We have records of patronymics as old as the writing itself. It's hard / impossible / pointless to decouple religion from culture though. On a slightly differe

We have records of patronymics as old as the writing itself. It's hard / impossible / pointless to decouple religion from culture though. On a slightly different note: Hammurabi's name means literally "his uncle is a healer" (related to Arabic عم (ʕamm) meaning paternal uncle, and the latter part to rabbi). I my mind there's a mildly funny* movie where Hammurabi, the person who created/codified the foundations of our law, someone remembered for 1000s of years... was an insecure overachiever. "You conquered the Elamites? And Larsa? Oh, that's cute my boy. Now get a real job like your uncle who is a doctor!" * (for me, my bar is low)