Meaning of last names?

What do you mean?

Meaning of last names?
Last names are relatively new in history. Traditionally, they were created to answer census takers questions. "Mac" means "son of", so MacArthur means "Son of Arthur" . Smith and Baker are derived from occupations, such as blacksmith, or baker. So the census taker would ask questions like "what is your name?" and the person would respond "John". And the census taker would say, in exasperation, "John who? There are 10 Johns in this village." So, John would reply, "John the baker". He was listed as John Baker. A name like Dupont is derived from the fact that "Jean" lived near a bridge, versus the "Jean" that was a playboy; he became Jean Jolicoeur. Shearson was derived from someone who sheared sheep. And on and on.
Reply:I remember reading about last names a few years so I'm not really sure how accurate it was but it makes sense. Back in the day (I don't know any dates) when people began to create towns and live in communities they needed away to distinguish between people with the same first name. People just began to give people last names by what they were known for let it be your occupation or anything that stuck out about you. So if you were a baker your last name was Baker. If you were a writer or something your last name would be Reid. If this is the real reason last name started off as nicknames but gradually became a neccesity

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