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{{trope}}
A
One of the cultures that used matronymics in the old days without it being an obvious sign of illegitimacy was the English culture. It was traditional for posthumous children in medieval times to take their mother's name as a surname, and kids faced with a sucky patronym and a cool matronym were free to choose the latter. Custer, Beaton, Izzard, Madison, and Parnell are only a few of the many matronyms used in English as surnames.
There are only a few cultures on modern Earth that still retain the use of a '''patronymic''' (Eastern Europe, Russia, Iceland, Malaysia, and Arabic countries); it just gets awkward as the populations get high, so most of these cultures (with a notable exception of Iceland, which ''does not'' have surnames bar a select few families that have had them since before taking up family names was ''forbidden by law'') cheat by adopting proper surnames or other monikers as well. Not so for alien species in [[Science Fiction]]. Most alien races have [[Only One Name]], and among those who don't, it's usually a patronymic. Especially [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|proud warrior races]].
Less often, but still more common than a proper surname, a character will use a locative name (Such as Xev of B3K from ''[[Lexx]]''). Various Jaffa in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' have used either (and the cultural bias is demonstrated by Master Bra'tac, who always referred to General Hammond as "Hammond of Texas"). The [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|proudest of the warrior races]] have ''both''.
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Taken to extremes, can easily form the basis for an [[Overly Long Name]].
See also [[I Am X, Son of Y]]▼
▲See also [[I Am X, Son of Y]]
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'', Sara's daughter Seira takes kanji from her mother's name. The reason is unknown (if there is one or if it was just Sara's personal decision), but [[Fanon]] has established it as one of [[Our Mermaids Are Different|the mermaids' many customs]].
* Uryuu Ishida's family in ''[[Bleach]]'' have names with one kanji from their fathers' names. (Soken->Ryuuken->Uryuu) Taking a kanji from your father's name was very common in Japan until recently.
* [[Tsundere|Anna]] [[Playing with Fire|Yurievna]] [[Pettanko|Cocolova]] from ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' (She's usually called by her diminutive
* ''[[Kamichama Karin]]'' gives us Kazune and Kazusa, children of Kujyou Kazuto. And [[Kid From the Future|Suzune]]'s name takes a kanji each from both Karin and Kazune's names.
== Comic Books ==
* In [[DC Comics]], Thanagarians have males take their given name from their father's surname (Katar Hol's father was Paran Katar), while females take their surname from their father's given name (Shayera Thal's father was Thal Porvis). There have been variations, usually by writer's who don't know the rules.
* Likewise, Kryptonian males are given a name which is attached to their surname, as in Kal-El (Kal of the House of El). Kryptonian females have a given name attached to a patronymic in the form of their father's name, as in Kara Zor-El (Kara, daughter of Zor, of the House of El). There are variants, as with Cir-El (who was not technically Kryptonian anyway) but those can generally be ascribed to Clark valuing human norms over Kryptonian ones.
== Film ==
* The Drac in the movie ''[[Enemy Mine (film)|Enemy Mine]]'' are parthenogenetic (meaning each child only has one parent.) Each Drac has a first and last name, plus a long list of ancestors names which they must remember and recite at a coming of age ceremony. (Davidge, a human character who adopted a Drac as his son, gets his own name added to the boy's lineage.)
* Weird subversion: Thanks to a miscommunication, the Arab protagonist of ''[[The 13th Warrior]]'' became known as "Eben"
{{quote|'''Herger the Joyous:''' (to Ahmed) "Quis est vestri nomen?"
'''Melchisidek:''' (translating) "He wants to know your name."
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'''Ahmed ibn Fahdlan:''' "No, listen, My name is Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan. "Ibn" means "son of"."
'''Herger the Joyous:''' (to the other Vikings) "Eben." }}
* In ''
== Literature ==
* In [[J. R. R.
