Naming conventions by country
Name order, honorifics, and what to write when you're not sure — for 14 countries and regions.
- China
Chinese names: order, honorifics and how to address someone
Chinese given names are usually one or two syllables and carry a meaning chosen character by character, which makes gend…
- Japan
Japanese names: order, san/sama, and gender guessing
Japanese names put the family name first at home, but are often reordered to given-family on English business cards and …
- Korea
Korean names: family name first, honorifics, and gender guessing
Korean full names are almost always three syllables: a one-syllable family name followed by a two-syllable given name, w…
- India
Indian names: regional variety, initials, and how to address someone
India has no single naming convention: Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian and regional traditions each structure names diffe…
- Vietnam
Vietnamese names: family name first but addressed by given name
Vietnamese names follow family name, then a middle name, then the given name, but unlike Chinese or Korean naming cultur…
- Arabic names
Arabic names: ism, nasab, kunya, and how to address someone
A full Arabic name can be a long chain: a given name (ism), followed by "son of" or "daughter of" links (nasab) using ib…
- Turkey
Turkish names: order, Bey/Hanım, and how to address someone
Turkish names follow Western order, given name then family name, a legacy of the 1934 Surname Law that introduced fixed …
- Russia
Russian names: patronymics, order and how to address someone
A full Russian name has three parts: given name, patronymic (built from the father's first name), and family name. The p…
- Hungary
Hungarian names: family name first and how to address someone
Hungarian is one of the few European languages where the family name comes first: inside Hungary, Kovács Zoltán is Mr. K…
- Germany
German names: formal address and the "Andrea" gender flip
German given names are mostly single, clearly gender-marked words with well-known male and female forms, which makes gen…
- France
French names: compound names and how to address someone
French given names are usually clearly gendered, but two features complicate quick guessing: hyphenated compound names b…
- Spain and Latin America
Spanish names: two surnames and how to address someone
Spanish-speaking countries traditionally give each person two surnames, one from each parent, which makes a full legal n…
- Netherlands
Dutch names: tussenvoegsel and how to address someone
Dutch given names are almost always clearly gendered, and the main structural quirk to know about is the "tussenvoegsel"…
- Indonesia
Indonesian names: single names and how to address someone
Indonesia has no single national naming system: many Javanese and Balinese people carry only one name with no separate f…