Project Surname

Project Surname was a project enacted by the Northwest Territories Council and Government of Canada to assign surnames to Inuit. Project Surname was also known as Operation Surname. These assigned surnames eventually replaced the disc number system, where numbers were assigned and kept on discs that people were obligated to wear from the 1940s onward. Family surnames were not used by Inuit until this system was introduced. Traditionally, children received multiple names after birth which reflected their personality, named for a dead relative or sometimes after a living relative. Names would be changed if they were not deemed to suit the child. Project Surname was perceived as less offensive compared to the disk number system but was also criticized as paternalistic intervention from the Canadian government.