** Parodied in [[Discworld]], where Dwarves often get uncreative. An example can be Snorriscousin or Glodsnephew. Also their patronymic surnames can stack, leading to Glodsonsonsonsonsonsonsons...
* [[The Culture]] in [[Iain M Banks
* In Tamora Pierce's ''[[Tortall Universe]]'', the people of the country of Galla use patronymics, a fact that is important in the history of Veralidaine Sarrasri (aka Daine) because, as a [[Heroic Bastard]], she must use her ''mother's'' name as a matronymic, which draws scrutiny to her and her status as a bastard.
* ''[[The Seventh Tower]]'' has the Chosen ''hyphenate'' their parents' names (e.g., "Tal Graile-Rerem"), while the Icecarls have been known to introduce themselves with several generations of their ancestry (e.g., "I am Milla, daughter of Ylse, daughter of Emor, daughter of Rohen, daughter of Cylo, in the line of Danir since the Ruin of the Ship"). Not only that, Icecarls also can earn Oakenshield-style epithets.
* Members of the House of the Dragon in the ''[[Dragaera]]'' series use a patronymic of an extremely illustrious ancestor, which is unique to that House; members of other houses just use their given name and title.
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** And that would have gone even longer had Eilonwy been able to remember the names of any of Regat's female ancestors.
* The protagonist of [[Robin Hobb]]'s ''The Farseer Trilogy'' is named FitzChivalry Farseer, and thus his ''given'' name is actually a patronymic.
* The science fiction novel ''[[Cagebird]]'' has a protagonist from an apparently rather traditional Russian family. He uses a patronymic as his middle name until he's recruited by [[Space Pirates]], although it's only mentioned once or twice.
* ''[[Wild Cards]]''' Dr. Tachyon has a Takisian name that lists his ''entire geneology for a thousand generations''.
* Robert Jordan's ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' series has the Ogier, whose males introduce themselves with a double patronymic (Loial son of Arent son of Halan), and whose females introduce themselves with a double matronymic (Erith daughter of Ila daughter of Alar).
* Modified in [[David Brin]]'s ''[[Uplift]]'' series. Each sentient species is "uplifted" from pre-sentience by a patron species. When a person is formally introduced, he identifies his ''species'' with all its
** Humans have no known patron race so human characters are introduced as "a-Human, ul-Dolphin-ul-Chimp" and a neo-dolphin or chimpanzee would be "ab-Human". Because of that most of Galactic society treats
* The Shin culture in ''[[The Stormlight Archive]]'' use patronymics so you get names like Shauka-daughter-Haswerth and Thresh-son-Esan, Szeth-son-son-Vallano is an exile and outcast and uses his grandfather's name because he doesn't want to dishonour his father.
* In [[The Four Gospels|The Gospels]], Jesus's enemies are shown referring to him as "Mary's son", thus calling attention to the uncertainty on his father's identity.
** Many Biblical figures have patronymic names. One that has [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] connotations today is "Joshua, Son of Nun".
* A popular naming convention in [[S.M. Stirling]]'s ''[[Emberverse]]'', with characters known as "Jake sunna Jake" (say it aloud and it makes perfect sense), Dik Tomskid, Bjarni Erickson, and Asgerd Karlsdottir.
* On [[Marion Zimmer Bradley]]'s [[Darkover]], a woman who joins the Renunciates (aka the "Free Amazons") takes an oath in which, among other things, she agrees ''not'' to use the name of her father or her husband. She is thereafter known by her matronymic, e.g., "Margali ''n'ha'' [daughter of] Ysabet."
* ''[[Animorphs]]'' has two examples. Andalite parents pass down their middle names to their children. Ax's middle name, Esgarrouth, was from his father's middle name, and Elfangor's middle name, Sirinal, was from his mother's middle name. Usually the problem of too many children didn't come into play as they had a one child per family policy until some were allowed a second child. Yeerks, meanwhile, are designated by their parent grub. So, Edriss 562, Visser One, would be the 562nd grub of the Edriss tri-parent.
