patronym/patronymic

referring to a name derived from the father or a paternal ancestor, these are correct sex-specific terms. If you mean the term in the generic sense, use surname, last name, birth name. Author Una Stannard believes that giving children their fathers' surnames sprang from ignorance about the facts of life. Before the female ovum was discovered in 1827, people assumed that men contributed the seed of life while women's wombs simply provided the soil in which it grew. "Since the female role in generation was thought to be negligible, it seemed only logical that children would receive their names from their fathers, seen as their sole progenitors." See also hyphenated surnames, matronym/matronymic, surname.