| family name | FN | the name of a family as opposed to a person; nowadays in America a child inherits its surname from the legitimate husband of the child’s mother in its nuclear family of orientation; in the case of illegitimacies the mother’s surname may be used; among the Romans the f. n. was their cognomen; cf. Chapter 1, §3, ¶2 & Chapter 3, §3, ¶5 |