The King's Guard

[melon]

Yea probaly but I don't think we heard a lot of their children.

[sercoletyrell]

Mayhaps, though they were probably also bastards, I don't think GRRM actually wanted to deal with that little issue now that I think about it.

In any case, I don't think it makes much sense for a son of a bastard to be called "Flowers", at the very least the son would probably create a new name for himself. Otherwise there would be a huge amount of people called flowers, rivers, stone, etc who weren't actually bastards. But no point in going back on his name now.

[The Smith]

I know, but can they just change their name. In their society I do not think that would be possible. Maybe they take the wife's name?

[sercoletyrell]

I always assumed changing your name was a very easy thing to do in Westeros.

Anyway, I checked the Citadel's concordance section of bastards, and it seems you may have been right. The only thing it said about a bastard's child is:

If two bastards from different regions married (such as a Snow and a Rivers), their offspring would probably take the name of their father

Which would imply that taking the bastard name of their parents/father was the done thing (unless perhaps the child's mother had a proper name, as you suggested). Though I still find the idea pretty silly. The bastard names would become so common as to be meaningless.

[melon]

But in ASOIAF we don't get a look into peasant POV its always been Lords where Bastards aren't liked.

[The Smith]

Do the small folk have last names in Westeros. I can't remember any with a last name right now. Maybe only the highborn bastards get the patronym of their region.

[sercoletyrell]

All of Robert's illegitimate children had bastard names, and most of them ended up pretty common (one even working in a whore house, I do believe), but they may have gotten the bastard names because their mothers knew they were the king's children.

[The Smith]

Probably not though. Otherwise it would have been easy to find robert's bastard children. All the kids with last names line up against this wall, every one else may go home.

[sercoletyrell]

Haha yea, I suppose.

Though they wouldn't necessarily have to be the king's children, just the bastard of any old highborn, so it wouldn't be so easy .

[Horas]

I think the legitimate sons of bastards do change their names on occasion. I recall a guy in AFFC who changed his name from his father's last name (Waters) to Longwaters, in order to show that he himself was not a bastard.

[melon]

Well we know that people can do it know but no one is a bastard so yea.

[The Smith]

Yeah and Oldflowers.... I wonder if half the highborn used to be bastards but the just changed their names. To Karstark or something.

[melon]

Well Karstarks were Starks but from a younger brother.

[Princess Ariel Targaryen]

To answer your comment, Smith:

What do you call Paris Hilton's limo?
Social mobility.

[sercoletyrell]

Hehe, well the origins of the Karstarks is well documented in the books and they aren't bastard, but nah, I think bastards becoming lords and creating unique names for themselves are definitely in the minority among the highborn.