Family name

Modern era

During the modern era many cultures around the world adopted family names, particularly for administrative reasons, especially during the age of European expansion and particularly since the 1600s. The Napoleonic Code, adopted in various parts of Europe, stipulated that people should be known by both their given name(s) and a family name that would not change across generations. Other notable examples include the Netherlands (1795–1811), Japan (1870s), Thailand (1920), and Turkey (1934). The structure of the Japanese name was formalized by the government as family name + given name in 1868.