A son is a

male Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...

offspring In biology, offspring are the young creation of living organisms, produced either by a single organism or, in the case of sexual reproduction, two organisms. Collective offspring may be known as a brood or progeny in a more general way. This ca ...

; a

boy A boy is a young male human. The term is commonly used for a child or an adolescent. When a male human reaches adulthood, he is described as a man. Definition, etymology, and use According to the ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'', a boy is "a ...

or a

man A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromos ...

in relation to his

parent A parent is a caregiver of the offspring in their own species. In humans, a parent is the caretaker of a child (where "child" refers to offspring, not necessarily age). A ''biological parent'' is a person whose gamete resulted in a child, a male t ...

s. The female counterpart is a

daughter A daughter is a female offspring; a girl or a woman in relation to her parents. Daughterhood is the state of being someone's daughter. The male counterpart is a son. Analogously the name is used in several areas to show relations between groups ...

. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a

first degree relative A first-degree relative (FDR) is a person's parent (father or mother), full sibling (brother or sister) or child. It constitutes a category of family members that largely overlaps with the term nuclear family, but without spouses. If the persons ...

Social issues

In pre-industrial societies and some current countries with agriculture-based economies, a higher value was, and still is, assigned to sons rather than daughters, giving males higher

social status Social status is the level of social value a person is considered to possess. More specifically, it refers to the relative level of respect, honour, assumed competence, and deference accorded to people, groups, and organizations in a society. Stat ...

, because males were physically stronger, and could perform farming tasks more effectively. In

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, a

one-child policy The term one-child policy () refers to a population planning initiative in China implemented between 1980 and 2015 to curb the country's population growth by restricting many families to a single child. That initiative was part of a much bro ...

was in effect until 2015 in order to address rapid

population growth Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...

. Official birth records showed a rise in the level of male births since the policy was brought into

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

. This was attributed to a number of factors, including the illegal practice of

sex-selective abortion Sex-selective abortion is the practice of terminating a pregnancy based upon the predicted sex of the infant. The selective abortion of female fetuses is most common where male children are valued over female children, especially in parts of Eas ...

and widespread under-reporting of female births. In

patrilineal Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...

societies, sons will customarily inheritance, inherit an estate before daughters. In some cultures, the eldest son has special privileges. For example, in Biblical times, the first-born male was bequeathed the most goods from his father. Some Japanese social norms involving the eldest son are: "that parents are more likely to live with their eldest child if their eldest child is a son" and "that parents are most likely to live with their eldest son even if he is not the eldest child".

Christian symbolism

Among Christianity, Christians, "the Son" or Son of God refers to Jesus, Jesus Christ. Trinitarian Christians view Jesus as the human incarnation of God the second person of the Trinity, known as God the Son. In the Gospels, Jesus sometimes refers to himself as the Son of Man.

