Before Surnames: When Names Were Brutally Honest

💬 Before surnames existed, people survived with just one name. Surprisingly, some places in the world still haven’t adopted formal surnames at all. So what led to the spread of the last name? And why were the predecessors of surnames so often insulting?

⚡ In this episode we explore what we did before surnames, how they started out simply as descriptions of a person - and why the modern meaning of a surname is shifting.

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🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ How humans relied on simple “eke-names” for a long time

➡ The four main types of surname that exist

➡ How some people were literally called “Blackinthemouth”, “the Druncard” or “Badneighbor” 

➡ The man with 2,253 unique words to his name

➡ How the rise of surnames is deeply tied to power, money and control

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast where we chart the history of modern inventions, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou 

Email: hello@ogpodcasts.co.uk 

Attributions:

Domesday book image: Mark Cartwright - CC BY 4.0