family name

English

Noun

family name (plural family names)

Synonym of surname: a name designating a person as a member of a family.
In the Chinese name Mao Zedong, Mao is the family name and Zedong is the given name.
A family’s honor or reputation.
- 1814, Maria Edgeworth, chapter VI, in Patronage. […], volume I, London: […] [J. M‘Creery] for J[oseph] Johnson and Co., […], →OCLC, page 199:
  He says, however, that he is sure he is happier, even in this situation, than are some of his cousins at this instant, who are struggling in poverty to be genteel, or to keep up a family name, and he would not change places with those who are in a state of idle and opprobrious dependance.
- 1829 November, “Art[icle] XVIII.—Die Bildhauer; Roman, von Karoline von Woltmann. (The Sculptors, a Novel, by Caroline Woltmann.) […]”, in The Foreign Quarterly Review, volume V, number IX, London: Treuttel and Würtz, Treuttel, Jun. and Richter, […], published 1830, page 338:
  A certain worthy individual, Udalrich, Count of Auffemried and Bishop of Bamberg, who lived some three or four centuries ago, was equally bent upon raising his family name as high as possible, and upon providing as liberally for the younger branches of his race as for its head.
- 2007, Gilbert Morris, chapter 13, in The Mermaid in the Basement (The Lady Trent Mysteries; 1), Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, →ISBN, page 170:
  I’m talking about that actor you’ve been running around with all over town. You’re going to ruin the family name!
(uncommon) A given name common within a family or given because of another family member.
Yeah, we named her Mildred. It's an old family name. Don't worry, though. She also has four middle names to choose from.
- 1840 March, John Bowring, “Memoirs of Jeremy Bentham”, in Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine for 1840, volume VII, number LXXV, Edinburgh: William Tait, […], page 169, column 1:
  He had the name of Jeremy given to him, because Jeremiah, as his father said, was a family name; and there was an advantage in curtailing a syllable, and in shewing a preference towards the names of the New Testament over those of the old.

Usage notes

Although last name and surname are both in more common use, family name is sometimes preferred for its lack of cultural and gendered assumptions. In particular, it is more inclusive of East Asian names where the family name is placed first.

References

“family name, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.