Name order is not universal
Across much of East Asia — China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam — the family name traditionally comes first, which Western forms routinely reverse. In Iceland the patronymic system is still alive: a child takes a parent's given name followed by -son or -dóttir, so members of one household often share no surname at all — and the phone book is ordered by first name.
Traditions worth knowing
- Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries: two family names are carried, from the father and the mother (either order in Spain since 1999), preserving both lines.
- Arabic-speaking world: the kunya identifies someone as "father of" or "mother of" their eldest child (Abu Yusuf), and descent is expressed with ibn / bint.
- West Africa: in several cultures a name may reflect the day of the week of birth, the order of birth, or the circumstances surrounding it.
- Ashkenazi Jewish tradition avoids naming a child after a living relative, honouring the dead instead; Sephardi tradition often does the opposite, honouring living grandparents.
- Russia and Eastern Europe: a patronymic sits between the given name and the surname (Ivan Ivanovich Petrov) and is used as a respectful form of address.
- Scandinavia and Germany still apply stricter administrative controls on given names than any English-speaking country.
When a name travels
Many names cross languages and change shape: John, Jean, Johann, Ivan, Giovanni, Juan, Yahya and Yohanan all descend from the same Hebrew root. That kinship explains why bilingual families often use different official and everyday names for the same person.
Choosing a name in a bicultural family
- Test the pronunciation in both languages — some sounds simply do not exist in the other.
- Check for unintended meanings: a charming name in one language can be unfortunate in another.
- Check how the registry will record it: many registries strip accents and non-Latin characters, so José may be registered as Jose.
- A common solution: an everyday name that works in both countries, and a middle name anchored in the other culture (see naming law).