Given Name

A given name (also known as a personal name, Christian name, first name, or forename) is a part of a person's full nomenclature. It identifies a specific person, and differentiates that person from other members of a group, such as a family or clan, with whom that person shares a common surname. The term given name refers to the fact that the name usually is bestowed upon a person, normally given to a child by its parents at or near the time of birth. This contrasts with a surname (also known as a family name, last name, or gentile name), which is normally inherited, and shared with other members of the child's immediate family.

Regnal names and religious or monastic names are special types of given names, as they are given to adults upon them receiving a crown or entering a religious order and as such are replacing the original given name of those persons.

Given names are often used in a familiar and friendly manner in informal situations. In more formal situations the surname is more commonly used, unless it is necessary to distinguish between people with the same surname. The idioms "on a first-name basis" and "being on first-name terms" allude to the familiarity of addressing another by a given name.

The order given name – family name, commonly known as the Western order, is used throughout most European countries and in countries that have cultures predominantly influenced by Western Europe (North and South America, North, East, Central and West India, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines).

The order family name – given name, commonly known as the Eastern order, is primarily used in East Asia (for example in China, Japan, Korea, Malaysian Chinese, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam), as well as in Southern and North-Eastern parts of India, but also in Hungary. It is common in popular use also in Austria and Bavaria, but also in France, Belgium, Greece and Italy, possibly because of the influence of the bureaucratic use of putting the family name before the given name. In China and Korea, even part of the given name may be shared among all members of a given generation in a family and the family's extensions, to differentiate those generations from other generations.

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