This article doesn't provide all the answers – the best answer will vary according to the needs of the application, and in most cases, it may be difficult to find a 'perfect' solution. It attempts to mostly sensitize you to some of the key issues by way of an introduction. The examples and advice shown relate mostly to Web forms and databases. Many of the concepts are, however, also worth considering for ontology design, though we won't call out specific examples here.

People who create web forms, databases, or ontologies are often unaware how different people’s names can be in other countries. They build their forms or databases in a way that assumes too much on the part of foreign users. This article will first introduce you to some of the different styles used for personal names, and then some of the possible implications for handling those on the Web.

How do people's names differ around the world, and what are the implications of those differences on the design of forms, databases, ontologies, etc. for the Web?

In reality, you will probably not be able to localize for every different culture, so even if you rely on approach 2, some people will still use a form that is not intended specifically for their culture.

You are designing a form in one language but the form will be adapted to suit the cultural differences of a given locale when the site is translated.

You are designing a form in a single language (let’s assume English) that people from around the world will be filling in.

To get started, let’s look at some examples of how people’s names can be different around the world.

Given name and patronymic In the Icelandic name Björk Guðmundsdóttir Björk is the given name. The second part of the name indicates the father’s (or sometimes the mother’s) name, followed by ‑son for a male and ‑dóttir for a female, and is more of a description than a family name in the Western sense. Björk’s father, Guðmundur, was the son of Gunnar, so is known as Guðmundur Gunnarsson. Icelanders prefer to be called by their given name (Björk), or by their full name (Björk Guðmundsdóttir). Björk wouldn’t normally expect to be called Ms. Guðmundsdóttir. Telephone directories in Iceland are sorted by given name. Other cultures where a person has one given name followed by a patronymic include parts of Southern India, Malaysia and Indonesia. In the Malay name Isa bin Osman the word 'bin' means 'son of' ('binti' is used for women). If you refer to this person you might say Mr. Isa, or if you know him personally, Encik Isa (Encik is a Malay word rather like Mr.).

Different order of parts In the Chinese name 毛泽东 (Mao Ze Dong) the family name is Mao, ie. the first name when reading (left to right). The given name is Dong. The middle character, Ze, is a generational name, and is common to all his siblings (such as his brothers and sister, 毛泽民 (Mao Ze Min), 毛泽覃 (Mao Ze Tan), and 毛泽紅 (Mao Ze Hong)). Among people who are not on familiar terms, Mao may be referred to as 毛泽东先生 (Mao Ze Dong xiān shēng) or 毛先生 (Mao xiān shēng) (xiān shēng being the equivalent of Mr.). Although not everyone has a generational name these days, especially in Mainland China, those who do have one expect it to be used together with their given name. Thus, if you are on familiar terms with someone called 毛泽东, you would normally refer to them using 泽东 (Ze Dong), not just 东 (Dong). Note also that the names are not separated by spaces. Other cultures, such as in Japan, Korea, and Hungary, also order names as family name followed by given name(s). Chinese people who deal with Westerners will often adopt an additional given name that is easier for Westerners to use. For example, Yao Ming (family name Yao, given name Ming) may write his name for foreigners as Fred Yao Ming or Fred Ming Yao.

Multiple family names Spanish-speaking people will commonly have two family names. For example, María José Carreño Quiñones (José being a part of her given name) may be the daughter of Antonio Carreño Rodríguez and María Quiñones Marqués. You could refer to her as Señorita Carreño, but not Señorita Quiñones. However, more recently there is also a preference to move away from titles that indicate the married status of women (especially when they are not so indicated for men), so 'Señorita' may be replaced with 'Señora'. Brazilians have similar customs, and may even have three or four family names, drawing on the names of other ancestors, such as José Eduardo Santos Tavares Melo Silva. Typically, two Spanish family names would have the order paternal+maternal, whereas Portuguese names in Brazil would be maternal+paternal. However, this order may change. Furthermore, some names add short words, such as de or e between family names, such as Carreño de Quiñones, or Tavares e Silva.

Variant word forms We already saw that the patronymic in Iceland ends in ‑son or ‑dóttir, depending on whether the child is male or female. Russians use patronymics as their middle name but also use family names, in the order givenName-patronymic-familyName. The endings of the patronymic and family names will indicate whether the person in question is male or female. For example, the wife of Борис Николаевич Ельцин (Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin) is Наина Иосифовна Ельцина (Naina Iosifovna Yeltsina) – note how the husband’s names end in consonants, while the wife’s names (even the patronymic from her father) end in ‑a. By the way, a slightly less formal way of writing Russian names follows the order familyName-givenName-patronymic, such as Ельцина Наина Иосифовна.

