Personal name

It is nearly universal for a person to have a name; the rare exceptions occur in the cases of mentally disturbed parents, or wild children growing up in isolation. A personal name is usually given at birth or at a young age, and is usually kept throughout life; there might be additional names indicating family relationships, area of residence, and so on. The details of naming are strongly governed by culture; some are more flexible about naming than others, but for all cultures where historical records are available, the rules are known to change over time.

Structure

Common components of true names given at birth include:

• Given name: Universal. In most of Western culture, the given name precedes the family name; some other cultures place it after the family name, or use no family name.
• Patronymic: The given name of a relative, usually the father or mother, or a name derived from this. Many family names are derived from patronymics.
• Family name: A name used by all members of a family. In Europe, the common use of family names started quite early in some areas (France in the 13th century, and Germany in the 16th century, but it often didn't happen until much later in areas that used a patronymic naming custom, such as the Scandinavian countries, Wales, and some areas of Germany. The compulsory use of surnames varied greatly. France required a priest to write surnames in baptimal records in 1539 (but didn't require surnames for Jews, who usually used patronymics, until 1808). On the other hand, compulsory surnames in the Scandinavian countries did not happen until the 20th century (1923 for Norway). Before the use of family names, people were often referred to by a description or nickname, their place of birth or residence, their occupation, or their parent's name
• Middle name: Least common. In royal or aristocratic families, several middle names honoring ancestors, relatives, or political allies are commonly given. In many families, single middle names are simply alternative names, names honoring an ancestor or relative, or, for married women, occasionally their maiden names.

Some people (called anonyms) choose to be anonymous, that is, to hide their true names, for fear of governmental prosecution or societal ridicule of their works or actions. Another method to disguise one's identity is to employ a pseudonym.

The Inuit believe that the souls of the namesakes are one, so they traditionally refer to the junior namesakes, not just by the names (atiq), but also by kinship title, which applies across gender and generation without implications of disrespect or seniority. In Judaism, someone's name is considered intimately connected with his fate, and changing a name (e.g. on the sickbed) may avert a particular danger.

Depending on national convention, additional given names (and sometimes titles) are considered part of the name.

Naming convention

In contemporary Western society (except for Iceland), the most common naming convention is that of a given name, usually indicating the child's sex, followed by the parents' family name. In earlier times, Scandinavian countries followed patronymic naming, with people effectively called "X son of Y"; this is now the case only in Iceland.

Different cultures have different conventions for personal names. This is a list of articles about particular cultures' naming conventions.

• Arabic name
• Chinese name
• German name
• Icelandic names
• Indian name
• Japanese name
• Korean name
• Roman names
• Names in Russian Empire, Soviet Union and CIS countries
• Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan names

Name order

Since a name is made up of several parts, it may matter what order in which a name is put. The order family name followed by the given name is known as eastern order. This order is used in Chinese and Korean names. In China and Hong Kong, a person's name is his or her family name, rarely more than five letters, followed by his or her given name, which is typically longer than the family name. In Korea and Taiwan, the family name, which is almost always three or four letters long, will be followed by two given names, the second one typically being on or two letters longer than the first, but these names are rarely longer than six letters. The reverse order is known as western order, which is used in the Americas and Europe.

To reduce the risk of confusion in writing intended for a global audience, some people follow a secondary convention of setting the family name in all capital letters; see Family name for further discussion.

Nonhuman creature names

Apart from the Linnaean taxonomy, some individual nonhuman animals and plants are given names, usually of endearment.

In some cultures, pets or sporting animals are sometimes given names similar to human names. Other cultures, such as the Chinese, give the animals nonhuman names, because it would be offensive and disrespectful to the person of the same name; even cultures that give human names to animals sometimes do so to an ugly animal to insult the bearer of the name. For examples of nonhuman names,

• An emperor during the Three Kingdoms period, Liu Bei's horse was called "Dilu" (的盧), meaning "Truly Dark", which might be metaphorically named for the ill fate it supposedly brought its previous owners.
• Liu Bei's general, Guan Yu's horse was "Chi Tu" (赤兔), meaning "Red Hare", reflecting on the amazing speed of the horse.

In bonsai, some plants are given adjectival names, such as "The Cloud of Joyful Memories".

See also

• Name for a general discussion of names, including naming of persons
• Namesdays in Sweden.

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