How often have you come across forms that require you to enteryour first name, middle initial, and last name? In the rest ofthe world, and to some extent in the USA, they may not work. Thereason is that there are 2, not 3, major components to people'snames:
1. Given-names: these are the names given to childrenby their parents (or, rarely, are changed by the children).
2. Family-names (otherwise known as surnames): theseare the names passed down from generation to generation (exceptin Iceland).
Example 1: Mary Elizabeth Smith has two given-names and onefamily-name. If she calls herself Mary, then she has a first name,can use a middle initial, and has no problem with the forms.
Example 2: Supposing, however, that she has been called Elizabeth(Liz for short) since birth. Then, her name won't fit the standardforms. Neither will that of J. Edgar Hoover (a former FBI director)and many others. You can believe that Liz would not want to haveto answer to the name Mary just because someone designed a formthat records only her first name and middle initial.
Example 3. Liz Smith marries someone called Jim Brown. Shemay call herself Elizabeth Smith, or change her name to ElizabethBrown, or Elizabeth Smith Brown. Her name Mary still is first,but she hardly ever uses it. So, what is now her "middleinitial"?
Example 4: Ada María Guerrero Pérez is Mexican.Her names (nombres) are Ada María (and she always usesboth these names), her primer apellido (father's family name)is Guerrero and her segundo apellido (mother's family name) isPérez. You would find her in a Mexican phone book under"Guerrero Pérez, Ada María." She callsherself Ada María Guerrero. So what should she do whenshe encounters a US form asking for her "first name, middleinitial, and last name"?
Example 5: Ada María marries someone called AlfonsoErnesto Hernández López. He has two given-names(and uses the second of these), and two family-names (Hernándezand López). You find him in a Mexican telephone book under"Hernández López, Ernesto." He calls himselfErnesto Hernández. How does he respond to a US form askingfor first name, middle initial, and last name?
Example 6: Ada María has new problems with US forms:after her marriage she is Ada María Guerrero de Hernández.So now how does she respond to a US form asking for first name,middle initial, and last name?
Example 7: Li Xiao Ping is from China. In China, Japan, Vietnam,Hungary, and some other countries, the family-name (Li) comesfirst. The two components (Xiao Ping) of his given name are usedtogether as one name such that they could almost be written Xiaoping.You find him in a Chinese phone book as Li Xiao Ping (writtenin 3 chinese characters with no comma). How should he respondto a US form asking for first name, middle initial, and last name?Which of his names is last?
The design of US forms asking for "first name, middleinitial, and last name" is for the convenience of US designersof forms. It assumes ignorantly that everyone's name fits thismold, or imperiously that everyone's name must be forced intothis mold. It would be more appropriate to design forms to askfor (a) given-names, and (b) family-names, and then (c) underlinethe given-name and family-name by which you wish to be known.
