If you only remember three facts from this atlas, remember Spanish two surnames, Icelandic patronymics and Japanese koseki unity.
Add Korean surname concentration and Chinese generation practice on the given-name side to complete the set.
Regions
- Spanish-speaking world — Two surnames
Father’s and mother’s family names in a legally specified order (rules have changed).
- Iceland — Patronymics
A last element that points to a parent, not a frozen house.
- Japan — Koseki surnames
Household register and usually one married surname.
- Korea — Few surnames + bon-gwan
Shared family names, finer clan geography; given names distinguish.
- Russia & parts of Eastern Europe — Gendered surname endings
Morphology marks sex on the family name itself.
- English-speaking settler states — One hereditary surname
The form that global software still assumes.
Laws
- Spanish civil-code surname rules Spain & many LATAM states — Transmission and order of two surnames.
- Icelandic personal names act Iceland — Patronymics as the normal last element.
- Japanese Family Register Act Japan — Household surname unity — high legal friction.
- German Namensrecht Germany — Marriage and child surname options are coded in detail.
Worldwide surnames are a museum of state projects. Walk through; do not flatten.