The earliest style in English simply used the parent's name as a byname, e.g. Geoffrey Anketil 1209 was the son of a man named Anketil . When the father's name was used as a byname without modification, we sometime call it an unmarked patronymic . This last type is usually constructed, as in this example, from a pet form of a name that was popular in the Middle Ages, not with full forms of those names or with names carried over in modified form from Old English. A locative byname identifies you by the place where you live, work, or were born, or by the land you own. A toponymic byname refers to a named place, i.e., it incorporates a proper noun.
Topographical bynames refer to features of the local landscape, either natural or man-made.
People were usually named after large places when they had moved a long distance. On the other hand, Richard Overthegate 1327 would hardly have been a useful identifier if Richard ventured more than a few miles away from the gate for which he was named. Typical examples are Attewode 1243 'at the wood' and Attemille 1242 'at the mill'. In a few cases they were fused with the noun, as in the modern names Atwood , Attwater , and Underhill . Occupational and status bynames identify you by an occupation or rank.