's full name is "Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy", his father's name being "Oleksandr". Similar practice, although not officially enforced, is still fairly common in Finland as well.

In the Irish language (and probably Scottish Gaelic and Manx?), naming is similar in practice to Lithuania (in that the husband has one last name, the wife has a related but slightly different last name and the daughters have yet another slightly modified version of the last name--the sons have the same last name as the father). If the father's last name is Ó Murchú (Murphy in English), his wife has the last name of Uí Mhurchú, and his daughters would have the last name of Ní Mhurchú. If the father's last name is Mac Mathúna, his wife has the last name Mhic Mhathúna and his daughters have the last name Nic Mhathúna.

In Myanmar, people don't have last names and only have a given name. Some people do have their father's or mother's names in their names but that bit wont be acknowledge as a last/family name, both culturally and officially. But since most apps and websites follow the western naming order, we have do chop up our given names in half. The latter half ends up becoming the " surname ".

in Balmaceda the c is pronounced like an s, the only time the k sound appears in Spanish is through "qu" followed by a vowel, using an actual k in writing is rare

The last name should always be a practical way to identify ancestry. I kind of like the two name system.

The philippines have mixed the american and spanish naming custom. Ex. Double Barrel Name + Mother's Last name + Father's Last name = Filipino Naming Custom

Mongolian naming practices are super interesting! Their last names aren’t really used much except in legal documents. Some use patronymics, and some use clan names, and some use both. At least, that’s how I understand it! It’s complicated. :)

Name systems are really fascinating topic and one can definitely not done all but make categories about them. There are just too many idiosyncracy. Here on Orchid island the native people of Dao/Yami change their names to "(grand) parent of someone" when a new generation is born.

I'd love a sequel to this topic with other nations too! Really interesting!

In Russian, you can call someone by their given name and patronym even though they also have a surname. Arabic names can allow you to include your father's name, you child's name and the town you're from. I'm not sure yet how Finnish names interact with marriage. Korean names can include where you're from as well.

Japanese names can confuse me so much as a Hungarian who consumes a lot of English media because they almost never flip their names in Hungarian. I know some Japanese, so that helps, but it's still hard to guess, as some given names sound like family names and I don't know all of the Japanese family names😭

Dutch (and Flemish) surnames 'suffer' from a lot of prefixes, like 'van', 'de', 'van der', "in 't" and much more. These are often not counted in sorting. So there is a big problem when using, mostly US based, software. As a student, when consulting scientific literature references, some indexed the surnames with just 9 characters. For authors with a 'van der' prefix, that left only 3 characters, leaving little to distinguish them.

In Meghalaya, India, the tribes there actualy take their mothers' surname (Basicaly a clan name) as their last names.

4:08. The OCD part of me wants to paint Mexico's Baja California red... 😅

In Poland surnames can end in ski/ska. Ski for male and ska for female.

Lithuanian here, you pronounced Degutis 'de-goo-tis' correctly, and Degutienė, as best as I can transcribe to english sounds is 'de-goo-tee-yeah-neigh' and Degutytė is 'de-goo-tee-tay'

The Philippines: Have at least 5 legal names, possibly pick up more. We are not calling you any of them.

Filipinos used the Spanish naming system too before. For example Apolinario Mabini y Maranan but we switched to Portuguese naming system so it would be written as "Apolinario Maranan Mabini". It's a bit confusing but older documents show the Spanish system.

Sri Lankan Sinhala names also take this to a completely other level... They use the Portugese system of naming - but each name is insanely long in it's own right and can be itself a compound of multiple names, and the names chosen can seem extremely random (such as the cricket player Mahamarakkalla Kurulusuriya Patabanabendige Akila Dananjaya Perera taking the everyday names of Akila Dananjaya)

In Chinese spheres, when a woman is married they have their husband's family name attached to the front, i.e. if your name is Huang cuen jiao and your husband name is li siao ming, than your name will be li huang cuen jiao. Although most of people doesn't do that now, but you still see some old people hanging around with those kind of name. Also sometimes if the female side ( or rarely the male side ) have a Non-Chinese family name, they'll adapt to family name of the side with Chinese family name, just for the document or identification sake tho, you don't lost your original name.

5:27 In Spanish, the C is never pronounced like a K, so it sounds more like _"Balmaseda"_

I’ve heard of couples in English speaking countries giving a child their mother’s family surname as a middle name. Has anyone else noticed this?

My mother is the only person I know with 3 names + last name. My grandma told my granpa to register her with X name. But he did it with another 2 names, one because he liked it and another because it was the saint of the day. But then remembered what the wife said so he added it third so she wasn't mad.

I would love to see naming traditions in Oceanic languages!! Especially Hawaiian, Maori and Fijian.

in fact in Spain people usually remember Up to 8 surnames four from the father anf four from the mother for example: Luis(name) Vázquez García Rodríguez del cerro luceron Santamaría perez valle

A cool idea for a naming tradition I had was portmanteaus - making a portmanteau of one's parents last names.

Lithuanian maiden surnames have diminuitive endings: -yte, -iute, -aite. If you meet lithuanian woman with this ending it means that she isn't married.

There's the footballer Ben Brereton from Stoke who was just named the English way due to his father, but then appended his mother's name Diaz when he got called up to the Chile squad

Around a century ago Turkish people did not have surnames, they just had their names. People would most likely know them in their communities, like, this is Mehmet, son of the butcher of Karaca village. Famous people would have titles that identified tham like Mehmed the Conqueror. In 1934 the Surname Law was adopted and people went to government buildings to choose surnames for themselves. Some people got together with the other members of their families and chose the same surname. But some people did not want to be associated with the rest of their families and chose a different surname.

As a Portuguese living in Estonia... I should just send this video to everyone that asks about this.

So in Polish it's complicated (who would have thought? Lol) Up until the beginning of the 20th century there were using different endings for husband, wife and unmarried daughter. However, it wasn't the case for all surnames. Those ending with ski (male) or ska (female) there's wasn't an option for unmarried daughters so they would have the same ending as their mother. But many other surnames, including those ending with 'icz' (almost as popular as those ending with ski/ska) would have specific endings. So for father's surname Brzęczyszczykiewicz, mother's would be Brzęczyszczykiewiczowa and daughter's Brzęczyszczykiewiczówna. (Same way- Tusk, Tuskowa, Tuskówna) That's been abandoned most likely after WWII. So now only those ending with ski/ska would recognise person's sex but none would show martial status. There are also some wives keeping their maiden name. Most often it would be written with hyphen as maiden name-husband's surname if they would take their husband's surname. Same story with children, either father's name or both but then in the same order; mother's -father's surname. Given name before surname(s) and a lot of people have middle names too but they are not in use most of the time. Of course you can have exceptions but that how it works most of the time. Nice and simple! 😉

In English families of a certain class, the second middle name is often the mother's, or grandmother's last name. Catholics also often take on a new name (most often a saint's name) when they are confirmed.

It's so frustrating filling out forms. Central USA where so many people have only one riddle name. I often don't put a middle initial because I don't want to put only one. It feels so demeaning

In Brazil, it is actually more common for the last surname to be the father's, but legally the couple can define the order they wish. My sister-in-law and her husband chose to leave their mother's surname last simply because of the sound.