Linguist reveals how a modern phone practice was the key to the creation of Western last names

Every day we learn something new on the internet. This time, a linguist and etymology enthusiast from New York, Adam Aleksic–who goes by @etymologynerd on Instagram–shared a video to enlighten people on how exactly Western surnames came to be. He made a stunning revelation, stating how the way we save the names of people on our phones subtly hints at how people got their surnames centuries ago. "The craziest thing about having people saved in your phone with descriptive contact information is that this is literally how Western last names have always worked," Aleksic started.

"Before the 12th century, everybody just had first names. But then England's population expanded and they had to do more record-keeping, so they started using four types of surnames to identify individuals," he continued. The four types of surnames were associated with either a person's profession or were toponymical, adjectival or relationship descriptions. Aleksic gave a few examples of modern-day names and how we save them on our phones, like "AJ Plumber" or "Leo Finance." He connected the dots between how we save our contacts with the way people in earlier times probably got the surname "Smith" because they were blacksmiths.

"This is similar to how someone would end up with the last name Bush if their family lived in a bushy area," Aleksic mentioned, before showing a picture of Taylor Swift as he spoke. "This is how someone who moved quickly would end up with the last name Swift." He also discussed the surnames originated from relationship descriptors that represented the connection between two people. "Like Johnson and Richardson being the sons of John and Richard. However, phone contact cards are more explicitly about that person's relationship with you. Like 'Ina Bestie' or 'Sam Tinder' are about your connection with that person, which makes sense. We are reinventing this old process in a completely new way," he concluded.

People in the comment section were fascinated when they figured out how some of the popular surnames they have or have heard came into existence. @sunny.bugz joked, "Forcing my coworkers to become a family because I save them as Kate Work, Megan Work and Prince Work. You are all related now." @shreetheb wrote, "In India, we have a wonderful Parsi community with surnames that describe their profession- one of my favorites is Daruwala (the alcohol guy) and Sodabottleopenerwala (I'm not sure if it's actually a name, but it's the name of a restaurant)."

@farwestx commented, "My last name is Short, so I just know one of my ancestors was bullied relentlessly." @lauraanne_francis quipped, "I was thinking earlier about how we use the inverse of last names like mine, Peterson and as we get older, it is more like Laura Jessie's Mom." @aro_ace_agenpride mentioned, "Roman surnames were like this. Caesar means something like lovely hair (ironic cause Julius Caesar was bald), Cicero was a reference to the family’s huge nose and Catullus is a cat but like in a cute way!" @jessicaaniicole_ added, "I thought my last name Rock was because my Irish ancestors lived in a rocky area, but it's actually German and they were dressmakers!"

You can follow Adam Aleksic (@etymologynerd) on Instagram for more fascinating content.