Who's Your Daddy?
- Leslie Ryan
- Jun 18
- 2 min read
Happy Father's Day Weekend 2026! Let's talk about Patronyms - the practice of using the father's first name as a last name, like "Johnson," signifying son of John. How they used to know "Who's Your Daddy?"
This naming system was begun way back when - before everyone had a last name, and still continues in some cultures today. "Son" was common in England, while in Ireland we have "Fitz" or "O'" and Scotland had "Mac" and "Mc" which came down to Ireland with the Plantation of Scottish settlers there. Spanish names got "ez" attached to the end (i.e. Gonzalez), and Russians add on a "vich" for sons, and "ova" for daughters (Ivan Invanovich, or Ivana Ivanova).
Is this helpful or confusing for genealogists? You can certainly see that it would be confusing to be researching the family name Richardson, and then to discover that John Richardson's father was named Fred Johnson, wouldn't it? According to the FamilyTreeDNA blog, "...in 1700, it was claimed that a grand total of 8 names (John, Edward, William, Henry, Charles, James, Richard, and Robert) accounted for almost 90% of the male population. Even if you record all the Erik Johnsons you find and list their village, that name will change within a generation and you’ll have to start all over."
When did fixed surnames come into accepted use? You can blame one entity: The Taxman. The King was going to get every coin he could from every village!
Do you have some patronyms in your trees? Here are some sites you can check for FREE for clues about naming customs in your land of ancestral origins:
MyHeritage: https://blog.myheritage.com/2025/08/what-are-patronyms-and-how-are-they-connected-to-genealogy/
This weekend could be a great opportunity to tell stories and share pictures of your Dads and Grandads. Our family enjoys shocking the next generations down with recounting the way our Dad would cut across lanes of traffic or suddenly stop and shout to whatever lucky one of us was riding shotgun that day to "Jump out and get that bottle there! Hurry!" We had a lot of hungry mouths to feed back then in the days when you could get a nickel back on each one. The good old days, when tossing trash out of your car was not frowned upon. Eek!!
How's your research coming? Are you still having fun? If not, send me an email and I'll do a free review of your brick wall to see if I can help get you smiling again!
Thanks for spending time with me again this week,
Leslie Ryan
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