You could argue that the surname + given name formula isn't really that common. In Nordic countries it was the norm for centuries, and still is in Iceland, to have a given name + a patronymic. So, Olafur Jonsson (Olafur son of John) or Freija Jonsdottir (Freija daughter of John) and so on. The Ancient Greeks had a similar custom. Achilles is Achiles Peliedes, Achilles son of Peleus and Agamemnon and Menelaus are often referred to together as Atreidai, sons of Atreus. The Spanish have composite surnames, an inheritance from their Visigothic ancestors, so Michael Garcia (fathers surname) Rodriguez (mothers surname). Russians have a first name, patronymic and surname, Mily (Mily) Alexeyevich (Son of Alexei) Balakirev (Balakirev). Until the nineteenth century the Ottoman Turks did not have a custom of giving last names at all, the institution had to be invented in 1934.

The practice of first name and last name, at least in a European context, originates with the Romans who had a system of personal name, family name and cognomen, a type of nickname. Hence, Gaius Julius Caesar had a personal name Gaius, was a member of the gens Julia and had a nickname Caesar, which means slasher. Cicero means chickpea, Ovid's cognomen, Naso, means the one with the big nose and so on. Eventually the cognomen fell out of use in the fifth and sixth centuries and we are left with the first and last name that we have today. My basic point is that the first name and surname is, while widespread, not the only system of naming in the least.