http://www.backwoodshome.com/columns/wolfe0202.html When the Jews of Germany had to change to modern names, money for bribes came in handy. With money you could come away with a name like Golden Goblet. Without money you could be named Ass or something just as bad. I've come across nothing that shows a monarch forcing a commoner to take a certain name. The king could name anyone of royal blood, both given name and family name. A woman does not wear a tiara to a ball attended by the queen or a princess but I don't know of any law forbidding serfs nor to dress like their masters. Not likely they could afford it. As for permanent surnames in England, that started early and ensured that estates would remain in the right hands. This may have started in France but I'd have to look it up. In fact, the use of surnames was almost certainly begun in France quite a while before the English took it up. Gary Radcliffe