In some cultures, people have many names and in others only 1 or 2. Names can represent a person's religious or cultural background, their family, or values or virtues that that person or their parents believe in. Many names have meanings. Some names come from objects, like Lily, Dove or Honey. Other names come from values or virtues that person's parents have and want to pass on to their children, such as the Puritan names Prudence, Preserved, Charity and Learned.
Some names come from a person's religion.
Peter and Mary are Christian names. John and Michael are Hebrew. It is also believed that you can tell what what kind of a person someone is by their name, almost like a horoscope. Given names, surnames, and other names are all factors in this belief. Surnames are a very important part of a person's name.