Patronymic Surnames

From My Research Wiki

A patronymic surname is a part of a person's name based on the name of a father, grandfather or earlier male ancestor. Originally, patronymics and other descriptive additions to a person's name were meant to tell one "Jim" from another in the same village. Named derived from the female line are called matronynics.

In some cultures, a patronymic starts with a letter or word that indicates "son of" or "descended from". Irish, for example, generally used "O", "Ui", "Mc" or "Mac"; Scots used "Mc" or "Mac"; and Welsh used "ap". Other cultures used other words. Some patronymics, such as Adams or Williams, are identified by the "s" at the end of the name (or Williamson or Anderson where "son" is the giveaway).

In Russia and Iceland the patronymic lives as middle names; a name between the common name by which a person is known and his or her family or clan name.