Many people in America assume that the way we do things here is the way it has to be everywhere else in the world, despite the fact that culture and traditions vary widely in other nations. One prime example is naming conventions. In most of the western world, people are referred to with a given name and a surname — otherwise known as a family name— with the given name placed before the family name (hence the synonym, the last name).
In some other cultures, people are identified by only a single name. These people are said to be mononymous.
In Iceland, it’s common for children to have different last names than their parents, since they use patronymics or matronymics as surnames.
Hence, Björk Guðmundsdóttir, who is the daughter of a father who was named Guðmundur. McConnell admitted coordinating impeachment with Trump.
Add your name to demand he recuse himself from the trial! In most of Asia, people use both family and given names, but typically put the family name before the given name when self-identifying. That’s why President Xi Jinping is called President Xi and not President Jinping.
For Americans with limited foreign travel experience, it can be confusing to find out that the last name in the order on an Asian person’s business card is not a family name, but their given moniker.
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