The outperformance varied from sector to sector, but the survey found the areas in which family businesses prevail are ones with "lower than average risk", including personal hygiene, perfumes, clothing and textiles, food, and machinery.  But for many of Europe's most well-known businesses, using the family name and ownership is more important than stock market returns.  On London's famous Jermyn Street, home to some of the country's finest tailors and shirt makers, family names such as Gieves & Hawkes and Richard James, dominate.  Read MoreNine firms keeping it in the family  Founder of formal menswear and shirt maker Charles Tyrwhitt, Nick Wheeler, named his business after his middle names because he said it was fitting with the tradition of the industry.  "In clothes, traditionally what you would have done is go to your tailor, or go to your shirt maker –the name above the door was the name of the person in the shop," Wheeler told CNBC.  "I suppose when I started the business in 1986, I didn't really want to call it Nick Wheeler shirts. Shirt making is a traditional thing – Jermyn Street is about tradition, so the name needed to sound old. I had the middle name Charles Tyrwhitt which sounded like it had been around for 100 years," Wheeler said.  Read MoreCan the 'Brittelstand' rival Germany?  Giving his business the family name makes it more personal, as customers associate the firm with a real person, Wheeler said, but it also ultimately makes the company harder to sell.  "You become much more personally attached and I suspect if you did some research, you would find people who called their business after their own name, would be less likely to sell the business. I think you become attached to it, which is a good and bad thing," he added.  In Europe, family businesses are especially important for the economy as they account for between 65 to 80 percent of all European companies and provide between 40-50 percent of all jobs in the European private sector, according to business group European Family Businesses.  Precious metals, materials and technologies firm Heraeus, has been a family-run enterprise for over 160 years, established by Wilhelm Carl Heraeus, a pharmacist and chemist who took over his father's pharmacy in Hanau, Germany, in 1851.
Attaching your surname to a business can feel more personal, but that can affect its value and even its share price.