No more "Christian name, sir?" in Kent, UK

[Garson O'Toole]

The United States Census Form 2010 uses the designations "Last Name",
"First Name", and "MI" (for middle initial). The slot for "Last Name"
contains 15 boxes for letters. The slot for "First Name" contains 13
boxes for letters.

On Sat, Mar 27, 2010 at 7:50 PM, Judy Prince
<jbalizsprince at googlemail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Judy Prince <jbalizsprince at GOOGLEMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: No more "Christian name, sir?" in Kent, UK
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Indeed, Joel.
>
> I'm familiar with some spoken (Beijing-hwa) and written Chinese.  Typically,
> I've found that the Chinese know well that our "first name, last name" is
> the reverse of their "family name, 'given name'".  Hence, they are not
> confused about our names, but we are Very Confused with theirs since not
> only do few USAmericans know the Chinese tradition of placing the family
> name first, but few of us speak Chinese, (though many Chinese speak
> English), so we gather no clues from the names as to their "family-ness" or
> "given name-ness".  Often, a Chinese will introduce herself here using our
> tradition.
>
> As some people would say:  "Another example of American exceptionalism."
>
> Best,
>
> Judy
>
>
>
> On 27 March 2010 19:39, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: No more "Christian name, sir?" in Kent, UK
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> At 3/27/2010 07:59 AM, Judy Prince wrote:
>> >"First name" works nicely.
>>
>> But, like "forename", not for the traditional Chinese and several
>> other cultures (when they're giving their name in answer to being
>> questioned in English).
>>
>> Joel
>>
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> "Southern hospitality has ten years left."  --Jeff Hecker, Norfolk, VA
>
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