ABSTRACT
The system of hereditary surnames prevailing today in Britain, in Western Europe generally, and in many other parts of the world, is so familiar, so convenient, and so long established that few people ever give any thought to how or when it arose. The position about serf's surnames or by-names is very uncertain for any period before the late thirteenth century, when the availability of manorial records in increasing quantities throws more light on the subject. In Wales in the twelfth century, when surnames were still at an early stage of development in England, there were already two distinct elements among the population. On the one hand there were settlers from outside, mostly but not all English, who occupied land conquered by the Anglo-Norman marcher lords, most of it to begin with in south Wales. On the other hand there were the indigenous Welsh, with their own language and their own practices about naming.
