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Personal Around The World By Richard Ishida, W3C

People who create web QUESTION

forms, databases, or How do people’s names differ around the world, and what are the ontologies are often implications of those differences on the design of forms, databases, ontologies, etc. for the Web? unaware how different people’s names can be People who create web forms, databases, or ontologies are often unaware how different people’s names can be in other countries. They build their forms or in other countries. databases in a way that assumes too much on the part of foreign users. This article will first introduce you to some of the different styles used for personal names, and then some of the possible implications for handling those on the Web.

This article doesn’t provide all the answers – the best answer will vary according to the needs of the application, and in most cases, it may be difficult to find a ‘perfect’ solution. It attempts to mostly sensitize you to some of the key issues by way of an introduction. The examples and advice shown relate mostly to Web forms and databases. Many of the concepts are, however, also worth considering for ontology design, though we won’t call out specific examples here.

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SCENARIOS Björk’s father, Guðmundur, was the son of Gunnar, so is known as There are a couple of key scenarios to Guðmundur Gunnarsson. consider. Icelanders prefer to be called by their 1. You are designing a form in a given (Björk), or by their full single language (let’s assume name (Björk Guðmundsdóttir). Björk English) that people from wouldn’t normally expect to be called around the world will be Ms. Guðmundsdóttir. Telephone filling in. directories in are sorted by . 2. You are designing a form in one language but the form will Other cultures where a person has one be adapted to suit the cultural given name followed by a differences of a given locale include parts of Southern , when the site is translated. Malaysia and Indonesia.

In reality, you will probably not be In the Malay name Isa bin Osman able to localize for every different the word ‘bin’ means ‘son of’ (‘binti’ culture, so even if you rely on is used for women). If you refer to approach 2, some people will still use this person you might say Mr. Isa, or a form that is not intended specifically if you know him personally, Encik Isa for their culture. (Encik is a Malay word rather like Mr.). EXAMPLES OF DIFFERENCES Different of parts To get started, let’s look at some examples of how people’s names can In the 毛泽东 (Mao be different around the world. Ze Dong) the name is Mao, ie. the first name when reading (left to Given name and patronymic right). The given name is Dong. The middle character, Ze, is a generational In the Björk name, and is common to all his Guðmundsdóttir Björk is the given siblings (such as his brothers and name. The second part of the name sister, 毛泽民 (Mao Ze Min), 毛泽 indicates the father’s (or sometimes 覃 (Mao Ze Tan), and 毛泽紅 (Mao the mother’s) name, followed by ‑son Ze Hong)). for a male and ‑dóttir for a female, and is more of a description than a Among people who are not on family name in the Western sense. familiar terms, Mao may be referred

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to as 毛泽东先生 (Mao Ze Dong xiān Brazilians have similar customs, and Spanish-speaking shēng) or 毛先生 (Mao xiān shēng) may even have three or four family (xiān shēng being the equivalent of names, drawing on the names of people will commonly Mr.). Although not everyone has other ancestors, such as José Eduardo have two family names. a generational name these days, Santos Tavares Melo Silva. especially in Mainland China, those who do have one expect it to be used Typically, two Spanish family together with their given name. Thus, names would have the order if you are on familiar terms with paternal+maternal, whereas someone called 毛泽东, you would Portuguese names in Brazil would normally refer to them using 泽东 (Ze be maternal+paternal. However, this Dong), not just 东 (Dong). order may change.

Note also that the names are not Furthermore, some names add short separated by spaces. words, such as de or e between family names, such as Carreño de Quiñones, Other cultures, such as in , or Tavares e Silva. Korea, and Hungary, also order names as family name followed by Variant word forms given name(s). We already saw that the patronymic Chinese people who deal with in Iceland ends in ‑son or ‑dóttir, Westerners will often adopt an depending on whether the child additional given name that is easier is male or female. Russians use for Westerners to use. For example, as their but Yao Ming (family name Yao, given also use family names, in the order name Ming) may write his name for givenName-patronymic-familyName. foreigners as Fred Yao Ming or Fred The endings of the patronymic and Ming Yao. family names will indicate whether the person in question is male or Multiple family names female. For example, the wife of Борис Николаевич Ельцин Spanish-speaking people will (Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin) is commonly have two family names. Наина Иосифовна Ельцина For example, María-Jose Carreño (Naina Iosifovna Yeltsina) – note Quiñones may be the daughter of how the husband’s names end in Antonio Carreño Rodríguez and consonants, while the wife’s names María Quiñones Marqués. (even the patronymic from her father) end in ‑a. You would refer to her as Señorita Carreño, not Señorita Quiñones.

