Personal name

In linguistic classification, personal names are studied within a specific onomastic discipline, called anthroponymy.

Surnames in the West generally indicate that the individual belongs to a family, a tribe, or a clan, although the exact relationships vary: they may be given at birth, taken upon adoption, changed upon marriage, and so on.

Still other cultures lack the concept of specific, fixed names designating people, either individually or collectively.

The royalty, nobility, and gentry of Europe traditionally have many names, including phrases for the lands that they own.

The French developed the method of putting the term by which the person is referred in small capital letters.

An example is that of Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch Gilbert du Motier, who is known as the Marquis de La Fayette.

In earlier times, Scandinavian countries followed patronymic naming, with people effectively called "X's son/daughter"; this is now the case only in Iceland and was recently re-introduced as an option in the Faroe Islands.

In formal address, personal names may be preceded by pre-nominal letters, giving title (e.g. Dr., Captain), or social rank, which is commonly gendered (e.g. Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss.)

Historically, professional titles such as "Doctor" and "Reverend" were largely confined to male professions, so these were implicitly gendered.

It is also used in non-Western regions such as Northern, Eastern, Central and Western India; Pakistan; Bangladesh; Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand; Saudi Arabia; Indonesia (non-traditional); Singapore; Malaysia (most of, non-traditional); and the Philippines.

It is also used in the southern and northeastern parts of India, as well as in Central Europe by Hungary and Romania, along with the South Estonians and Mordvins of the former Soviet Union.

To avoid confusion, there is a convention in some language communities, e.g., French, that the family name should be written in all capitals when engaging in formal correspondence or writing for an international audience.

As a result, in popular Western publications, this order became increasingly used for Japanese names in the subsequent decades.

[18] In 2020, the Government of Japan reverted the Westernized name order back to the Eastern name order in official documents (e.g. identity documents, academic certificates, birth certificates, marriage certificates, among others), which means writing family name first in capital letters and has recommended that the same format be used among the general Japanese public.

[19] Japan has also requested Western publications to respect this change, such as not using Shinzo Abe but rather Abe Shinzo, similar to how Chinese leader Xi Jinping is not referred to as Jinping Xi.

[20] Its sluggish response by Western publications was met with ire by Japanese politician Taro Kono, who stated that "If you can write Moon Jae-in and Xi Jinping in correct order, you can surely write Abe Shinzo the same way.

"[21] Chinese, Koreans, and other East Asian peoples, except for those traveling or living outside of China and areas influenced by China, rarely reverse their Chinese and Korean language names to the Western naming order.

Unlike other East Asian countries, the syllables or logograms of given names are not hyphenated or compounded but instead separated by a space (e.g. Chiu En).

Some Chinese, Malaysians and Singaporeans may have an anglicised given name, which is always written in the Western order.

A hybrid order is preferred in official documents including the legislative records in the case for Hong Kong.

Examples of the hybrid order goes in the form of Hong Kong actor “Tony Leung Chiu-wai” or Singapore Prime Minister "Lawrence Wong Shyun Tsai", with family names (in the example, Leung and Wong) shared in the middle.

Therefore, the anglicised names are written in the Western order (Tony Leung, Lawrence Wong) and the Chinese names are written in the Eastern order (Leung Chiu-wai, 梁朝偉; Wong Shyun Tsai, 黄循财).

In contrast to China and Korea, due to familiarity, Japanese names of contemporary people are usually "switched" when people who have such names are mentioned in media in Western countries; for example, Koizumi Jun'ichirō is known as Junichiro Koizumi in English.

[24] Tamil people, generally those of younger generations, do not employ caste names as surnames.

As a result, unlike surnames, while using patronymic suffix the same last name will not pass down through many generations.

In a 2006 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences researchers from the University of North Carolina Wilmington studying bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay, Florida, found that the dolphins had names for each other.

[35] The name given to a pet may refer to its appearance[35] or personality,[35] or be chosen for endearment,[35] or in honor of a favorite celebrity.

[37][38] Dog breeders often choose specific themes for their names, sometimes based on the number of the litter.

[41] Note: *M.Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi Karunanidhi uses the patronymic suffix naming system.