From the 1680s (army) and early 18th century (navy), all soldiers in a given company were required to have a unique name, to make it easier to give specific orders. This could be problematic when several soldiers had the same name (being usually from rural background, they generally had just a patronymic, and such were often very common, e.g. Andersson, Eriksson, Olsson or Persson), giving rise to the Swedish soldier names. When a soldier appeared before the military scribe, he was given a soldier's name (often, a rote's new soldier received his predecessor's name), which he kept during his service. Those surnames also tended to become hereditary, as the soldier often retained it when he was pensioned or left the service, and his children were also registered under it in census lists and church books—this is the origin of many present-day Swedish surnames. The name was usually short, consisting of only one syllable—to make it easy and rapid to say. The names could be taken from a trait, such as the surname Stolt ("Proud") or from military terms, such as Svärd ("Sword"), but were often related to the rote. A soldier from a rote located in the village of Sundby, for example, could be given the surname Sundin. This meant that surnames often stayed with the croft, rather than with the soldier. Common practice amongst discharged soldiers in the 18th century was to reassume their original name. This changed in the 19th century, and many soldiers kept their old soldier names, passing it on to their children. Each soldier in the regiment also had a unique number, between 1 and 1,200, the number of the rote and croft he belonged to (for example "nummer 15 Stolt", number 15 Stolt).