A son is a male offspring; a boy or man in relation to his parents. The female analogue is a daughter.
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Social issues regarding sons
Pre-industrial societies and some current countries with agriculture-based economies, a higher value was, and still is, assigned to sons rather than daughters, giving males higher social status, because males were physically stronger, and could perform farming tasks more effectively.
In China, a One-child Policy is in effect in order to address rapid population growth. Official birth records have shown a rise in the level of male births since the policy was brought into law. This has been attributed to a number of factors, including the illegal practice of sex-selective abortion and widespread under-reporting of female births.
In some societies that practice primogeniture, sons will customarily inherit before daughters.
Specialized use of the term son
American slang
In the lexicons of American English and African American Vernacular English, the term is sometimes used (1) by older men addressing younger men, implying the speaker's seniority; and (2) as a term of address between some young American males under either the direct or indirect influence of hip hop and urban culture.
The origin of the term "Son" in the vernacular context was used among American East Coast urban youths as a derogatory term that extended beyond justifying seniority. Often, it was used to claim or instigate one's sentiment toward a rival. The term's derogatory intention began to shift as rap groups like the Wu-Tang Clan used it in their lyrics of the rough ghetto life as a form of endearment. As urban/hip-hop culture has been portrayed as a glamorous subculture to the youths today, the term has been commonly used as playful greeting for those who seek an urban identity to develop their own culture from and will use the term "Son" as well other terms found in rap lyrics like "Nigga", Cuhz (Cousin). Still, those who use or believe these terms are derogatory find differentiation in how the word is enunciated or structured. Mainly, in how the term is pronounced in comparison to the sentence structure as well as the body language (i.e. gestural, proxemics, etc.).
Christian symbolism
Among Christians, "The Son" or Son of God refers to Jesus Christ. Trinitarian Christians view Jesus as the human incarnation of the second person of the Trinity, known as God the Son. In the Gospels, Jesus sometimes refers to himself as the Son of Man.
In Semitic names
The Arabic word for son is "ibn". Because family and ancestry are important cultural values in the Arab World, Arabs often use "bin", which is a form of "ibn", in their full names. The "bin" here means "son of". Consequently, e.g. the Arab name of "Saleh bin Tarif bin Khaled Al-Fulani" translates as "Saleh, son of Tarif, son of Khaled; of the family Al-Fulani" (cf. Arab family naming conventions). Accordingly, the opposite of "ibn"/"bin" is "abu", meaning "the father of". It is a retronym, given upon the birth of one's first born son, and is used as a moniker to indicate the newly acquired fatherhood status, rather than a family name. For example, if Mahmoud's first born son is named Abdullah, from that point on Mahmoud can be called "Abu Abdullah".
This is cognate with the Hebrew language "ben", as in "Judah ben Abram HaLevi", which means "Judah, son of Abram, the Levite". Ben is also a standalone name.
Indications in names
In many cultures, the surname of the family means "son of", indicating a possible ancestry—i.e., that the whole family descends from a common ancestor. It may vary between the beginning or the termination of the surname.
- bin or ibn. Example: "Ibn Sina" ("son of Sina"), "Ibn Khaldun" (son of Khaldun), etc.
- U (often misspelled as: ou). Examples: "Usadden" (son of Sadden), "Uâli" (son of Âli).
- Ayt (often misspelled as: ait or aït). Examples: "Ayt Buyafar" (sons of Buyafar), "Ayt Mellul" (sons of Mellul).
- N ayt or Nayt (often misspelled as: nait or naït). Examples: "N ayt Ndir" (son of the Ndir tribe / family), "Naït Zerrad" (son of the Zerrad tribe or family).
- Sen. Example: "Henriksen" (son of Henrik), "Jensen" (son of Jens), "Andersen" (son of Anders), etc.
- s. Example: "Edwards" ("son of Edward"), "Williams" ("son of William"), "Jeffreys" ("son of Jeffrey")
- Son. Example: "Jefferson" (son of Jeffrey), "Wilson" (son of William), "Edson" (son of Edward), "Anderson" ("son of Ander"), etc.
- es. Example: "Fernandes" (son of Fernand), etc.
- ot. Example: "Pierrot" (son of Pierre), etc.
- de. Example: "Danton" (son of Anton), etc.
- ben or bin before 1300 BC. Example: "Benjamin" (son of my right hand). Also, the Hebrew word for "person" is "ben Adam", meaning "son of Adam".
- -fi or -ffy. Example: "Petőfi" (son of Pető), "Sándorfi" (son of Sándor), "Péterffy" (son of Péter) (archaic spelling, indicates aristocratic origins), etc.
- Mac or Mc. Example: "MacThomas" (son of Thomas), "MacDonald" (son of Donald), "MacLean" (son of Lean), etc.
- di. Example: di Stefano (son of Steven), di Giovanni (son of John), di Giuseppe (son of Joseph), etc.
- de. Example: de Paolo (son of Paul), de Mauro (son of Maurus), de Giorgio ( son of George) etc.
- d`. Example: d`Antonio (son of Anthony), d`Adriano (son of Adrian), d`Agostino (son of Augustine) etc.;
- -i, which comes from Latin ending for Genitive. Example: Paoli (son of Paolo), Richetti (son of Richetto, a short name for Enrico) etc.;
- Son. Example: "Magnusson" (son of Magnus); "Sigurdsson" (son of Sigurd), "Odinson" (son of Odin), etc.
- pur/pour. Example: "Mahdipur" (son of Mahdi).
- zadeh. Example: "Muhammadzadeh" (son/daughter of the Muhammad).
- ski. Example: "Janowski" (son of John), "Piotrowski" (son of Peter), "Michalski" (son of Michael), etc.
- Es. Example: "Gonçalves" (son of Gonçalo), "Henriques" (son of Henrique), "Fernandes" (son of Fernando), etc.
- a as prefix (except for female names that start in a and probably for others that start in vowels) & ei as suffix. Example: "Amariei" (son of Mary), "Adomnitei" (son of Domnita), "Alenei" (son of Elena/Leana), etc.
- escu or sometimes aşcu comes from the Latin -iscus which means "belonging to the people". Example: "Petrescu" ("Petre's son"), "Popescu" ("Popa's son" Popa meaning Priest), "Constantinescu" (son of Constantin), etc.
- ski or sky, pronounced /ski/, meaning simply "of". Example: "Stanislavski" (son of Stanislav).
- ov /ɒf/, ovich /əvɪtʃ/, or ovski /ˈɒfskiː/. Example: "Ivanov" (son of Ivan), "Davidovich" (son of David), "Petrovski" (son of Peter), etc.
- ev /ɛf/, evich /ɨvɪtʃ/, or evski /ˈɛfskiː/. Example: "Dmitriev" (son of Dmitri), "Danilevich" (son of Daniel), "Vorobyevski" (son of a sparrow) etc.
- Ez. Example: "Gonzalez" (son of Gonzalo), "Henriquez" (son of Henrique), "Fernandez" (son of Fernando), etc.
- ap or ab. Example: "ap Rhys" (son of Rhys, anglicised to "Price"), "ab Owain" (son of Owen, anglicised to Bowen) etc.
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Afrikaans: Son - Sun