When in history did people first start to use surnames?
Different times for different cultures. The Chinese had them quite early, the 5th century BC in fact. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_surnames ) and in areas where clans were important, it was probably early too. Their surnames were an expression of allegiance to the central clan hierarchy,(as in the Scots and Irish) or a means of telling who was a possible marriage partner.(eg the Batak of North Sumatera whose first question to anyone traditionally was not ‘how are you’ but “marga apa?” ” what clan?”) The English began to take on surnames in the early middle ages (11th century), starting with the Norman elite, who took theirs from their place of origin (eg de Dives-one of my ancestral names- which is from Dives sur Mer in Normandy) or,in the case of younger sons, from the manor they owned (de Langton- another of my ancestral names). By 1400 most English had surnames, either from the ph
