On and off, I always doubt if my own definition is right because the letters kept addressing wrongly. And a few months back a friend was asking me again the definition of first name and last name because he was filling up his resume. I remember telling him my definition but he did not believe me haha. Not sure what format he adopted in the end.
So why did I went to research on this definition today? Because I was at MyHeritage.com and this doubt on the definition of name came floating back to my mind. A search in Wiki states that
Most noticeably, a Chinese name is written with the family name (surname or last name) first and the given name next, therefore "John Smith" as a Chinese name would be "Smith John". For instance, the basketball player who is commonly called Yao Ming would be addressed as "Mr. Yao", not "Mr. Ming".
Yes, another thing I do not like is to be addressed as Ms. (Given Name). My classmates could not understand why the particularity and I did not explain further. Wiki reminded me this recent incident though. Maybe since young, people noticed that my name format is quite different from others already. Thus I developed a particular sensitivity towards my name. After all I am always asked to repeat my full name, twice. And each time, the caller stills doubt me in the end haha.
Actually I did not meant to be fussy with the address terms, just that sometimes I feel that my surname should be the focus, as a form of respect to my ancestor, who are after all my heritage. Anyway I have yet to register MyHeritage.com, when I have time again…
1 comments:
haha actually this is an interesting topic in etiquette and it reflects the culture of different nations.
I have messed up tons of forms when I first arrived Canada before I learn how to write my name with minimal confusion to the locals.
One of my westerner colleagues told me, basically Last name = Family name = Surname. First name is the name that you choose for yourself and there is something called Middle name which is the name that your parents gave you when you were born. So usually the sequence of addressing a westerner's name is first name followed by middle name and finally last name. However, the middle name is often omitted as many people are happy with the name given by their parents and continue to use it as their first name when they reach adulthood. That's why many western names we see nowadays only have the person's first and last name.
Confusion arises for chinese with names that have 3 characters. Westerners are not aware that the last character is part of our given name (or first name) as well and treat it as a middle name. As a result, this last character is often omitted in many documents. For example, the name 衛斯理，either become Si Wei or sometimes S Wei in the western society.
Haha but anyways, 一處鄉村一處例，it is always fascinating to learn about different cultures. =]
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