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Middle initials apellidos, became Pérez Quiñones because his father’s apellidos were Americans often write their name Pérez Rodríguez and his mother’s with a middle initial, for example, apellidos were Quiñones Alamo. John Q. Public. Often forms In time, he courted a girl with the designed in the USA assume that this apellidos Padilla Falto. When they is common practice, whereas even in married, her apellidos became Padilla the UK, where people may indeed de Pérez. Their children were called have (one or more) middle names, Pérez Padilla, and so on. The point this is often seen as a very American here is that only the children in the approach. People in other countries family have the same apellidos. who have more than two names and I have slightly changed Manuel’s don’t usually initialise them may be name here. In fact, he typically spells confused about how to deal with such his name with a hyphen (Pérez- forms. Bear in mind, also, that many Quiñones) to get around confusion in people who do use an initial in their the USA about how his name works. name may use it at the beginning. Others may do this too.

Inheritance of names You should also not simply assume that name adoption goes from It would be wrong to assume that husband to wife. Sometimes men take members of the same family share their wife’s name on marriage. It may the same family name. There is a be better, in these cases, for a form growing trend in the West for wives to to say ‘Previous name’ than ‘Maiden keep their own name after marriage, name’ or ‘née’. but there are other cultures, such as China, where this is the normal Mixing it up approach. In some countries the wife may or may not take the husband’s Many cultures mix and match these name. If the Malay girl Zaiton differences in personal names, and married Isa, mentioned above, she add their own novelties. may remain Mrs. Zaiton, or she may choose to become Zaiton Isa, in which For example, Velikkakathu Sankaran case you might refer to her as Mrs. Isa. Achuthanandan is a Kerala name from Southern India, usually written Some Hispanic names approach this V. S. Achuthanandan which follows slightly differently. In 1996 Manuel the order familyName-fathersName- A. Pérez Quiñones described the givenName. names in his family. As mentioned above, his family names, known as In many parts of the world, parts of names are derived from ,

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locations, genealogical information, Shinawatra has the In Thailand people have caste, religious references, and so on. Maew (แม้ว). Often they will have Here are a few examples: different for family a nickname, that is and friends. usually not related to • the Kogaddu Birappa Timappa Nair follows In Vietnam, names such as their actual name, and the order villageName‑ Nguyễn Tấn Dũng follow the will generally use this fathersName-givenName- order familyName-middleName- lastName. givenName. Although this seems name to address each • the Rajasthani name similar to the Chinese example above, Aditya Pratap Chauhan even in a formal situation this Prime other in non-formal is composed of givenName- Minister of Vietnam is referred to situations. fathersName-‑ using his given name, ie. Mr. Dũng, casteName. not Mr. Nguyễn. • in another part of India the name Madurai Mani Ambiguity in written forms represents townName‑ givenName-casteName. Ideographic characters in Japanese • the Arabic Abu Karim names can typically be pronounced Muhammad al-Jamil ibn in more than one way. In some cases Nidal ibn Abdulaziz al-Filistini this makes it difficult for people to translates as “Father of know exactly how to pronounce a Karim, Muhammad (given name, and also causes problems for name), The beautiful, Son automatic sorting and retrieval of of Nidal, Son of Abdulaziz, names, which is typically done on the the Palestinian” Karim basis of how the name is pronounced. is Muhammad’s first-born For example, the family name of 東海 son. (For more details about 林賢蔵 (ie. the first three ideographic this rich naming tradition, see characters on the left) may be Wikipedia.) transcribed or pronounced as either Tōkairin or Shōji. In Thailand people have a nickname, that is usually not related to their Furthermore, different actual name, and will generally use characters may be pronounced in the this name to address each other in same way, so (ie. non-formal situations. (They will script transcription) tends to lose also typically introduce themselves important distinctive information to Westerners with this name, since related to names. For example, 庄司, it is usually only one or two syllables 庄子, 東海林, and 小路 can all be and therefore easier to pronounce.) romanized as Shōji. Former prime minister Thaksin

