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A number of the people I work with or live near are originally from China,
Japan, Korea, Tahiland (and India, I might add <g>)and I don't think any of
them would be confused. On coming to America, it seems to me one thing one
learns is that here, we put given name first and whatever family name last
in the sequence. As someone said, look at any form (government, credit,
rental agreement, whatever). I think Given Name and Surname are far more
likely to confuse far more people.
If this is for a U.S. audience, I'd stick with the most common U.S. usage.
Maggie Secara
> -----Original Message-----
Margaret Gerard reports problems with people's names in American English:
> <<We have a set of name fields on the interface which are
> labelled: Surname / Given name We thought these were OK but have now
received customer feedback from the States indicating that they do not
understand these terms. Would it be better to use: Last name / First name
(but what about names where the surname is usually written first?) or should
we use: Family name / Given name.>>
>
> Definitely use the last one; it's clearest and relies least on
> understanding a relatively uncommon English term. Although the first
option is
> technically correct, it's not something you can count on an average
audience
> understanding. Your second point is well taken, since you'd confuse many
> Chinese Americans as to your goal.
>
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