Middle initials Americans often write their name with a middle initial, for example, John Q. Public. Often forms designed in the USA assume that this is common practice, whereas even in the UK, where people may indeed have (one or more) middle names, this is often seen as a very American approach. People in other countries who have more than two names and don't usually initialise them may be confused about how to deal with such forms. Bear in mind, also, that many people who do use an initial in their name may use it at the beginning. Filipinos also write their name with a middle initial, but it represents the mother's name before marriage rather than a given name. For example, in Maria J. Go, the initial represents Jimenez, the previous family name of Maria's mother. (In fact, an initial may represent more than one name: 'D' may stand for 'Dela Cruz' when the name is written in full.)

Inheritance of names It would be wrong to assume that members of the same family share the same family name. There is a growing trend in the West for wives to keep their own name after marriage, but there are other cultures, such as China, where this is the normal approach. In some countries the wife may or may not take the husband's name. If the Malay girl Zaiton married Isa, mentioned above, she may remain Mrs. Zaiton, or she may choose to become Zaiton Isa, in which case you might refer to her as Mrs. Isa. Some Hispanic names approach this slightly differently. In 1996 Manuel A. Pérez Quiñones the names in his family. As mentioned above, his family names, known as apellidos, became Pérez Quiñones because his father's apellidos were Pérez Rodríguez and his mother's apellidos were Quiñones Alamo. In time, he courted a girl with the apellidos Padilla Falto. When they married, her apellidos became Padilla de Pérez. Their children were called Pérez Padilla, and so on. The point here is that only the children in the family have the same apellidos. I have slightly changed Manuel's name here. In fact, he typically spells his name with a hyphen (Pérez-Quiñones) to get around confusion in the USA about how his name works. Others may do this too. You should also not simply assume that name adoption goes from husband to wife. Sometimes men take their wife's name on marriage. It may be better, in these cases, for a form to say 'Previous name' than 'Maiden name' or 'née'.

Mixing it up Many cultures mix and match these differences in personal names, and add their own novelties. For example, Velikkakathu Sankaran Achuthanandan is a Kerala name from Southern India, usually written V. S. Achuthanandan which follows the order familyName-fathersName-givenName. In many parts of the world, parts of names are derived from titles, locations, genealogical information, caste, religious references, and so on. Here are a few examples: the Indian name Kogaddu Birappa Timappa Nair follows the order villageName-fathersName-givenName-lastName.

the Rajasthani name Aditya Pratap Singh Chauhan is composed of givenName-fathersName-surname-casteName.

is composed of givenName-fathersName-surname-casteName. in another part of India the name Madurai Mani Iyer represents townName-givenName-casteName.

the Arabic Abu Karim Muhammad al-Jamil ibn Nidal ibn Abdulaziz al-Filistini translates as "Father of Karim, Muhammad (given name), The beautiful, Son of Nidal, Son of Abdulaziz, the Palestinian". Karim is Muhammad's first-born son. (For more details about this rich naming tradition, see .) In Thailand people have a nickname, that is usually not related to their actual name, and will generally use this name to address each other in non-formal situations. (They will also typically introduce themselves to Westerners with this name, since it is usually only one or two syllables and therefore easier to pronounce.) Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has the nickname Maew (แม้ว). Often they will have different nicknames for family and friends. In Vietnam, names such as Nguyễn Tấn Dũng follow the order familyName-middleName-givenName. Although this seems similar to the Chinese example above, even in a formal situation this Prime Minister of Vietnam is referred to using his given name, ie. Mr. Dũng, not Mr. Nguyễn.

Ambiguity in written forms Ideographic characters in Japanese names can typically be pronounced in more than one way. In some cases this makes it difficult for people to know exactly how to pronounce a name, and also causes problems for automatic sorting and retrieval of names, which is typically done on the basis of how the name is pronounced. For example, the family name of 東海林賢蔵 (ie. the first three ideographic characters on the left) may be transcribed or pronounced as either Tōkairin or Shōji. Furthermore, different kanji characters may be pronounced in the same way, so romanization (ie. Latin script transcription) tends to lose important distinctive information related to names. For example, 庄司, 庄子, 東海林, and 小路 can all be romanized as Shōji. Some Japanese names use archaic ideographic characters, or characters that are no longer used in modern Japanese. The pronunciation of these characters may not be recognized. Because of these issues, Japanese people will commonly provide a phonetic version of their name (using a non-ideographic Japanese kana alphabet) along with the normal written version.