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Some Japanese names use archaic IMPLICATIONS FOR FIELD DESIGN ideographic characters, or characters that are no longer used in modern As mentioned above, one possible Japanese. The pronunciation of these approach is to localize forms for a characters may not be recognized. particular culture. In theory this should allow you to tailor your forms Because of these issues, Japanese exactly to the needs of the audience. people will commonly provide a Unfortunately, there may still be a phonetic version of their name (using number of possible disadvantages to a non-ideographic Japanese this approach: alphabet) along with the normal written version. • If you need to centralise data from several locales within a Further information single database, using localized form layouts will simply defer The information above uses only the difficulties of synthesizing the simple cases to describe a number information across cultures until the of significant divergences in the time when you need to store way people construct names. The the data. reality, even within a single culture, • Even within a single country is typically even more complicated. people will typically have different Wikipedia sports a large number of ways of forming personal names. fascinating articles about how people’s For example there may be foreigners names look in various cultures living in the country, there may around the world. It is recommended be different cultural elements within that you read more detailed the the country (eg. Singaporeans have information accessed via the following names of Chinese, Malay and South links. Indian origin), or there may just be more than one way of using names. • Akan • Arabic • Balinese • Bulgarian Therefore your forms will often • Czech • Chinese • Dutch • Fijian need to allow for some flexibility. • French • German • Hawaiian • Hebrew • Hungarian • Icelandic In what follows we propose some • Indian • Indonesian • Irish • Italian general guidelines that may help. • Japanese • Javanese • Korean Unfortunately, this is a complex topic • Lithuanian • Malaysian • Mongolian and the suggestions here are for the • Persian • Philippine • Polish very general case, and don’t address all • Portuguese • Russian • Spanish the issues. • Taiwanese • Thai • Vietnamese

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To split or not to split? separately, try to avoid using the If designing a form labels ‘first name’ and ‘last name’ or database that will If designing a form or database that in non-localized forms , since these will accept names from people with can be confusing for people who accept names from a variety of backgrounds, you should normally write their family name ask yourself whether you really need followed by given names. people with a variety to have separate fields for given of backgrounds, you name and family name. Your Profile should ask yourself Full name This will depend on what you need whether you really need to do with the data, but obviously it will be simpler, where it is possible, to have separate fields to just use the full name as the user Other/given names provides it. for given name and family name. Your Profile For some cultures this is still Full name problematic (for example Icelanders, who don’t actually have family names), but, short of very localized customization, this is Bear in mind that names in some probably the best we can make a cultures can be quite a lot longer generic form. than your own. Make input fields long enough to enter long names, In some cases you want to identify and ensure that if the name is parts of a name so that you can displayed on a web page later there sort a list of names alphabetically, is enough space for it. Also avoid contact them, etc. Consider limiting the field size for names whether it would make sense to in your database. In particular, do have one or more extra fields, in not assume that a four-character addition to the full name field, in UTF-8 will fit in where you ask the user to enter the four bytes – you are likely to actually part(s) of their name that you need need 12. to use for a specific purpose. Sometimes you may opt for Strategies for splitting up names separate fields because you want to be able to use part of the name If you do still feel you need to ask to address the person directly, for constituent parts of a name or refer to them. For example,

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when Google+ refers to “Richard’s for sorting Japanese names. consist of a given name only, with contacts”. Or perhaps it’s because Also, if you have separate fields for no patronym. If you require family you want to send them emails with parts of a person’s name, ensure names, you may create significant their name at the top. Note that not that you label clearly which parts problems in these cultures, as users only may you have problems due to you want where. For example, enter garbage data like “.” or “Mr.” name syntax here, but you also have don’t assume that the order they in the family name field just to to account for varying expectations will provide names in will be given escape the form. around the world with regards to followed by family. formality (not everyone is happy Other things for a stranger to call them by their Be careful, also, about assumptions given name). It may be better to ask built into algorithms that pull out Don’t forget to allow people to separately, when setting up a profile the parts of a name automatically. use punctuation such as hyphens, for example, how that person would For example, the v-card and apostrophes, etc. in names. Don’t like you to address them. h-card approach of implied “n” require names to be entered all in optimization could have difficulties upper case – this can be difficult Your Profile with, say, Chinese names. You on a mobile device. Allow the user should be as clear as possible about to enter a name with spaces, eg. to Full name telling people how to specify their support prefixes and suffixes such name so that you capture the data as de in French, von in German, you think you need. and Jnr/Jr in American names, and What should we call you? (for also because some people consider example, when we send you mail?) Don’t assume that a single letter a space-separated sequence of name is an initial. People do have characters to be a single name, eg., names that are one letter long. Rose Marie. These people can have problems This extra field would also be useful if the form validation refuses to Don’t assume that members of the for finding the appropriate name accept their name and demands same family will share the same from a long list, and for handling that they supply their name in family name. Thai nicknames. full. If you want to encourage people not to use initials, perhaps As mentioned earlier, because it is By the way, for sorting Japanese you should make that a warning not only women who change their names you will need an additional message, rather than block the form family names, it may be better for field for them to type how their submission. a form to ask for ‘Previous name’ name is pronounced, since you can’t rather than ‘Maiden name’ or ‘née’. always tell how to pronounce it from Similarly, don’t require that people If you are designing forms that will the ideographic characters. Such supply a family name. In cultures be localized on a per culture basis, pronunciation information is used such as parts of Southern India, don’t forget that atomized name Malaysia and Indonesia, a large number of people have names that

