These names tend to be attached to them after the fact. I imagine there were a few Leonardos or Johannesses roaming about at their time so much like Alexander became The Great to set him apart from all other Alexanders, these names are scribes’ and historians’ shorthand to make clear which Leo or Joe you were talking about. And a few centuries of historical telephone later they seem to fit perfectly in our first name/last name system. Which in western Europe really only became officially standardized with the Code Civil from our friend Napoleon.
Pretty sure you get these if you move. These names are common in my part of the world and they’re never common in the place the name refers to. At some point an ancestor moved and it stuck to their kids.
Or where they were from: da Vinci, Gutenberg. The Bible also doesn’t have a lot of action in China where last names were a thing before Jesus.
Did people only get those if they moved, or was everyone from Vinci named da Vinci? (Similar to the Texas Pete premise)
These names tend to be attached to them after the fact. I imagine there were a few Leonardos or Johannesses roaming about at their time so much like Alexander became The Great to set him apart from all other Alexanders, these names are scribes’ and historians’ shorthand to make clear which Leo or Joe you were talking about. And a few centuries of historical telephone later they seem to fit perfectly in our first name/last name system. Which in western Europe really only became officially standardized with the Code Civil from our friend Napoleon.
His full name was Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, so presumably he’d be known locally as Leonardo di ser Piero.
Pretty sure you get these if you move. These names are common in my part of the world and they’re never common in the place the name refers to. At some point an ancestor moved and it stuck to their kids.