Last Names: How did we get/when did last names begin?

Speaking for Europe at least, last names arose as a way to distinguish between people with the same name. They were orginally what were called "by-names". Some where occupational (like "Baker" or "Carpenter"), some where locational ("Atwood" - John who lives at-the-woods, or "Bywater" - Mary who lives by-the-water), some were patronymic (like "Johnson" or "MacDonald" - "mac" means "son of " in Gaelic), some where descriptive (like "Black" for someone with black hair, or "Little"), some were clan names (like "O'Neill" - Irish for "from the Neill clan"), some were epitaths (eg. "Charlemagne" translates as "Charles the Great")

Gradually these grew from bynames (which only applied to one person) to "surnames" which were passed down in families. Interestingly, there is one place where they still don't use surnames, they use patronymics: that's Iceland. There you are <Name> + <Father's Name> + either <son> or <dottir> (eg. Freya Jonsdottir or Karl Magnusson). For that reason, Icelandic phonebooks are listed by first name, rather than last name.

According to the website below, "European surnames first occurred between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, with some patronymic surnames in Scandinavia being acquired as late as the nineteenth century. Prior to this time period, particularly during the "Dark Ages" between the fifth and eleventh centuries, people were largely illiterate, lived in rural areas or small villages, and had little need of distinction beyond their given names. During Biblical times people were often referred to by their given names and the locality in which they resided such as "Jesus of Nazareth." However, as populations grew, the need to identify individuals by surnames became a necessity. The acquisition of surnames during the past eight hundred years has been affected by many factors, including social class and social structure, cultural tradition, and naming practices in neighboring cultures. "

In Asia the Japanese didn't start using surnames till the 17th century. Mongolians just started making surnames a couple years ago.

Last names originally came from distinguishing people by thier trades, occupations, or place of birth. John the Baker as opposed to his neighbour John the Blacksmith...or another neighbour,... John from Wexford. Names were then passed on to sons and daughters.... Stephan son of Blacksmith.... Julia daughter of baker.... and then later developed into the short versions.... John Baker, Julia Baker and so on.

Often, last names have roots in other languages and have changed as they have passed through time and regions of the world.

many of them came from the place where the person lived, like von means from

many from occupations, like Smith

many from the parents, like Ericson, etc.