Names are applied to many different sorts of things in many ways. Inevitably some of these are adapted and applied to particular persons. This involves a change in the normal category of the name. Whereas before it was a name of some object or idea, now it becomes the name of a person.
In many cultures the given names of girls and boys are from different name pools. But even then a name may be adapted from one whose typical gender is different. Then there are more distinct name categories that may change, as when a surname is adapted to be used as a given name. In some cultures the words of the common vocabulary may be an active part of the name assignment process if not the only one. In English a person might be given the full name of some prominent or highly respected person as a compound given name.
In many cultures the category of surname may be fed by various nicknames which are used freely to refer to an individual person. There seem to be five general groups of origin for the various nicknames of English. They may be names used originally to designate a family or clan. They might be descriptive of the individual by some prominent trait or acquired occupation. Another possibility is that the name originally referred to an estate or distinctive locality where the person lived. It might also come from a title which the person or someone in his family bore. In Western cultures such names (nicknames) came to be surnames at the close of the Middle Ages.
