Origin of family names

Family names originated for example from the first name of a person. This was created as appendage from the first name of the father ("Williams" > William’s son). Further it was usual to integrate the place, the castle or the estate into the family name ("Windsor") aswell as the name of the occupation (“Miller, Smith, etc….”).

Another possibility were physical characteristics, personal characteristics or nicknames like "great > the great". With the Northern American Indians the first think a woman saw after her child’s birth, like a grey eagle, was used as name.