Timeline for How can I stop people confusing my given name and surname?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
23 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 11, 2020 at 21:27 | comment | added | O. R. Mapper | @gnasher729: And yet, the German word "Vorname" (literally "pre-name") will refer to their given name that comes last, and the German word "Nachname" (literally "after-name") will refer to their family name that comes first (when they write their name themselves). Thus, at least in German, saying something like "X is my first name" is not ambiguous - but this might well be somewhat different in English. | |
| May 10, 2020 at 6:25 | history | edited | Gregory Currie | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 621 characters in body
|
| May 10, 2020 at 6:11 | comment | added | Gregory Currie | @Brandin The problem is, when you have a lot of people from different cultures who may not speak English very well, if they literally translate "First name" they may understand it to be the name that is first. In the very comment chain, someone has commented that they always have to look it up. | |
| May 9, 2020 at 22:25 | comment | added | gnasher729 | Xehpuk For Japanese living in Germany its family name first, given name last. They don’t rearrange their name moving to another country. Of course they need to do some explaining sometimes. | |
| May 9, 2020 at 15:12 | comment | added | Brandin | First name as an expression just commonly just means "given name." Yes, in Japan (and other countries) the surname comes first, for example, but anyone who uses the phrase "first name" is talking about the given name, not the family name. Is the term "given name" perhaps a better one, yes. But claiming that using the term "first name" is just confusing is just not accurate at all, unless you find an actual instance of someone actual being confused (e.g. by someone thinking that Miyamoto is actually a given name or something like that, which never happens by the way). | |
| S May 9, 2020 at 14:39 | history | edited | Glorfindel | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
fixed spelling error
|
| S May 9, 2020 at 14:39 | history | suggested | larsks | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
fixed spelling error
|
| May 9, 2020 at 12:27 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S May 9, 2020 at 14:39 | |||||
| May 8, 2020 at 16:52 | comment | added | Andreas Blass | I've been told that Vietnamese uses the surname-first ordering but uses the given name with titles. So I would be Blass Andreas, but would also be called Professor Andreas. | |
| May 8, 2020 at 10:52 | comment | added | Ismael Miguel | @RafaelLerm I share that pain. Some people have 4-5 names. I usually just fill with literally the first and last names. If you mix in Portuguese from Portugal and Brazil, it's even worse. If you say "surname" it is translated to "apelido" (which means "nickname" in Brazil) or "sobrenome" (which we say "apelido" instead). | |
| May 8, 2020 at 1:25 | comment | added | Gregory Currie | @xehpuk What is your point? It's not only Germans that are at academic institutions in Germany. You have people from a wide range of different cultures. | |
| May 7, 2020 at 22:14 | comment | added | xehpuk | "in a lot of cultures the first name is actually the surname" – but not in Germany. "It is somewhat typical to use capital letters for your surname" – but not in Germany. | |
| May 7, 2020 at 16:24 | comment | added | Rafael Lerm | As a side note, "last name" is also confusing for e.g. Portuguese and Spanish-speaking cultures, where there are actually two surnames. Asking for "last name" becomes poorly defined - should it be my last surname, or do I concatenate both? Endless source of mistakes in forms. | |
| May 7, 2020 at 15:42 | comment | added | Austin Hemmelgarn | It's not just Japan. A number of other East- Asian cultures are similar in that the surname/family name is listed before the given name (most notably including most of China and Korea). There are actually some European countries too where this is the 'traditional' order (Hungary for example). | |
| May 7, 2020 at 14:02 | vote | accept | lema | ||
| May 7, 2020 at 9:06 | comment | added | molnarm | This. Every time I have to fill in a form with multiple name fields, I have to Google what "first name" means in English. (Like in Japan, we have the family name first in Hungary, and while I know it's the opposite in English, I can never remember whether first-last refers to the normal or comma format) | |
| May 7, 2020 at 0:50 | comment | added | さりげない告白 | Just as a note: In Japan, the first name is the surname, but when we say faastoneemu (first name), we mean given name. | |
| May 6, 2020 at 23:49 | comment | added | Nico Burns | Plot twist: OP's name is Bob Bob. | |
| May 6, 2020 at 21:48 | comment | added | Aaron | +1 the culture aspect is highly important in an education setting where foreign students are involved. | |
| May 6, 2020 at 20:43 | comment | added | user44202 | If people called "Robert Foo" can get people to call them "Bob" this way; I see no reason why someone called "Bob Foo" can't get people to call them "Bob" this way. | |
| May 6, 2020 at 19:02 | comment | added | Barmar | Although usually if you're asking someone to call you by your surname, you also include an honorific, e.g. "Please all me Mr. Bob". | |
| May 6, 2020 at 19:00 | comment | added | Barmar | But "Please call me X" has different implications depending on whether X is your given name or surname. The first case connotes familiarity, the second case suggests formality. | |
| May 6, 2020 at 10:37 | history | answered | Gregory Currie | CC BY-SA 4.0 |