3.6 Clan names. The clan name is the name carried by a clan, which is essentially the equivalent of a tribe. Children born into the clan, people married into the families of the clan, or people incorporated into the clan perhaps through some calamitous event, may assume this name as a surname. Individuals thus use the clan name for what in many other cultures is a surname. Essentially a clan name is the name of a certain social institution. This kind of name would have its own set of PS-RULES to describe it, say N_org. Among the Native Americans, Africans, Aborigines, etc., this is what is called a tribe. It may be immaterial whether such a name was ever in a particular culture accepted as a “surname” per se. Deriving a surname from such a name is nevertheless useful to distinguish persons of different ancestry.