Yes you will have opportunities to change your surname.

Source: Character Creation and Bloodlines

Don't like the Surname you start with? That's ok too. As you play the game and complete achievements you'll unlock new Surnames. Surnames can be changed in some cases when developing a new village and in most cases when you've completed a server first or server-once achievement. For example, be the first person to slay a Daemon and henceforth your line may be known as House Daemonbane. There will be a complete set of crafting, adventuring, and humorous achievements solely for the purpose of allowing you to take on new Surnames. One other thing to note though, while your Surname may change, your Dynasty does not. Once a part of a Dynasty, always a part of that Dynasty. - Caspian

You can change your name after launch via marriage, achievements, dying and sparking into a new character of a different name, using one of your "unlocked surnames" theres quite a few different ways.

However, changing your surname with a surname token or "creating a new surname" currently isn't seen as possible after launch.

No surnames are guaranteed.

Unless you reserve it, it won't be in game.

You'll have to either buy a package that has a surname reservation or buy a surname on the merchandise store.

My answer for you would be to find someone you would enjoy playing with and create an in-game family with them. Maybe you all help pitch in for a bloodline pack, maybe you find someone With one and give them your undying loyalty during your first life in exchange for a name!

Push comes to shove, I played with the random name generator for 5 minutes and got extremely close to Faent. Maybe with some luck there will be a family to spark into regardless of actions taken on your part that has your surname.

Either way, best of luck in your endeavors.

There is no guarantee you would get your desired surname even if you paid for the surname privilege. Some RL family surnames were declined or reserved by SBS, or taken previously in surname reservation.

You might be able to shop around for surnames during your character creation. I'm speculating, because I'm not sure if a family surname will be displayed when you are in the process of looking for a starting family.

check your inventory

Posted By MilevanFaent at

I am poor. At this point in time, and likely well into the future, I can't afford to purchase my own surname. As such, I've pretty much accepted I'm gonna be stuck with a surname I will dislike, but can't do anything about. That being said, will we have the ability at ANY point to change our family names after launch? Or are we eventually all going to become one giant family with a single surname after 10 years of inter-marrying?

It was mentioned in an old QnA that there will be an open surname suggestion method closer to launch in which other people can vote on them being available. Some of the names currently being reserved by SBS are common names that they want to be available to non-gentry.

Surnames are essentially titles. As in other games, an unlimited number of titles may be bound to an account for use by multiple characters or gained in-game by an individual character. Titles and thus surnames can be granted via contract by organizations such as kingdoms, settlements, guilds, associations, and family houses or clans [which is based on tribal connections and not bloodline]. In some cases, multiple titles will be usable at the same time. For example, nobles may be formally announced with most of their titles. Another example is if there is more than one John Smith currently in a town they may be differentiated by a number if part of the same family, by clan name if part of different clans, or by place of birth if one of them is from out of town.

As mentioned in DJ-12-Identity-Disguises-and-Reputation anybody can create an alternate identity using valid names that may or may not already be in use by others. These identities can either be passed entirely to another person or their surnames can be inherited. If nobody knows that an identity was created then there is no way to prove you aren't who you say you are.