There's an amusing anecdote that does the rounds about Napoleon mandating a national register in the Netherlands, and the Dutch not taking kindly to that by registering using all kinds of silly names. Unfortunately for them the register stuck and centuries later there's people going through life being called "John Big Buttocks" and such.
Amusing but alas, from when I looked into it it seemed like it was made up.
Not amusing, but true, is the story of Willem Arondeus [1], who in 1943 destroyed 800,000 identity cards from the Municipal Office for Population Registration in Nazi-occupied Netherlands in order to increase the efficiency of forged documents. The state power, murderous or not, is the sole beneficiary of the "family" name.
Amusing but alas, from when I looked into it it seemed like it was made up.