Solve the mystery behind your identity using surnames

Surnames have for a long time being used for identifying  people who belong to the same family tree or those that are related directly by blood.  The history of using  these names dates back to a couple of  centuries  ago when they were first used as a  way of  differentiating   family members  who shared a common ancestry. The use of the names was mainly  necessitated  by  fast growing  populations that made it quite hard  to identify members of a specific family lineage.  However, it’s worth noting that not all countries across the globe  use these names.  For instance, in a country such as  Burma, people do not use these names.

How are surnames developed?

The development of surnames is based on a variety of sources  like  the father of the person using  it,  personalities, area of residence of a person  and  any unique physical attributes of the person among other  sources.  Most of these names are however developed from  one’s ancestry in that  people take the names  of their ancestors.  These names are developed automatically without any  debates or compromises whatsoever. As such, a person takes the surname  that’s  given to him during birth or during other stages of  growth.  This  means that some of these names  are open to mocking and insults depending on the nature of the name.  in a continent like Africa, where traditions and customs are still very deep rooted these names are generated from the  father’s  name. This is  usually automatic during birth as  the  newborn baby  takes up the father’s second name as his/her surname. A specific  family tree share names that  are closely related to each other.

The history of surnames

For quite a long time now (hundreds of years) , surnames have become a necessity  in most cultures across the globe.  The great resemblance and uniformity in  the names of people have made it  next  impossible to differentiate  people from the same family tree or lineage.  This  is why  there has been the need to use a third  name as a way of  positively  identifying people.  Most of these names ( third names)  form common and unique patterns  like those ending in –man or –er  being used to signify a profession  and those that end with  -son or –kin being used  to signify relation  to parents.  On the other hand, names that begin with O’  are used  among the Irish people and  signify ancestry.  For example, the name O’Brien signifies that the person bearing the name is a descends from Brien.

Over the years, there has been massive changes and  developments  in surnames. This is because some of these names have been  corrupted  while others have been  translated to different languages. This has  led to the loss  of the original meanings of the names  with his distortion  leading to  completely new meanings of some of the names.  Some  families  have  dropped their ancestral names  and replaced them with other names that do not belong to their ancestry. This is the main reason  why you should  not  emphasize too much  on  these names when studying the  history  of your family tree  as well as its history.

What’s the importance of  having for a  surname

There are lots of advantages and benefits that are associated with surnames.  The greatest of these benefits is  that these names  bring about a great feeling of identity. They enable people to understand who they are as  well as who members of their family tree are. In addition to this, the names  provide a linkage between the present and past generations.  It goes without saying that the names are very useful when  learning more about  your ancestry. This is because they present you with a one of a kind opportunity to  know more about your ancestors in respect to their professions,  where they lived  as well as who they were related to.  However, the names should not be wholly relied upon when  learning more about your fore fathers. This is because the names could have been distorted thereby having a different meaning  from their original meaning.

Unearthing information and details about your  family  tree can particularly seem to be quite  hard especially if  you do not  have any reliable sources of information for reference. However, this no longer needs to be the  case anymore as with the use of surnames, you can  be able to get crucial information  on aspects such as  on where your  fore fathers lived, the kind of lifestyle they led and  the members of your ancestry.  These  names can also be used to  establish the date of birth of  individuals especially because  there are some unique names that were used in a specific period of time.  Though some of  these names have become extinct or have been replaced with others with time, the names  can still provide reliable details on the background of a specific family.

Knowing one’s ancestry is quite important in that it helps in  making it easy to understand one’s blood line. However, this is  limited in that it does not apply to people who are adopted into families  but do not have any blood relationship with the families that they were adopted into.  Adoptions date back to  centuries ago  when  members of a family tree started  welcoming other people into their families to be part of their backgrounds.  The surnames of  members in a family lineage  do not apply to  adopted members as the former  do not have any blood relationship with family members. 

Learning about  your ancestors centers  you among your people  thus making it easy for you to  know who your relatives are and how you are related to different people in your family lineage.

Research on  your surnames through learning more about your ancestry  goes a long way in revealing  the traits that may be characterizing your lifestyle.  For example, if you have  an undeniable desire to be an entrepreneur, you may have acquired this  desire through inheritance from your ancestors.  Therefore, researching on your ancestors as well as other people in your family  tree may  provide you with a great opportunity  to solve some of the mysteries in your life.