* Ubiquitous in the [[The Icelandic Sagas|Icelandic Sagas]], representing the era's naming customs.
== Live Action TV ==
* The Nietzscheans of ''[[Andromeda]]'': They had a surname, a clan name and both a patronymic and a matronymic. One character's full name was "Tyr Anasazi of Kodiak Pride out of Victoria by Barbarossa".
** Not so much a patronymic as a short genealogy. Tyr is also at one point asked which Barbarossa was his father. Justified because Nietzscheans breed towards very specific traits, and knowing enough of your ancestry to avoid inbreeding is not a bad thing.
* In ''[[Star Trek]]'', Klingons, if they're forced to give more than one name, give a patronymic (Worf, son of Mogh). Vulcans use these as well in religious ceremonies, and give ''two'' names (the second is presumed to be the name of the paternal grandfather). It's worth noting that Vulcans ''do'' have family names, but they're [[The Unpronounceable|allegedly unpronounceable by humans]].
* On [[Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)|the original ''
== Mythology ==
* In [[Norse Mythology]], Thor is sometimes called "
** Loki also had a rare matronym with "Laufeyson".
== Video Games ==
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* Orc lastnames in ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' are "gro" (masculine) or "gra" (feminine) apparently meaning "son of" or "daughter of" respectively.
** Nords will do this sometimes as well, being heavily based on early Scandinavian culture. For example, Archmage Gauldur's three sons all had the surname "Gauldurson".
== Web Original ==
* In the web original ''[[My Friend is an Alien]]'', a series of stories about a group of kids who befriend two aliens, the aliens have a quadruple patronymic (Jahv and Keyro, sons of Amshat, son of Lemoy, son of Dekel, son of Gershon).
== Western Animation ==
* In
== Real Life ==
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** It wasn't so bad as all that; daughters would have variations on their father's clan name. The confusing part is that aristocratic fathers would often name their eldest sons after themselves with no numbers, leading to generation after generation of guys named Publius Claudius Pulcher. Only slightly better than [[Planet of Steves]].
** Girls mostly got the feminine version of their father's family name - Marc Antony's daughter was named Antonia and Augustus' daughter was Julia, for example. They did sometimes get nicknames - sometimes as simple as Maior and Minor and sometimes more creative - to tell them apart. A lot of the time, though, you just had to learn to keep all your Cornelias straight.
*** Roman nicknames, known as "cognomen", were actually a formally recognized parts of a person's full
* [[Ancient Greece]] did this, Homer had the Atreides, i.e. Agamemnon and Menelaus.
** Also with the Dioscuri (Scion of Zeus), Castor and Polydeuces - kind of a misnomer since only one was the son of Zeus. I guess they were just that inseparable.
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** However, Arabic names also tend to have patronymics as well. The structure of an Arabic name is: Kunya (Abu/Umm, Father of/Mother of), Ism (a person's given name), Laqab (a nickname or description of the person or their character; this can be heritable, rather like a Roman ''cognomen''), Nasab (the patronymic often two generations back, given with ibn/bint son of/daughter of), and Nisab (like a surname. Usually a family name, area or tribe of origin, or occupation). Ex. Abu Kareem Muhammad al-Jameel ibn Nidh'aal ibn Abdulazeez al-Filisteeni would mean "Father of Kareem, Muhammad the beautiful, son of Nidh'all, son of Abdulazeez, the Palestinian."
*** In many modern Arabic speaking countries, only the patronymics have legal significance, and the "Ibn" or "Bint" part is usually left out. In historical times, there was a great deal of variation as to the order of the various names too, with only the personal name and the patronymics being in a set order.
