last names come about?

Question:

How did surnames/last names come about?

Does anyone know how English surnames/last names came about? Such as Richards, Carr, Hawke, Gates, O' Sullivan, O' Malley, Edwards, Parker, Lang, Lawley, Anderson, Harvey, Nelson, etc? In AD 1000 no such surnames exist, so how exactly did they emerge?

PS: Pls give factual information - I'm very curious to know

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I know that in Holland during the French occupation (early 1800s) surnames became obligatory, so people had to choose a surname if they didn't already have one. I suppose in England it happened around the same time.

Now, people often used their fathers name, so if it was John it became Johnson, if it was Edward Edwardson which became Edwards. The O' in Irish names I don't know, maybe it means Of (From). Further names of profession were used (Smith, Baker), names of places they were originally from (in dutch: "van" like van Eindhoven, van Dijk..), or just a colour (like in my name, which is Zwart meaning Black, maybe my ancestor had black hair or something), or anything else they could come up with.

In Holland some people jokingly took names like 'Naaktgeboren' meaning 'Born-naked' or Poepjes meaning Turds. These names still exist today