PATRIMONY

A surname, family name, or last name is the portion of a personal name that indicates a person's family (or tribe or community, depending on the culture). Depending on the culture all members of a family unit may have identical surnames or there may be variations based on the cultural rules.

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A matrilineal surname or matriname is a family name inherited from one's mother, (and maternal grandmother, etc.) whose line of descent is called a matriline.
They existed even before patrinames which are surnames inherited from one's father

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Although the term "maternal surname" can be confused with "matriname" there is a difference in patrilineal cultures, where the maternal surname is the mother's patriname. In addition, in some cultures women inherit a surname from their mother as well as from their father. In such patrilineal cultures matrinames are able to co-exist with patrinames.

Thanks WIKIPEDIA 

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The blogger formerly known as Robert got himself a bit worked up over the rights to use a surname - in this case PROWSE - although, bizarrely he in a now deleted post and comment stated that he wished he didn't have this surname and would prefer to have a matriname. Go figure.

Richard, whose blog(s) unfortunately are still active jumped on the bandwagon and defended the rights of others to use the surname PROWSE even if it were misspelt - PROUSE, PROWESS, PUSSY etc.

I knocked off a quick post in defence of my surname which said Richard deliberately or lazily misspelled but to be honest who gives a shit. It always amuses me that when people get interested in genealogy and start researching family names and histories that they invariably get locked into the surname - the father's name even though there are so many expanding branches of family with hundreds of other names - matrinames and links that are just as or far more important. What's that about? Ego I suppose.

My surname is McDonald passed down from my father which has a Scottish connection but on both his family side and my mother's we have many other surnames amd matrinames and links to ancestors from Ireland, England, Wales, USA, Canada, France - and other countries. The 'surnames' are very numerous, some funny, some ugly and many very interesting and attractive. If I wanted I guess I could dip in and select one or two (hyphenate them) to come up with a new one but what's the point?