A lot of slaves had no last name, or only their owners’.

Not to sound pedantic (I believe this is a very important distinction), but as far as I'm aware most slaves were not _given_ last names by their slavers. They often had (if taken into slavery) or were given (if born in slavery) their own names within their own cultures.

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Pay08 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I'm curious, do native African cultures often have multiple names?

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awesome_dude 3 hours ago | parent [-]

The number of different cultures in Africa, each with its own set of traditions and ceremonies makes that a very difficult question to answer in a generalised way.

	▲	Pay08 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Fair. I was curious since English only started having last names in the 11th century, once the population has grown too large for local governments to effectively govern without some way to better differentiate people.