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He was called "Leonardo" at the time, and if anyone asked "Which Leonardo?" then the reply could be "Leonardo from Vinci" (there are other combinations to ident
by Tor3 2y ago
He was called "Leonardo" at the time, and if anyone asked "Which Leonardo?" then the reply could be "Leonardo from Vinci" (there are other combinations to identify someone, re sister comment).
Think of it as "Leonardo from Chicago". The title wouldn't sound right with "by from Chicago".
Icelandic names today are almost the same - the "daughter/son" part is more like a "from" identifier than an actual name. Thus you address an Icelander by the "first" name. Or you'll end up doing the equivalent of calling someone "from Chicago".
- 3836293648 2y agoThat doesn't change how he's known today though
- Tor3 2y agoHe's known today as "Leonardo" as well. It's just that there are some people who aren't familiar with this. Exactly as some will use the "last" name with people from Iceland, even though it's as meaningless as calling someone "from Chicago".
- joarv0249nw 2y agoRembrandt van Rijn is known as Rembrandt. Vincent van Gogh is known as van Gogh.
- throw_pm23 2y agoYes, I guess in most of Europe the 200-250 years between Rembrandt and van Gogh is exactly when family names solidified from a simple description "the one from village X" or "son of Y" or "the one with a red hair" to become a hereditary name essentially detached from its meaning.
- seszett 2y agoAlso, van Gogh's popularity came from France, the work he did in France, and in France by this time family names had been standard there for a long time already (since around the 16th century), much earlier than in the Netherlands.
- saalweachter 2y agoSpecifically, in 1811 Napoleon made surnames mandatory for the Dutch. A number of Dutch, displeased with Napoleon and thinking the surname thing wouldn't last, took... unfortunate surnames.
- xeonmc 2y agoWhere do Dick Van Dyke fit in all of this?
- Quarrel 2y agoHe is far too alive for us to worry about that. (Luckily, these posts are explicitly datestamped .. !)
- amelius 2y agoShouldn't Icelanders look more at last names, considering the inbreeding issues on that small island?
- werdnapk 2y agoApparently they have an app that citizens can check to make sure they're not dating a relative. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/kissing-cousins-icelandic-app-warns-if-your-date-is-a-relative-1.1390256 https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/kissing-cousins-icelandic-a...
- Tor3 2y agoThere's not much point looking at last names, because they change for every generation. There aren't any "family names" as such.
- lxgr 2y agoYes, but this articles is written in our time, not his. So why not just "Leonardo da Vinci" as a compromise?