Many indigenous ethnic groups in Yunnan, such as Yi, Hani, Jingpo, Jino, Derung, Nu, Wa, Hmong and Yao, use a son-father patronymic naming system (亲子连名制 [zh]).
Nanzhao kings: Xinuluo (細奴邏)－Luosheng (邏盛)－Shengluopi (盛邏皮)－Piluoge (皮邏閣)－Geluofeng (閣邏鳳)－Fengjiayi (鳳迦異)－Yimouxun (異牟尋)－Xungequan (尋閣勸)－Quanlongsheng (勸龍晟) Dali kings: Duan Zhixiang (段智祥)－Duan Xiangxing (段祥興)－Duan Xingzhi (段興智) Regents of Dali Kingdom: Gao Shengtai (高升泰)－Gao Taiming (高泰明)－Gao Mingshun (高明順)－Gao Shunzhen (高順貞)－Gao Zhenshou (高貞壽)－Gao Shouchang (高壽昌) Lijiang chiefs: A-ts'ung A-liang (阿琮阿良)－A-liang A-hu (阿良阿胡)－A-hu A-lieh (阿胡阿烈)－A-lieh A-chia (阿烈阿甲)－A-chia A-te (阿甲阿得)－A-te A-ch'u (阿得阿初)－A-ch'u A-t'u (阿初阿土)－A-t'u A-ti (阿土阿地)－A-ti A-hsi (阿地阿習)－A-hsi A-ya (阿習阿牙)－A-ya A-ch'iu (阿牙阿秋)－A-ch'iu A-kung (阿秋阿公)－A-kung A-mu (阿公阿目)－A-mu A-tu (阿目阿都)－A-tu A-sheng (阿都阿勝)－A-sheng A-chai (阿勝阿宅)－A-chai A-ssu (阿宅阿寺)－A-ssu A-ch'un (阿寺阿春)－A-ch'un A-su (阿春阿俗)－A-su A-wei (阿俗阿胃)－A-wei A-hui (阿胃阿揮)－A-hui A-chu (阿揮阿住) A patronymic is common in parts of India.
The celebrated Indian English novelist R. K. Narayan's name at birth was Rasipuram Krishnaswami Ayyar Narayanaswami, which was shortened at the behest of his writer friend Graham Greene.
In Tamil Nadu, the patronymic naming convention diverges significantly from other regions of India, influenced by a social justice movement aimed at eliminating caste-based discrimination.
Traditionally, many Indian states used patronyms or surnames to reflect familial heritage and caste, but Tamil Nadu's system intentionally disrupts this structure.
This shift reflects the state's broader efforts to dismantle caste markers in society, a key initiative of the Dravidian movement led by figures like Periyar E.V.
This evolution in Tamil naming practices highlights both the influence of social justice reforms and the cultural adaptability within the state.
While Tamil Nadu has largely moved away from caste-based surnames, the naming system retains a focus on individual identity, free from rigid lineage-based structures, distinguishing it from other Indian states.
This move aligns with the state's long-standing policies to reduce caste-based distinctions in public life, including naming practices.
The court's decision reflects the state's dedication to social justice by eliminating caste markers, particularly in institutions that shape young minds.
Sometimes the family's name is prefixed by Huta-, Batu-, etc., but most use Si-, such as Sitanggang, Sihombing, Sibutar-butar, Sinaga, or Sitohang.
Though not as common nowadays, it was customary for a long time for these children (particularly the sons) to change their last names to the name-in-religion of their father.
It was only in the 17th and 18th centuries when laws were put in place in European nations demanded that those of Semitic descent abandoned the patronymic naming scheme in favor of consistent legal surnames.
In Arabic, the word ibn (ابن or بن: bin, ben and sometimes ibni and ibnu to show the grammatical case of the noun) is the equivalent of the "-son" suffix discussed above, and bint (بنت) means "daughter of".
The titles can also be figurative, for example in Acts 4:36–37 a man named Joseph is called Barnabas meaning "son of consolation".
After the 'Surname revolution' in 1934, many people chose professions or habitat as surnames with or without the suffix -oğlu, such as Elbeyioğlu, Bakkaloğlu or Giritlioğlu and with -zade such as Beyzade, Mehmedzade, Yusufzade.
A common practice is to use mab/ab before a father's name beginning with a vowel (e.g., Llywelyn mab Iorwerth), but the two alternative forms are also employed arbitrarily in many sources.
In addition to these Anglicised baptismal and official names, patronyms continued to be commonly employed in Welsh until the Industrial Revolution, particularly in the north and west of Wales.
Perhaps because Cornwall was legally incorporated into England earlier than Wales was, patronyms (e.g.[m]ap Ros>Rouse, [m]ap Richard>Pritchard, Davies, Evans) are less common there than toponyms (e.g. Tresillian, Trevithick, Nanskeval/Nankeville) and occupational surnames (e.g. An Gof, [An] Gove, (Blacksmith); Helyer (Cornish dialect – possibly a slater or huntsman (helgher)).
As the Netherlands were now a province of France, a registry of births, deaths and marriages was established in 1811, whereupon emperor Napoleon forced the Dutch to register and adopt a distinct surname.
[18] In France, the terms patronyme and nom patronymique had long been used interchangeably to designate the family name, meaning that it is inherited from the father.
That is, Mario di Giovanni Rossi meant that Mario Rossi is the son of a living man named Giovanni; Francesco fu Pietro Verdi meant that Francesco Verdi is the son of a deceased man named Pietro.
Apart from natural spelling variations (such as using Giménez or Ximénez), modern orthographic standardisation in each Iberian dialect brought a number of crossed versions.
Due to the letters, z and s being pronounced alike in Latin American dialects of Spanish, many non-patronymic surnames with an -es have come to be written with an -ez.
Some Early Modern examples of the latter practice, where the patronymic was placed after the given name and was followed by the surname, are Norwegian Peder Claussøn Friis, the son of Nicolas Thorolfsen Friis (Claus in Claussøn being short for Nicolas) and Danish Thomas Hansen Kingo, the son of Hans Thomsen Kingo.
Eventually, most Nordic countries replaced or complemented this system with the prevailing "international" standard of inherited family names.
[26] Matronyms were used exceptionally if the child was born out of wedlock, or if the mother was much more high-born or well-known than the father, a historical example being Sweyn Estridsson.
[32] Historically, patronymics were composed in Swedish fashion: the father's name and the suffix -n for genitive plus the word poika for sons, tytär for daughters.
Diminutive suffixes that denote "son of" or, more generally, "descendant of" start with the given name such as Δημήτριος Dēmétrios and then have the patronymic surname such as Dēmētrópoulos (Peloponnese), Dēmētrákos (Laconia), Dēmētréas (Messenian Mani), Dēmētrátos (Cephalonia), Dēmētrákēs (Crete), Dēmētriádēs/Dēmētr-ídēs (Pontus, Asia Minor), Dēmētréllēs (Lesbos), Dēmétroglou (Asia Minor) (identical to Turkish patronym -oğlu), or simply Dēmētríou (especially common in Cyprus, with the first name in the genitive) are formed.
That system is no longer in common use, but traces can still be found in some frequent current surnames such as Pálfi (son of Paul), Győrfi, Bánfi or Sándor Petőfi (a famous poet who chose the Hungarian form instead of his Slavic birth name, Petrovics).