Oguz

This surname would seem to be a relatively recent recording in the EEC, and probably elsewhere. It is generally accepted as being Turkish and Islamic, although strictly speaking its origins are Mongolian and can be traced back to at least the Emperor Ghengis Khan. His son who ruled over an even greater area than his father, was known as Oghuz or Oglan Khan, with 'Og' describing 'Son of' and not dissimilar to the Scottish 'Mac' or even the Irish O'. However the name was not hereditary and probably did not become so until after 1934 when the modern Turkish state adopted the principle of hereditary surnames. It requires a very large book to explain all the fundamentals of Islamic naming, and we have to content ourselves with the explanation that prior to hereditary surnames the principle used was that 'a name' described in some detail the tribe and the family from within the tribe. The first European scholar of Islamic names was probably the Frenchman Garcin de Tassy who in 1854 remarked that 'the study was an embarrassment of riches in the sheer quantity of names, surnames and titles, born by the same person'. He then quotes Najiib ad-din Abu Hafs Umar ibn Muhamammad ibn al-Baytar ar Razi as a 'normal' arabic example. Unfortunately these names cannot survive easily the twin pillars of bureaucracy and the Telephone Directory! The family 'Ogus' are recorded in most if not all European capital cities, appearing at least six times as 'Ogus or Oguz' in the 1990 London Directory. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Oglan Khan, which was dated 1210, believed to be have born in Baghdad, during the reign of Ghengis Khan, the first Mongol Emperor 1206 - 1227. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.