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parts may still need to be stored in the form and its page is in their a central database, which therefore language or not. If the page is in needs to be able to represent all the their language, don’t be surprised to Is it important for people in your various complexities that you dealt get back non-Latin or accented Latin organization who handle queries with by relegating the form design to characters. to be able to recognise and use the the localization effort. person’s name? If so, you may want If you hope to get Latin- or ASCII- to ask for a Latin transcription. IMPLICATIONS FOR only, you need to tell the user. CHARACTER SUPPORT Will their name be displayed or searchable (for example Flickr Your Profile The first thing that English speakers optionally shows people’s names must remember about other people’s Full name as well as their user name on their names is that a large majority of profile page)? Or will you want to them don’t use the Latin alphabet, send them correspondence in their and of those that do, a majority own language, but track them in use accents and characters that your back-office in a language such don’t occur in English. It seems The decision about which is most as English? If so, you may want to obvious, once it is said, but it has appropriate will depend to some store the name in both Latin and some important consequences for extent on what you are collecting native scripts, in which case you designers that are often overlooked. people’s names for, and how you probably need to ask the user to intend to use them. submit their name in both native If you are designing an English form script and Latin-only form, using you need to decide whether you are Are you collecting the person’s separate fields. expecting people to enter names in name just to have an their own script (eg. 小林康宏) or in your system? If so, it may not Your Profile in an Latin-only transcription (such matter whether the name is stored in Name (in your alphabet) as Yasuhiro Kobayashi), or both. ASCII-only or native script.

Remember that even names in Or do you plan to call them Latin transcription (if different) English may involve non-ASCII by name on a welcome page or characters (eg. Zoë). in correspondence? If you will On the other hand, there are some correspond using their name on situations, such as a login name on pages written in their language, it an ASCII-only system, where you would seem sensible to have the Note that Japanese users may need can’t permit non-ASCII characters. name in the native script. to provide a transcription in a Japanese syllabic script rather than/ What people will type into the in addition to the ideographic form. form will often depend on whether

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This could lead to a third field in Formality and (Department-head Tanaka). the example above. Although you can attach ‑san to Different levels of formality apply in given names, it would be very If you do accept non-ASCII different cultures. When addressing unusual to do so with people in the names, you should use a Unicode someone you need to take this into work environment. character encoding (eg. UTF- account. Whereas given names 8) in your pages, your back end are becoming a popular form of By: Richard Ishida, W3C. Content databases and in all the software address in Western and technology first published 2011-08-17. Last code in between. This will circles, it is by no means universally substantive update 2011-08-17 significantly simplify your life. appropriate. Contacting someone for 19:22 GMT. This version 2016-01- the first time in the UK using their 24 17:46 GMT For the history of BY THE WAY given name can sometimes imply document changes, see the news feed for A note on sorting that you have previously met them. substantive changes, and the Github commit list for all changes since Jan Lists of names are not always sorted On the other hand, addressing 2016 Copyright © 2011-2016 W3C® by family name around the world. someone using a and given (MIT, ERCIM, Keio, Beihang), For example, Thai and Icelandic name (eg. “Mr. Edward”) or just by All Rights Reserved. W3C liability, people expect lists to be sorted by their family name (eg. “Windsor!”) trademark, document use and software given name instead. are acceptable in some parts of the licensing rules apply. world, but not in others (such as In another example, it is possible the UK). Reprinted with permission. http:// that sort orders can also be different www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/2015/ doc-license in different parts of the Spanish- In Germany, titles are important, speaking world. For instance, and you may need to refer to Source https://www.w3.org/ María-Jose Carreño Quiñones in someone as not just Herr Schmidt, International/questions/qa-personal- one place would expect to find but Herr Professor Doktor Schmidt. names her name in a list by looking up Carreño Quiñones. María-Jose In a culture such as that in Japan, Carreño Quiñones from another it is normal to add an or place, however, would expect her job title to the name of someone name to be sorted by Quiñones. you contact. For example, it would be expected to refer to someone The treatment of small words as Tanaka-san or Tanaka-sama such as “von”, “de”, and “van” (depending on your relationship brings additional complexity to to them). A departmental manager sorting. Sometimes the prefixes are named Tanaka would expect to significant, other times they are not. be referred to as Tanaka-bucho

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