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Show Origin of Surnames. No one can say with nvy certainty when the practice of taking a surname became general. The Greeks, Assyrians, Assyri-ans, Egyptians and other ancient peoples peo-ples had no surnames; the later Romans Ro-mans hnd each one real personal name, to which they sometimes added a clan name or nomen, a family name or cognomen and a nickname or agnomen. agno-men. The personal or Christian name was the only name recognized by early English law, surnames being words of description used to Identify persons of the same name from each other. The Normans had introduced Into England the habit of using surnames, but this was confined to t ie upper classes. By degrees even the common people began be-gan to be distinguished by names referring re-ferring to personal characteristics, as Armstrong, rank or profession as Smith, father's name as Jackson, etc |