Most names of today's population in England, the United States and Canada, Australia, and in fact the whole English-speaking world, had their beginning long ago in England. There are many ways in which English family names began, so many that there are whole books about them. In this text you will read about a few of the different ways. When you read the text, you will see that many Russian family names began in the same way as English family names. About a thousand years ago there were very few people living in the British Isles. Towns and villages were very small, and in the country-side people lived far from each other. Because there were so few people, almost everyone had only one name. A name such as John, David or Mary was all that was needed. As time went on, more and more people appeared in the towns and country – side of Britain. To distinguish one John by name from another, people began to add a family name to the first names. When "John's son" was made into one word, "Johnson", it was used as a fam­ily name. There are many examples of "son" names, such as David­son, Wilson, Peterson, Dickson, Williamson. The Scottish "Mac" also meant "the son of", so Macadam meant "the son of Adam". The same can be said about the Irish "O"—O'Neil meant "the son of Neil". After the Norman conquest people in England began to use the Norman way of showing who a person's father was: they added "fitz" to make Fitzwilliam, Fitzpatrick and other family names of this kind. Later still family names came from the kind of work done by peo­ple. Many family names first began when people were described as John the Smith, John the Farmer, John the Baker — or, more simply John Baker. One way to distinguish between one person and another was to say where they lived. In this way places also became family names. For example, if John lived near the water, he was called "John at wa­ter" or simply "John Atwater". Another John who lived by the brook could be described as "John Brook", and "John Fields" was not the same John as the one who lived by the bridge. Other names of this kind are Hill, Rivers, Waters, Forest. In many towns and villages in Britain today you can see how many English family names began. Even the word "Town" is a well-known family name, and "Hampton", which is another family name, means "village". Yet another way to distinguish between one "Jonn" and another was to give them nicknames. Nicknames are very personal. They de­scribe physical or other characteristics and served in the past to dis­tinguish one man, and then his family, from another. "Strong", "Short", and "Long" are only a few of the many names which first came from nicknames.