*** For clarity: Arabs in the eastern part of the Arab world often use the name of their male-line great-grandfather (their father's father's father); this is known as an ''ism ruba`i'' ("fourth-name", more or less), since the middle two generations are often listed (e.g., Muhammad bin Adil bin Marwan bin Radwan, who would go as "Muhammad bin Radwan" for short, even though he's actually Adil's son). In most Arab countries, however, the "bin" is dropped, so our example fellow in, say Egypt, would be called "Muhammad Adil Marwan Radwan" in official contexts (e.g. on his national ID card) and "Muhammad Radwan"
* A few Hebrew names used to work this way.
** In [[The Bible]], although it wasn't exactly part of the name, Hebrews would identify themselves by tribe.
** "Traditional" Hebrew names are patronyms. They are still used for calling people to read from the Torah. Converts will use "Ben-Avraham", meaning "son of Abraham" (or "Bat-Avraham" meaning "daughter of Abraham), to connect them to their new people.
*** It's not just patronymic, but matronymic as well. For example, "Reuven ben Yaakov v'Leah" is Reuben, son of Jacob and Leah. And the traditional styling for a convert is usually "<name> ben/bat Avraham Aveinu v'Sarah Imeinu", or <name>, son/daughter of Abraham our father and Sarah our mother.
**** Ben or bat is not just a name for converts, though it does tend to appear mostly within the gap between Orthodox Jews (who have their own naming traditions) and the totally secular. For example, someone discussing ''[[Left Behind]]'' pointed to the name "Tzion Ben-Yehuda" as unrealistically Jewish. [[wikipedia:Itamar Ben-Avi|Oh really?]]
*** The person on the [[Left Behind]] page was talking about the mixed spelling. The use of tz, as is used when translitterating Hebrew, and the use of J, which doesn't exist in the Hebrew language. The point was just to be consistent.
**** Actually, the particular Hebrew letter can be transliterated as either J or Y.
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** Irish and Scottish surnames, though no longer patronymic, have patronymic origins. McCarthy and O'Connor literally mean "son of Carthach" and "male descendant of Conchobar (or Connor in the modern era)", respectively.
*** This goes further in the Irish and Scottish languages, as these languages still treat surnames much like other examples of full patronymics. To take the Irish language examples from above (Mac Cárthaigh and Ó Conchobhair, respectively), we see two other forms used for women: Nic Chárthaigh (daughter of Carthach) and Ni Chonchobhair (female descendant of Conchobar), and Mhic Chárthaigh (wife of the son of Carthach) and Ui Chonchobhair (wife of the male descendant of Conchobar).
** Many of the most common Spanish surnames ending in -ez [[wikipedia:Spanish naming customs#Identity and descent|are patronymics]]: Sánchez = "Son of Sancho", López = "Son of Lope", Rodríguez = "Son of Rodrigo", and so on. (
** Most Russian surnames are essentially archaic form of patronymics: "-ov" was a standard patronymic ending for commoners, while modern form "-vich" was used by nobility. Surnames ending on "-vich" are also common but less so and more in Western parts of the country. And "-ski" is a ''Polish'' ending.
** The same is true of the Balkan "-ić" ending, found in Croatian, Serbian, etc. names e.g.: Petrović, Jovanović
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* Using one of the Chinese characters from father's name in the names of the children is still quite popular in Korea, even in the North, where Hanjja is not used anymore. Koreans living in the other countries (like Koryo-saram in Russia and other ex-Soviet states) often modify this system by giving their children names that start from the same letter.
* Families in [[Land of My Fathers and Their Sheep|Wales]] used patronymic naming for centuries until very recently. Boys were [name] ''mab/fab'' [father's name] and girls ''merch/ferch'' [father's name]. This later became ''ap'', which still survives in surnames today.
*Some peoples take this to the point of memorizing genealogy and having shorthand conventions to enable this. While this sounds romantic [[Your Mileage May Vary|from some points of view]] it has a practical purpose. In societies where relations would cover each other's debts memorizing your kin is the same as memorizing your bank account number.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Naming Conventions]]
[[Category:The Parent Trope]]
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[[Category:Useful Notes/Russia]]
[[Category:Patronymic]]
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