I am in Iceland. It is both stunningly beautiful and
stunningly cold, and it's also a very good place to talk about something
you might not know, which is names. Specifically,
how a lot of the world's names—perhaps even a majority—
don't fit into the English system of names given to you by your parents
and then names inherited from your parents. Here in Iceland,
for example, the idea that you have a family name handed down
generation to generation to generation just doesn't happen.
It's rare at best. Instead, children
take their parents' first name with "son" or "daughter" added to it.
Which instantly makes the Icelandic telephone directory a little bit complicated: you have to
index by first name and by occupation because there are
so few last names in total. And if that sounds strange, well think of all the
people you know whose last names are gonna be
Thomson or Davidson or Peterson or Jameson.
All of those are that Icelandic system, which used to be the English system,
it's just changed now so it is a family name. And beyond that you have
all the people who don't go by their legal name. Technically even I don't—my legal name is
Thomas Scott,
but I go by Tom. Add to that the people who go by their middle name,
or who go by a nickname, or who just go by a different name for
any number of reasons. Then you've got the cultures who put their family name
first, which is always confusing when they're trying to translate
over to English. Which brings me to a bit of advice, really.
If you're asking for people's names, either on a paper form or online,
don't put first name and last name. Don't put—the worst-case—
Christian name and surname. Just give someone a box
to type into—just ask them what their name is.
And for bonus points, then ask them how they want to be addressed,
because, well, if you want to make friends, the best way is to get someone's name right.
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