New localized options for surname guessing

Ideas
1

Hello,

I’ve made a feature request on the bugtracker (13953), where I said that I would like to have a new option for surname guessing (guess mother’s surname if parents are not married).

@daleathan linked a few other requests which are also in the surname guessing category and I want to start a discussion about which new options we could implement and what we could call them.

Summary of the requests that relate to surname guessing options:

  • ID 13953
    • posted 2025-08-18, last comment 2025-08-18
    • Localization: Germany/Austria, not sure of other countries
    • Guess mother’s surname if unmarried, else guess father’s surname
    • Option name ideas: “German surname guessing”, “Mother’s name if unmarried, else father’s”
    • Note: Sadly I can’t find any official sources for this “naming convention” in Austria/Germany. Nowadays, it is possible to give a child the father’s surname even if the parents are unmarried, but before the 21st century it was most likely that the child got the mother’s name (for example, in my family tree of about 800 Austrian people, only one person got the father’s name even though his parents were unmarried), so this surname guessing option would be the most useful option for someone who does German/Austrian genealogy.
  • ID 13887
    • posted 2025-06-21
    • Localization: Balto-Slavic
    • Create a new tab in the settings to add custom name morphologies; users can add gendered surnames; e.g. Kowalska (f.), Kowalski (m.): If father’s name is “Kowalski” and the user adds a daughter, check if “Kowalski” is in a custom morphology entry and then use the female version (Kowalska) of this entry to guess the daughter’s surname.
    • Option name idea in the name guessing settings: “Use custom name morphology”
  • ID 3913
    • posted 2010-05-03, last comment 2010-05-03
    • Localization: Czechia, Slovakia
    • If a child has a patronymic name, use this name to guess the surname of the father
    • I think this should not be one of the surname guessing options because it fits only one specific case (only works if the user creates a father; if he creates a mother or child, nothing can be guessed), maybe it should be an additional checkbox in the settings, we could call the checkbox “Guess father’s surname depending on child’s patronymic” or something like that
  • ID 8771
    • posted 2015-07-29, last comment 2015-07-30
    • Localization: Portuguese-speaking countries
    • Two feature requests:
      • New guessing option: Combine mother’s and father’s surname, but the mother’s surname should come first (option could be called “Portuguese style”)
      • Create a field in the family dialog where the user can enter a “family surname”; when a child is added, his/her guessed surname will be the family surname
  • ID 11729
    • posted 2020-05-12
    • Localization: Sweden
    • Two feature requests:
      • New guessing option: Similar to Icelandic style, but use Swedish suffixes (for male children: use father’s given name + “sson” (or + “son” if father’s name ends with “s”; for female children the same but with “sdotter”/”dotter”) - could be called “Swedish style”
      • If Swedish style is the selected option, guess the father’s given name based on the child’s surname. Problem: How do we know whether, for example, the father’s given name is “Mån” or “Måns” if the child’s surname is “Månsson”? It could be either, since the suffix is either “son” or “sson”.

Please let me know what you think of these new surname guessing options. Which should be implemented and how?

2

Welcome,

Sounds great .:+1:

I’m of the opinion that “Surname guessing:” option should either be part of the existing Localized Handler’s for Gramps like the Date & Relationship Calculator Handler’s or even split off into its own plugin/addon using the type General Plugin lib (GENERAL) or a new plugin/addon type specifically for this?

3

Germany Naming Customs on the FamilySearch Wiki.

Also see the following Wikipedia’s categories and article

4

Pull request for new nameguesser plugin with the locales DE, ES, PT, and IS: Localized plugin for name guessing by ChristinaRau · Pull Request #2116 · gramps-project/gramps · GitHub

6

Continuing the discussion from New localized options for surname guessing:

If I understand the feature request correctly, the surname guessing will use the systems locale setting (‘DE’, ‘IS’ etc) for selecting which rule to use. I’m not particular fond with this, since genealogy will often involve several countries and thereby also several different surname guessing rules. Instead I suggest that the surname guessing should be based on Place typically from an event e.g. birth or census.

Here’s a couple of ideas for surname guessing:

  • In northern Europe patronymic naming was widespread a couple of centuries ago, so the name guessing should cover all the countries - not only the few mentioned in Feature Request 13953.
  • The patronymic naming changed slowly over time. For example in Denmark changing from patronymic naming to inherited family name became common in large towns in 18th century, while patronymic naming continued until late 19th century in rural areas.
  • Therefore a rule for surname guessing should take the father’s or mother’s surname origin value into consideration. If the origin value is ‘Patronymic’ then the surname guessing will use patronymic surname guessing rules for a child, otherwise the surname guessing will copy the father’s surname to the child surname.
  • The patronymic surname guessing should also know about exceptions (maybe user defined), Again as an example from Denmark: The general rule is to add ‘sen’ or ‘sdatter’ to the father’s given name e.g. given name ‘Poul’ becomes ‘Poulsen’ or ‘Poulsdatter’, but if the given name ends with ‘s’, then only ‘en’ or ‘datter’ is added - ‘Jens’ becomes ‘Jensen’ og ‘Jensdatter’. Further there are some special cases - given name ‘Ole’ becomes ‘Olsen’ or ‘Olsdatter’ but not always, and given name ‘Jeppe’ can either become ‘Jeppesen’ or ‘Ipsen’