Quote:
Quoting xradman:

Quote:
Most often she may change her middle name to her maiden surname (ie. Hillary/ Diane/ Rodham to Hillary/ Rodham/ Clinton).

I don't know where you got all this invormation, but I have to disagree with this.  I know a lot of women and not a single one has replaced her middle name with her maiden name.  Does this happen?  Yes.  Does it happen more often than not?  Not in my experience.

Quote:
Very rarely, she may conjoin her husband's name to her name to form a hyphenated or double surname (less than 1%).

I have to disagree with this as well.  In fact, I have seen this more often than I have seen the the one above. 

Quote:
Laurie Scheuble, a sociologist at Pennsylvania State University who has studied the choice of last names by married women, says Clinton's decision to drop her maiden name puts her in sync with the vast majority of married women in America.

"To most people, family means everyone having the same last name," says Scheuble, author of "Trends in Women's Marital Name Choice: 1966-1996" and "Attitudes Toward Nontraditional Marital Name Choices." "She's doing the right thing politically to appeal to the most voters. She's conforming to the social norm."

Married working women often face a dilemma over whether to retain their maiden name alone, use both their maiden name and their husband's last name or use their husband's last name alone.

Clinton and seven other married women in the Senate have adopted the names of a husband. Only Clinton and Sen Kay Bailey Hutchison have used their maiden names in conjunction with their husbands' last names.

Scheuble says her research shows that 95 percent of married women use a husband's last name. Of those, about 25 percent informally use their maiden name as a middle name.

About 4 percent retain their maiden name as their last name.

And about one percent legally change their last names to hyphenated names that include both their maiden name and a husband's last name.

Hillary Rodham married Bill Clinton, her Yale Law School classmate, in 1975 in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Quote:
Quoting xradman:

Quote:
Most often she may change her middle name to her maiden surname (ie. Hillary/ Diane/ Rodham to Hillary/ Rodham/ Clinton).

I don't know where you got all this invormation, but I have to disagree with this.  I know a lot of women and not a single one has replaced her middle name with her maiden name.  Does this happen?  Yes.  Does it happen more often than not?  Not in my experience.

Quote:
Since there seems to be lot of confusion regarding what is a Last name vs. surname vs. family name around the world, I thought it would be interesting to learn about naming conventions around the world.  If users can post what they know about naming conventions in their countries, I think it can go a long ways in enlightening us about how to approach building a better program and database. 

So, I will start with the good old USA.  I am not a geneologist or a census taker, but I do deal with 100s of official names every day in my daily job.  US is a melting pot of various cultures around the world, but what follows is what is typical for the majority.

United States of America

In the USA, official names are what is on the birth certificate or passports or other official documents.  It's not always the same as what most people call you by (William/ Jefferson/ Clinton vs. Bill// Clinton).  In the US, most people are given First name/s, middle name/s, and Last name.  Last name is synonymous with surname.  Most people would not differentiate between surname and the family name.  Surname (greater than 90% of cases) are taken from the father's surname.  There are very few instances of double surname or hyphenated surname (mostly in hispanic families).  When a woman marries, she most often (~95% of cases) takes on the surname of her husband as her surname.  She may keep her maiden surname as her surname (~4% especially if she is in certain professional position). Of the women who take on their husband's surname as their own surname, ~25% change their middle name to their maiden surname (ie. Hillary/ Diane/ Rodham to Hillary/ Rodham/ Clinton).  Very rarely, she may conjoin her husband's name to her name to form a hyphenated or double surname (~1%).

First name is usually a single given name at birth.  In some parts of the country (south), double first names are also common (ie. Mary Jo, Sue Allen, etc).  In many cases, official first names are full length names rather than shortened nick names (William vs. Bill, John vs. Jack, etc), however, this is not always the case.

Middle name/s is also usually a single given name at birth.  It can be another given name similar to first name or in many families, name/s to honor other family member or their surname (John/ Fitzgerald/ Kennedy (named for maternal grandfather John/ F/ Fitzgerald) or George/ Herbert Walker/ Bush (named for maternal grandfather George/Herbert/Walker)).  Some people also have initial only as their official middle name, however this is relatively uncommon.

So in summary,

First name
- Usually a single given name at birth
- Usually a full name rather than shortened name
- Usually the name a person is called in social setting

Middle name
- Usually a single given name at birth/marriage
- Often named in honor of another family member
- Sometimes changed in woman at marriage to reflect her maiden surname

Last name
- Synonymous with surname
- Usually a single name taken from the father's surname
- Usually adopted from husband's surname at marriage for a woman
- Double or hyphenated names are rare except in certain culture

Asian Americans

Asian Americans will usually use western name as their first name and Asian given name as their middle name (small minority will reverse this using Asian given name as their first name and western name as their middle name).  Last name or surname is almost always taken from the father's surname and double or hyphenated last names are very rare.  Unlike their counterparts in Asia, most woman adopt their husband's surname as their surname with marriage.

First name
- Usually western given name
- Rarely Asian given name

Middle name
- Usually Asian given name
- Rarely western given name

Last name
- Synonymous with surname
- Usually a single name taken from the father's surname
- Usually adopted from husband's surname at marriage for a woman
- Double or hyphenated names are rare

Quote:

I don't intend to argue or fight with you, but as i have said before, this type of discussion is irrelevant since the culture that we follow for data ebtry purposes is as it is displayed on the screen. It is a simple procedure and easy for all to follow, if the data does not resemble the appearance On screen the it is wrong. Pure and simple. Why aren't you complaining about Chow Yun Fat neing displayed in a totally different from from the American cast members he works with, or lobby Hollywood to color code the surname. I have never understood the passion on this issue, even with the linkibng issue, it strikes me as if it is viewed as some personal insult, which to me is totally irrational, you aren't Chow Yun-Fat...are you? Then you might have a legitimate gripe to be personally insulted. In the market where i live if i go to a theater starring Mr. Chow, I suspect the percventtage is very high  of people who are familiar with the issue. However, I also suspect conversely that there are areas of the country yhay if you asked what his surname was, the answer would be largely Yun-Fat, they would probably automatically deal with his name based on other cast members in the cast list.

As I have said before from the intent of the design there is no culture other than the credits, as long as the data in the database resembles the data On Screen then I don't care how it is arrived at. That is the culture of the credits, not the culture of the name because we are not Profiling Names or Family Trees.

It all is soooo simple and this ongoing brouhaha seems like so much ado about nothing. All the system was ever designed for was the credits, period. Every user has the ability to take that data and manipulate it as he sees fit, to do otherwise creates a mess that has been seen in many other places. Is there a perfect answer...probably not...but the answer that was designed is data-based reality, not user-based supposition. You can argue all you want but the fact IS that the data as it appears Chow Yun-Fat (Yun Fat) that is how the data appears, anything else is user based supposition. If there is a credit that actually says Yun Fat Chow, you know absolutely how I would say to deal with it. Enter the data as you see it, provide documentation that Yun Fat Chow and Chow Yun Fat are the same person, check the CLT and bang zoom finished, easy and not a terribly big deal

Skip

Skip<shrugs>

Quote:
Quoting eommen:

Quote:
Taro,

Since you joined this thread's discussion, could you perhaps enlighten us on the name rules in Belgium? I always assumed these were equal to those in the Netherlands, but I noticed sorting in namelists can be different: "van Amsterdam" under "A" in the Netherlands but under "V" in Belgium. Is this a formalised rule?

Yes, in Belgium we don't take the 'van', 'van de', 'van der' etc prefixes seperately and consider them an integral part of the name to sort. So:

Jean-Claude Van Damme would be sorted under the 'v' and not under the 'd'.