Originally Posted by
Harry Monk
They use patronymics (as the Welsh did up until Anglicization) so, taking Aron Gunnarsson as an example - he is the son of a man named Gunnar. His male siblings would also be Gunnarsson, but his father would have a different surname depending on the first name of his own father, so he could be something like Gunnar Aronssson. Gunnarsson's female siblings would have the surname Gunnarsdottir.
The same system was used in Wales until (depending on what county you were in) the Anglican church started to force the use of fixed surnames. That's why most Welsh surnames are a first name with an "S" on the end or prefixed with a "P" or "B".