A name derived from the name of a father or male ancestor, typically by the addition of a prefix or suffix (e.g., Johnson, 'son of John'; Ivanovich, 'son of Ivan').
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Greek17th centurywell-attested
From Greek 'patrōnymikós' (derived from one's father's name, pertaining to a name taken from the father), from 'patḗr' (father) + 'ónyma' (name, Aeolic variant of 'ónoma'), from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr (father) + *h₁nómn̥ (name). Patronymic naming is near-universal: the father's name becomes the basis for the child's, whether as a suffix (-son in English, -sen in Scandinavian, -ov/-ev in Russian, -vich in South Slavic), a prefix ('Mac-' in Gaelic, 'ap-' in Welsh, 'ben-' in Hebrew), or an unchanged adoption. The term wascoined by Alexandrian Greek grammarians to
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Icelandic is one of the few European languages that still uses a living patronymic system. Björk Guðmundsdóttir is literally 'Björk, daughter of Guðmundur' — and her children will have different surnames based on their father's first name. There are no family surnames in the traditional sense