I recall a conversation with a Polish friend of mine, who told me something along the lines of "-ski" being a very common suffix for a surname in Poland because it onces denoted nobility, but that as names/nobility waned in power, commoners would take the opportunity to embellish their own names by adding such a suffix.

• How much of what I am remembering is correct?

• While I can find other threads regarding surnames on this subreddit, they don't answer a very particular question: generally, when did surnames amongst commoners start to be used in the same way as surnames amongst nobility (i.e. passed down the patrilineal line)? This thread suggestst that it might have started around the 1200s in England, but if my friend is right, then it was much more recent (last 200 or 300 years) in Poland?

• The above question deals with the concept of a surname in Europe, but could others comment on how surnames evolved in other places of the world? When did they really start to "gel" in places like India or China, for instance?