Recently I had a heated argument with one of my long time friends about the different names used in official

forms. The following article is the result of a small research done by myself to clear the disambiguation, misunderstanding and misuse. I expect constructive feedback from the viewers to correct the errors in this article. A persons whole name is comprised of two types of names. GIVEN NAME The name given to a child when he or she was born. This is distinct and unique in a family. The name your parents gave to you to distinguish you from the other people in their immediate family. In some cases a child is given more than one GIVEN NAME in which case a primary GIVEN NAME and a secondary GIVEN NAME exist. In rare cases more than one secondary GIVEN NAME also exist. This name is also called Christian name among Christians. FAMILY NAME or SURNAME The name all the members of the family shares between them. The FAMILY NAME can be common to generations or only to a single generation. In western culture, FAMILY NAME is passed through generations while in some Asian cultures the FAMILY NAME is constantly changing with generations. FAMILY NAME may either come from father-line (patrilineal) or mother-line (matrilineal). Very few Asian subcultures like Indian and Sri Lankan Tamils do not have a FAMILY NAME where fathers GIVEN NAME is used as SURNAME or FAMILY NAME since that is what common in the names of the members of the family. In this case married women use husbands given name as SURNAME or FAMILY NAME after their marriage. ****************************** Now, when you write your full name which one would you write first? GIVEN NAME or FAMILY NAME? This is very specific to culture. There are two popular formats in use in different cultures. In western culture like Americas and most of the Europe, the format {Primary GIVEN NAME, secondary GIVEN NAME (if any), FAMILY NAME} is followed. In few Asian cultures like China, India and Japan and in Hungary the format {FAMILY NAME, secondary GIVEN NAME (if any), primary GIVEN NAME} (Reverse of western format) is used. It should be noted that in Spanish speaking countries two FAMILY NAMES are used. ******************************* Here comes the problem !!! What are FIRST NAME, MIDDLE NAME and LAST NAME? These terms are used with reference to the POSITION of the names. Particularly these names are used in the context of western culture format where FIRST NAME is equal to primary GIVEN NAME, MIDDLE NAME is equal to secondary GIVEN NAME if it is available and LAST NAME is equal to FAMILY NAME. In the Asian cultures the usage of FIRST NAME, MIDDLE NAME and LAST NAME is not clear cut as in the western culture. This leads to confusion in filling forms.

So what is the solution? Lets think in this way. What is meant by FIRST NAME is actually the GIVEN NAME and what is meant by LAST NAME is actually the SURNAME or FAMILY NAME. In the informal reference and conversations normally GIVEN NAME is used to address an individual where formal reference like office matters are carried out with the SURNAME or FAMILY NAME. I have noted that few people particularly Sri Lankan Tamils do not like the usage of FAMILY NAME in the official matters because their SURNAME or FAMILY NAME is actually the GIVEN NAME of their father since they do not have a real FAMILY NAME. What my suggestion here for the people who does not have right FAMILY NAME is that using fathers GIVEN NAME as the FAMILY NAME or SURNAME, thus becomes LAST NAME because it is what common to all the members of the family and using their GIVEN NAME as the FIRST NAME are the proper way to go forward. FORENAME is same as FIRST NAME. MIDDLE NAME is sometimes referred to as OTHER NAME(S) or MIDDLE INITIAL