Patronymik

Patronymik, or patronymic, is a naming practice in which a person’s name or part of it is derived from the given name of a father or ancestor. The term comes from Greek patēr “father” and onoma “name.” In cultures that use patronymics, a child’s name often signals paternal descent and can indicate “son of” or “daughter of” the parent.

Across languages, the form and usage of patronymics vary. In English-speaking areas, many patronymics became fixed surnames such as Johnson, Williams, or Wilson, originally meaning “son of John,” “son of William,” or “son of Will,” respectively. In Iceland, patronymics are still common in daily life: a son of Jakob may be Jakobsson, while a daughter would be Jakobsdóttir. In Russian and many other Slavic languages, the father’s name forms a patronymic middle name, such as Ivanovich for a son of Ivan and Ivanovna for a daughter, used alongside a family surname. In Arabic naming traditions, the particle bin or ibn means “son of,” and bint means “daughter of,” often appearing in full names. Gaelic traditions also use Mac or Nic (Ní) to denote “son of” or “daughter of.”

Modern usage varies by region. Some societies retain productive patronymics that change with each generation, others have shifted to fixed hereditary surnames. In places where patronymics are still used, they function as a practical marker of lineage, social notation, or formal address, and may coexist with family names.

Patronymik is thus a broad term covering diverse systems in which names are shaped by parental or ancestral identifiers, illustrating how language encodes kinship and lineage.