Re: Draft for review: Personal names around the world

T. Kuro Kurosaka, Sun, 28 Aug 2011 13:30:47 +0900:
> 
> On 8/28/11 5:34 AM, Kang-Hao (Kenny) Lu wrote:
>> The article doesn't mention that a few people, especially Japanese,
>> uppercase their family names and place it in front. Ambrose pointed out
>> that this practice has a French origin.
> 
> I'm Japanese, and I do this sometimes, but I don't think many Japanese
> do this.  Most people just Westernize their name order to Given name 
> - Surname.

Don't you consider a practise of French origin as Westernization? :-) 
For what it is worth: in Russian tradition - and thus probably in most 
fo the post-SSR countries, then - in forms and sertificates etc, the 
family name is typically mentioned before the given name. (This is 
probably mentioned in the article.) But Russia has undergone a strong 
'Westernization' since the dissolution of the SSR - for example, when 
names were Latinized in a passport, then - earlier - it seem to me that 
they 'Frenchified' their names. But now, they 'Westernize' them, by 
which I mean that they seem to use that horrible US American 
transliteration. However, the name order used in official forms and 
sertificates etc, seems to me to not have been affected of this 
'Westernization'. It is another thing, though, with online registration 
forms, then the given name might be listed first - as can be witnessed 
here: http://e.mail.ru/cgi-bin/signup 
 
> I thought this practice is in Europe where there are some culture 
> (Hungarian. any other?)
> exists where the surname comes before the given name.  I also see this
> in Hollywood movie credits and ads in these days.

I think it has an 'official' and 'at a distance' feeling when the 
surename is placed before the given name. Whether it is good to be 
'official' and to show 'distance', depends on the situation, the 
context and the customs. 

Btw, as a Norwegian, I am used to the given name coming before the 
family name. But in some contexts, I have also experienced that the 
family name is listed first. An important detail in that regards is 
that we then tend to place a comma after the surename. So for instance:

	Silli, Leif Halvard

And when we in our company is translating from Russian to Norwegian 
(were as told surname tend to come first), we follow the custom of 
placing a comma behind the surname, rather than changing the order of 
the names.
-- 
Leif H Silli

Received on Sunday, 28 August 2011 11:03:05 UTC