

The son of Maud would go by the surname Madison. Matronyms, though rare at the time, also exist. Jack, whose father’s name is Paul, would call himself as Jack Paul’s son, which would later evolve into Paulson.

Sometimes people inherited the names of their parents and used them as their surnames. An earl named James would then be called James Earl. A Thomas working as a mason would be called Thomas Mason. People would often use their occupations as a way to distinguish themselves. In this manner, surnames could be considered primitive addresses. Similarly, someone living by the road might choose to be known as “the one by the way” which then evolved into the surname Bitheway. LocationĪ John who lived near the woods would often call himself “John of the Woods,” or simply John Wood. There are generally four ways people with the same name differentiated themselves during medieval times. Identifying people using some kind of additional non-hereditary informal name or byname became necessary. William became enormously popular when William the Conqueror ascended to the English throne.Īs the population grew, distinguishing people with the same names became an increasing concern. People would often name their children after famous people at the time, mainly from kings, artists, warriors, and such. Naming your child after a saint was seen as a protective measure, with parents believing these saints would watch over their children.Īs society continued to develop, less religious emphasis was placed on names. Names were often inspired by saints, who were the “celebrities” at the time. Religion had the strongest influence on naming conventions, with Christianity having the biggest impact on the development of personal names in the western world. Bridget could easily be “Byrgytte” and “Brigyt.” As spelling was not that important then, different versions of the same name were frequently used.

A person could simply be called John or Cateline.

Mononymsīack in medieval times, people only needed one name. Even today, names that originated from earlier times are still frequently used. This resulted in the creation of unique naming conventions that were either based on religion, language, or culture. The Middle Ages were times of frequent change and mixing of cultures mostly brought about by the fall of the Western Roman Empire and considered to have lasted from the 5th to the late 15th century. This is especially true during the medieval ages, where names could literally describe a person. With a name, society marks a person as someone worthy of notice, separating their achievements and activities from other people. Set your username flair under the community options tab in the sidebar of New Reddit.Your name is the greatest marker of your individuality. You must flair your post (Critique, Question, Discussion, Prompt or Resource). Only direct links to Google Docs for critique purposes are allowed. Advertise services/self-promote outside of the weekly writing check-in.Make posts solely about discussing published work.Ask writing questions without adding fantasy context.Post topics unrelated to fantasy writing.All posts should be about writing, editing, critiquing and/or publishing one's own works of fantasy. This subreddit is dedicated to writing in the fantasy genre.
