Smallfolk surnames

[Balaurderaa]

What is the laws regarding who has a surname? Gendry doesn't have one, Davos didn't until Stannis gave him one, Duncan the Tall didn't have one...

And yet Janos Slynt does despite being mentioned as the son of a butcher...

[SeanF]

There are probably no laws, regarding surnames.

Nobles have one, as a matter of course. Non-nobles can assume one. Janos Slynt had risen to command the gold cloaks, so people would not have thought it an affectation for him to take one, to distinguish himself from the other Janoses in King's Landing.

[Arya kiddin']

Smallfolks don't have surnames. A surname is supposed to be the name of the house, which only those prestigious folks have, it is a mark of one being highborn. Pate in the prologue of AFFC thinks that he has only one name, while Leo Tyrell has two.

[Ours if the Fury]

Smallfolks don't have surnames. A surname is supposed to be the name of the house, which only those prestigious folks have, it is a mark of one being highborn. Pate in the prologue of AFFC thinks that he has only one name, while Leo Tyrell has two.

Your on the mark with your answer, thats the way of it, hence davos (before risen up), gendry etc

[Reginald blackfield]

So far the only small folk family names I know about are slynt and kettle back.

Apart from that it seems that anyone with a family name is as a rule part of a noble house.

[Arya kiddin']

Your on the mark with your answer, thats the way of it, hence davos (before risen up), gendry etc

:D. Thanks ser.

So far the only small folk family names I know about are slynt and kettle back.

Apart from that it seems that anyone with a family name is as a rule part of a noble house.

You would also like to note, that they likely took up a name for their house after being knighted / or taken up for service at a place of honor. Remember when Rolly Duckfield was knighted, he chose the name of his house Duckfield on the spot.

[Kienn]

They're called smallfolk because their names are short (small).

[Ours if the Fury]

:D. Thanks ser.

You would also like to note, that they likely took up a name for their house after being knighted / or taken up for service at a place of honor. Remember when Rolly Duckfield was knighted, he chose the name of his house Duckfield on the spot.

Yeh this too the kettle back's are knights, there relative likely their father serves in little-fingers small holdings

[BearIslander]

"Sworn Sword" elaborates on this subject brilliantly. (I mean Eustace Osgrey's levies.)

Having three Wats in the company caused confusion when Bennis was trying to tell them what to do. "We should give them village names, ser", Egg suggested, "like Ser Arlan of Pennytree, your old master". That might have worked, only their villages had no names, either. "Well", said Egg, "we could call them for their crops, ser". One village sat amongst bean fields, one planted mostly barleycorn, and the third cultivated rows of cabbages, carrots, onions, turnips, and melons. No one wanted to be a Cabbage or a Turnip, so the last lot became the Melons. They ended up with four Barleycorns, two Melons, and two Beans. As the brothers Wat were both Barleycorns, some further distinction was required. When the younger brother made mention of once having fallen down the village well, Bennis dubbed him "Wet Wat", and that was that. The men were thrilled to have been given "lord's names", save for Big Rob, who could not seem to remember whether he was a Bean or a Barleycorn.

And Duncan the Tall wouldn't even have his first name but for Egg.

[ache]

There is Masha Heddle too.

[The Dornishman's Widow]

There is Masha Heddle too.

Wealthier "smallfolk" like innkeeper (of an inherited inn) Masha Heddle or armourer Tobho Mott (with the extra leeway of coming from abroad) probably qualify for a second name, while for a farmer or fisherman it would seem very pretentious if he were to give himself one and it wouldn't catch on.

As Arya Kiddin' mentioned, it's a matter of prestige, and these examples have some despite not being part of the nobility.

[BearIslander]

There is Masha Heddle too.

There is Tomard Heddle a hundred years before, a knight in service of Lord Butterwell and his son-in-law. I think Heddles might have been attainted after the Second Blackfyre Rebellion and turned to smallfolk.

As for Tobho Mott and his likes, citizens of Free Cities are not so small a folk as in Westeros.

[GallowsKnight]

You have to remember there is no census or official records. Nor any laws about names. You can call yourself anything you want, but the caveat is a lord might have you beaten or even murdered if you went around claiming to be of his house.

[Bearson]

There are probably no laws, regarding surnames.

Nobles have one, as a matter of course. Non-nobles can assume one. Janos Slynt had risen to command the gold cloaks, so people would not have thought it an affectation for him to take one, to distinguish himself from the other Janoses in King's Landing.

This. GRRM probably went with RL Northern European naming conventions. If there are two people named Jon in a town, for instance, the other townsfolk might refer to one as Jon son of X, or by his craft, but without that being an actual family name. Much like Scandinavia little over a century ago, one might imagine that the Westerosi royal taxation bureaucracy some time in the future actually demand that commoners assume a family name.

Also, that Westerosi commoners generally don't have surnames, doesn't mean that that naming convention is neccesarily universal for all of GRRTH/Planetos, though.

[Bright Blue Eyes]

There is Masha Heddle too.

She's a descendant from that old knight taking up smithing/innkeeping after being crippled in battle.

[SeanF]

In King's Landing, probably quite a lot of the Smallfolk have surnames, to distinguish them from each other. They'd likely be based on their craft, place of origin, or parentage. Had Gendry been left alone, he'd probably have called himself Gendry Smith in later life; his children would have the surname Gendyson, or Smithson.