Indications in names

In many cultures, the Given name, surname of the family means "son of", indicating a possible ancestry—i.e., that the whole family descends from a common ancestor. It may vary between the beginning or the termination of the surname. ;Arabic language, Arabic * ''bin'' or ''ibn''. Examples: "Ibn Sina" ("son of Sina"), "Ibn Khaldun" ("son of Khaldun"). ;Berber languages, Berber * ''U'' (also spelled ''ou''). Examples: "Usadden" ("son of Sadden"), "Uâli" ("son of Âli"). * ''Ayt'' (also spelled ''ait'' or ''aït''). Examples: "Ayt Buyafar" ("sons of Buyafar"), "Ayt Mellul" ("sons of Mellul"). * ''n Ayt'' (also spelled ''nait'' or ''naït''). Examples: "n Ayt Ndir" ("son of the Ndir tribe/family"), "Naït Zerrad" ("son of the Zerrad tribe or family"). ;Danish language, Danish * ''Sen''. Examples: "Henriksen" ("son of Henrik"), "Jensen" ("son of Jens"), "Andersen" ("son of Anders"). ;Dutch language, Dutch * ''Sen''. Examples: "Jansen" ("son of Jan"), "Petersen" ("son of Peter"), "Pietersen" ("son of Pieter") * ''Zoon''. Examples: "Janszoon" ("son of Jan"), "Peterszoon" ("son of Peter"), "Pieterszoon" ("son of Pieter") ;English language, English * ''s''. Examples: "Edwards" ("son of Edward"), "Williams" ("son of William"), "Jeffreys" ("son of Jeffrey") * ''Son''. Examples: "Jefferson" ("son of Jeffery"), "Wilson" ("son of William"), "Edson" ("son of Edward"), "Anderson" ("son of Ander"). ;French language, French * ''es''. Example: "Fernandes" ("son of Fernand"). * ''ot''. Example: "Pierrot" ("son of Pierre"). * ''de'' or ''d'.'' Example: "Danton" ("son of Anton"). ;Hebrew language, Hebrew * ''ben'' or ''bin'' before 1300 BC. Example: "Benjamin" ("son of a :wikt:assistant, right-hand man"). Also, the Hebrew word for "person" is ''ben Adam'', meaning "son of Adam". ;Hindi language, Hindi * ''beta''. Example: "Mera beta Tim" ("my son Tim"). * ''बेटा''. Example "मेरा बेटा टिम" ("my son Tim"). ;Hungarian name, Hungarian * ''-fi'' or ''-ffy''. Examples: "Petőfi" ("son of Pető"), "Sándorfi" ("son of Sándor"), "Péterffy" ("son of Péter") (archaic spelling, indicates aristocratic origins). ;Irish name, Irish * ''Mac'' or ''Mc''. Examples: "MacThomas" ("son of Thomas"), "McDonald" ("son of Donald"), "MacLean" ("son of Lean"). ;Italian name, Italian * ''di''. Examples: "di Stefano" ("son of Steven"), "di Giovanni" ("son of John"), "di Giuseppe" ("son of Joseph"). * ''de''. Examples: "de Paolo" ("son of Paul"), "de Mauro" ("son of Maurus"), "de Giorgio" ("son of George"). * ''d`''. Examples: "d'Antonio" ("son of Anthony"), "d'Adriano" ("son of Adrian"), "d'Agostino" ("son of Augustine"). * ''-i'', which comes from Latin ending for Genitive. Examples: "Paoli" ("son of Paolo"), "Richetti" ("son of Richetto, a short name for Enrico"). ;Norwegian language, Norwegian * ''Son''. Examples: "Magnusson" ("son of Magnus"); "Sigurdson" ("son of Sigurd"), "Odinson" ("son of Odin"). ;Persian language, Persian * ''pur/pour''. Example: "Mahdipur" ("son of Mahdi"). * ''zadeh''. Example: "Muhammadzadeh" ("son/daughter of Muhammad"). ;Tagalog Language, Tagalog *''Anak'' Example: ''mga Anak ni Pedro'' (son and daughter of Pedro) ;Tamil language, Tamil * ''Magan''. Example: "En Magan Murugan" ("my son Murugan"). * ''மகன்''. Example "என் மகன் முருகன்" ("my son Murugan"). ;Polish language, Polish * ''ski''. Examples: "Janowski" ("son of John"), "Piotrowski" ("son of Peter"), "Michalski" ("son of Michael"). ;Portuguese name, Portuguese * ''Es''. Examples: "Gonçalves" ("son of Gonçalo"), "Henriques" ("son of Henrique"), "Fernandes" ("son of Fernando"). ;Romanian language, Romanian * ''a'' as prefix (except for female names that start in a and probably for others that start in vowels) and ''ei'' as suffix. Example: "Amariei" ("son of Mary"), "Adomnitei" ("son of Domnita"), "Alenei" ("son of Elena/Leana"). * ''escu'' or sometimes ''aşcu'' comes from the Latin ''-iscus'' which means "belonging to the people". Examples: "Petrescu" ("Petre's son"), "Popescu" ("Popa's son" Popa meaning Priest), "Constantinescu" ("son of Constantin").. ;Russian language, Russian * ''ov'' , ''ovich'' . Example: "Ivanov" ("son of Ivan"). * ''ev'' , ''evich'' . Example: "Dmitriev" ("son of Dmitri"). ;Spanish language, Spanish * ''Ez''. Examples: "González" ("son of Gonzalo"), "Henríquez" ("son of Henrique"), "Fernández" ("son of Fernando"), Gómez ("son of Gome"), Sánchez ("son of Sancho"). ;Turkish language, Turkish * ''oğlu''. Examples: "Elbeyioğlu" ("son of foreigner Bey"), "Ağaoğlu" ("son of Ağa"), "Yusufoğlu" ("son of Yusuf"). * ''zade''. Examples: "Begzada, Beyzade" (son of a Bey), "Aşıkpaşazade" ("son of Ashik Paşa), "Mehmedzade" (son of Mehmet). ;Ukrainian language, Ukrainian * ''-enko'' or ''-ko'', meaning simply "son of". Example: "Kovalenko" ("son of Koval") * ''sky'' . Examples: "Stanislavsky" ("son of Stanislav"), "Chaykovsky" ("son of Chayko"), "Petrovsky" ("son of Petro"). * ''shyn''. Examples: "Petryshyn" ("son of Petro"), "Danylyshyn" ("son of Danylo"). * ''chuk''. Example: "Ivanchuk" ("son of Ivan"). ;Welsh language, Welsh * ''ap'' or ''ab''. Examples: "ap Rhys" ("son of Rhys", Anglicization, anglicized to "Price (surname), Price"), "ab Owain" ("son of Owen", anglicized to Bowen (surname), Bowen).

Semitic

The Arabic word for son is ''ibn.'' Because family and ancestry are important cultural Value (personal and cultural), values in the Arab world and Islam, Arabs and most Muslims (e.g. Bruneian) often use ''bin,'' which is a form of ''ibn,'' in their full names. The ''bin'' here means "son of." For example, the Arab name "Saleh bin Tarif bin Khaled Al-Fulani" translates as "Saleh, son of Tarif, son of Khaled; of the family Al-Fulani" (cf. Arabic name#Arab family naming convention, Arab family naming conventions). Accordingly, the opposite of ''ibn''/''bin'' is ''abu,'' meaning "the father of." It is a retronym, given upon the birth of one's first-born son, and is used as a moniker to indicate the newly acquired fatherhood status, rather than a family name. For example, if Mahmoud's first-born son is named Abdullah, from that point on Mahmoud can be called "Abu Abdullah." This is cognate with the Hebrew language ''ben,'' as in "Judah ben Abram HaLevi," which means "Judah, son of Abram, the Levite." Ben is also a standalone name.

References

External links

* {{Family Family Men