Ancient Last Name Generator

Browse 500 family, clan and dynastic names of the ancient world, one per entry: Roman gens names like Cornelius and Fabius, Greek clans like Alcmaeonid, Chinese surnames like Sima and Zhuge, Japanese court clans like Fujiwara, and great houses such as Maurya and Mamikonian.

About ancient last names

Most people in the ancient world had no hereditary surname. A name that passed down a family was the exception, and this list collects those exceptions: family, clan, lineage and dynastic names that a person could carry after a given name.

Three traditions had true inherited names. Romans carried a gens name such as Cornelius or Fabius, often with a family cognomen such as Scipio or Lepidus. Chinese families used ancestral clan names (Ji, Ying) and lineage names that later merged into surnames, including two-character ones like Sima and Zhuge. The Japanese court was organized in uji, clans such as Soga, Nakatomi and Fujiwara. Greeks, Hebrews and Persians had no surname. They used a father's name and, at most, a clan or house label, which is what Alcmaeonid, Levite and Suren are. Ancient Egyptians had no family names at all, so none are listed.

Some entries come from legend and not from records: Atreides, Pelopid, Yngling, Scylding and Volsung are houses of epic and saga. Others, such as Seleucid, Attalid and Sasanian, are labels historians use for a dynasty. The list was screened for duplicates, so check a name before you lean on it in published work.

How to choose ancient last names

• Put the name where its culture put it. A Roman gens name sits in the middle, between a first name and a cognomen, as in Marcus Opimius Bassus. A Chinese surname comes first, and a Japanese uji comes first and is joined to the given name with no, in the pattern Soga no plus a given name.
• Greek forms in -ides and -ades mean son of: Pelides is the son of Peleus, Tydeides the son of Tydeus and Laertiades the son of Laertes. For a whole family use the clan form, as in an Alcmaeonid or a Philaid.
• Keep one cast to one region and period. Murong, Tuoba and Helian belong to the northern peoples of the Sixteen Kingdoms, not to the Zhou court, and an Armenian house like Bagratuni or Artsruni would look odd beside a Spurinna.
• Choose recorded names for historical fiction and legendary ones for myth. Volsung, Nibelung, Kaurava and Pandava carry a whole story with them, which is a gift in fantasy and a distraction in a realistic novel.
• Many of these names belonged to powerful houses. If you give Julius, Maurya or Fujiwara to a minor character, readers will expect a link to the famous family, so a rarer name such as Foslius, Koliya or Tajihi is often the safer pick.

Frequently asked questions

Did people in ancient times have last names?

Mostly not. Romans, Chinese families and the clans of the Japanese court passed a name down, and the Roman and Chinese names are the two largest shares of this list. Elsewhere a person was known by a given name plus a father's name, a home town or a clan label, such as the Greek Alcmaeonid, the Hebrew Levite or the Parthian house names Suren and Karen.

Did ancient Egyptians have last names?

No. An ancient Egyptian had a personal name, and a parent's name or a title could be added to tell two people apart, but nothing was handed down as a family name. That is why the list holds no Egyptian entry. The one name tied to Egypt is Greek: Lagid, a label for the line of the Ptolemies, taken from Lagus, the father of the first Ptolemy.

What are some ancient Japanese last names?

The oldest are the uji, the clan names of the Yamato court, such as Soga, Mononobe, Nakatomi and Otomo. Fujiwara, Tachibana, Minamoto and Taira were names granted by the court in the Asuka, Nara and Heian periods. The warrior houses of later centuries are not part of this list.

Which names on the list are legendary?

Atreides, Pelopid, Labdacid, Tantalid and every Greek name ending in -ides or -ades come from epic and tragedy, Kaurava, Pandava, Raghava and Ikshvaku from the Indian epics, and Yngling, Scylding, Scylfing, Volsung, Nibelung, Wulfing, Hocing, Hrethling and Waegmunding from Germanic legend. Xuanyuan is the clan name given to the legendary Yellow Emperor. They are here because writers ask for them, and they should be read as tradition, not as recorded history.

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