Who created the last name?

Question:

Who created the last name?

i learned this in fourth grade, but i sorta forgot, who created last names? Wouldn't it be wierd if we were named something like "Bob1000"

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: In England, hereditary surnames were adopted in the 13th and 14th centuries, initially by the aristocracy but, eventually, by everyone. By 1400, most English people and lowland Scots had acquired surnames, but many Irish, highland Scots and Welsh people did not adopt English-style surnames until the 17th century, or later.

Most surnames of British origin fall into six types:

Occupations (e.g., Smith, Archer, Baker, Fisher)
Personal characteristics (e.g., Short, Brown, Whitehead)
Geographical features (e.g., Hill, Wood, Fields)
Place names (e.g., London, Hamilton', Sutton)
For those descended from land-owners, the name of their holdings, manor or estate
Patronymics and Ancestry, often from a male's given name (e.g., Richardson, Williams, Johnson) or from a clan name (for those of Scottish origin, e.g., MacDonald, Forbes)

(..cont'd via link)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/surname...

Dutch Surnames:
http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.a...