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Names.io – Global Exhaustive Scraped Name Db

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Re: Names.io – Global Exhaustive Scraped Name Db

#31

Post by Thorentis »

packet_nerd wrote: post #26
alexmingoia wrote: post #3

Somewhat related and worth pointing out is that the whole world does not use family names, or the family name as a last name. My wife was annoyed when she came to the US and every form has a “first” and “last” field, but she doesn’t have a last name. Her passport for example, only has a “name” field.

I feel for her. My wife was in the exact same situation, like almost everyone in her home country she had just one given name. When we moved here to the states she found it highly annoying and even limited some opportunities. Recently she decided to legally change her name to something that fits in better here. Although it has been an emotional decision for her, she felt she had to as it's very hard to live in the US…

Why wouldn't she just use your last name when you got married? Seems like a pretty simple solution.

Re: Names.io – Global Exhaustive Scraped Name Db

#33

Post by packet_nerd »

Thorentis wrote: post #31
packet_nerd wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel for her. My wife was in the exact same situation, like almost everyone in her home country she had just one given name. When we moved here to the states she found it highly annoying and even limited some opportunities. Recently she decided to legally change her name to something that fits in better here. Although it has been an emotional decision for her, she felt she had to as it's very hard to live in the US…

Why wouldn't she just use your last name when you got married? Seems like a pretty simple solution.

Burmese women (she's Burmese) aren't used to changing their names at marriage and she found the practice demeaning. We never really considered it beforehand. But, I think if she had fully realized at the time how hard it would be to live here with one name, then yes, she would have taken my last name. You live and learn.

Re: Names.io – Global Exhaustive Scraped Name Db

#36

Post by kumaranvpl »

alexmingoia wrote: post #3

Somewhat related and worth pointing out is that the whole world does not use family names, or the family name as a last name. My wife was annoyed when she came to the US and every form has a “first” and “last” field, but she doesn’t have a last name. Her passport for example, only has a “name” field.

I am from Tamilnadu, India. We don't have a common family name as last name. And our names mostly have single word. Here children add their father's name as last name. And women once get married will have their husband's name as last name. My name is Kumaran and my father's name is Rajendhiran. So, my full name is Kumaran Rajendhiran.

Re: Names.io – Global Exhaustive Scraped Name Db

#39

Post by wtmt »

alexmingoia wrote: post #3

Somewhat related and worth pointing out is that the whole world does not use family names, or the family name as a last name. My wife was annoyed when she came to the US and every form has a “first” and “last” field, but she doesn’t have a last name. Her passport for example, only has a “name” field.

It is quite annoying to see that insistence on last names or family names in most places.

In India, which is a single country but has many different languages (22 official and nearly a 1000 unofficial, including dialects) and cultures, I see the same insistence on last name/surname. There are states and districts where mononyms are quite common, but governments insist on first and last name in many forms. I’ve come to believe that those who make up the rules and are in the majority decide everything for others. In India, it’s the people around the national capital who assume that everybody has a last name or that everybody in the country knows Hindi (India has no national language, much to the chagrin of Hindi speakers who seem to believe it is the one).

Funnily, I’ve also noticed that the U.S. consulates have a system where they deal with a last name not being available, even when the name has more than one word separated by spaces in it. In such cases, they add “LNU” (Last Name Unknown) in the last name field in visas. In some cases I’ve seen “FNU” (First Name Unknown) too.

Re: Names.io – Global Exhaustive Scraped Name Db

#40

Post by ClikeX »

alexmingoia wrote: post #3

Somewhat related and worth pointing out is that the whole world does not use family names, or the family name as a last name. My wife was annoyed when she came to the US and every form has a “first” and “last” field, but she doesn’t have a last name. Her passport for example, only has a “name” field.

Related anecdote.

Long ago, lot of forms from American websites wouldn't let me fill in my last name. As it technically contains 3 words. I had to concat "van der" to my last name to finish registration.

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