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A personal name, full name or prosoponym (from Ancient Greek prósōpon – person, and onoma –name) is the set of names by which an individual person or animal is known. When taken together as a word-group, they all relate to that one individual. In many cultures, the term is synonymous with the birth name or legal name of the individual. In linguistic classification, personal names are studied within a specific onomastic discipline, called anthroponymy.
In Western culture, nearly all individuals possess at least one given name (also known as a first name, forename, or Christian name), together with a surname (also known as a last name or family name). In the name "James Smith", for example, James is the first name and Smith is the surname. Surnames in the West generally indicate that the individual belongs to a family, a tribe, or a clan, although the exact relationships vary: they may be given at birth, taken upon adoption, changed upon marriage, and so on. Where there are two or more given names, typically only one (in English-speaking cultures usually the first) is used in normal speech.
Another naming convention that is used mainly in the Arab culture and in different other areas across Africa and Asia is connecting the person's given name with a chain of names, starting with the name of the person's father and then the father's father and so on, usually ending with the family name (tribe or clan name). However, the legal full name of a person usually contains the first three names (given name, father's name, father's father's name) and the family name at the end, to limit the name in government-issued ID. Men's names and women's names are constructed using the same convention, and a person's name is not altered if they are married.
Some cultures, including Western ones, also add (or once added) or , for instance as a middle name as with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (whose father's given name was Ilya), or as a last name as with Björk Guðmundsdóttir (whose father is named Guðmundur) or Heiðar Helguson (whose mother was named Helga). Similar concepts are present in Eastern world cultures. However, in some areas of the world, many people are known by a single name, and so are said to be mononymous. Still other cultures lack the concept of specific, fixed names designating people, either individually or collectively. Certain isolated tribes, such as the Machiguenga of the Amazon, do not use personal names.
It is nearly universal for people to have names; the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child declares that a child has the right to a name from birth. Text of the Convention on the Rights of the Child , Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989 entry into force 2 September 1990, in accordance with article 49, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
In Spain and most Latin American countries, two surnames are used, one being the father's family name and the other being the mother's family name. In Spain, the second surname is sometimes informally used alone if the first one is too common to allow an easy identification. For example, former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is often called just Zapatero. In Argentina, only the father's last name is used, in most cases.
In most Portuguese-speaking countries typically Portuguese name, sometimes three or four, typically some or none inherited from the mother and some or all inherited from the father, in that order. Co-parental siblings most often share an identical string of surnames. For collation, shortening, and formal addressing, the last of these surnames is typically preferred. A Portuguese person named António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres would therefore be known commonly as António Guterres.
In Russia, the first name and family name conform to the usual Western practice, but the middle name is patronymic. Thus, all the children of Ivan Volkov would be named "first Ivanovich Volkov" if male, or "first Ivanovna Volkova" if female (-ovich meaning "son of", -ovna meaning "daughter of", and -a usually being appended to the surnames of girls). However, in formal Russian name order, the surname comes first, followed by the given name and patronymic, such as "Raskolnikov Rodion Romanovich".
In many families, single or multiple are simply alternative names, names honoring an ancestor or relative, or, for married women, sometimes their maiden names. In some traditions, however, the roles of the first and middle given names are reversed, with the first given name being used to honor a family member and the middle name being used as the usual method to address someone informally. Many Catholic Church families choose a saint's name as their child's middle name or this can be left until the child's confirmation when they choose a saint's name for themselves. Cultures that use or will often give middle names to distinguish between two similarly named people: e.g., Einar Karl Stefánsson and Einar Guðmundur Stefánsson. This is especially done in Iceland (as shown in example) where people are known and referred to almost exclusively by their given name/s.
Some people (called anonyms) choose to be Anonymity, that is, to hide their true names, for fear of governmental prosecution or social ridicule of their works or actions. Another method to disguise one's identity is to employ a pseudonym.
For some people, their name is a single word, known as a mononym. This can be true from birth, or occur later in life. For example, Teller, of the magician duo Penn and Teller, was named Raymond Joseph Teller at birth, but changed his name both legally and socially to be simply "Teller". In some official government documents, such as his driver's license, his given name is listed as NFN, an initialism for "no first name".
The Inuit believe that the souls of the are one, so they traditionally refer to the junior namesakes, not just by the names ( atiq), but also by kinship title, which applies across gender and generation without implications of disrespect or seniority.
In Judaism, someone's name is considered intimately connected with their fate, and adding a name (e.g. on the sickbed) may avert a particular danger. Among Ashkenazi Jews, it is also considered bad luck to take the name of a living ancestor, as the Angel of Death may mistake the younger person for their namesake (although there is no such custom among Sephardi Jews). Jews may also have a Jewish name for intra-community use and use a different name when engaging with the goyim world.
Chinese emperor and receive .
In some Polynesian cultures, the name of a deceased chief becomes taboo. If he is named after a common object or concept, a different word has to be used for it.
In Cameroon, there is "a great deal of mobility" within naming structure. Some Cameroonians, particularly Anglophone Cameroonians, use "a characteristic sequencing" starting with a first surname, followed by a forename then a second surname (e.g. Awanto Josephine Nchang), while others begin with a forename followed by first and then second surnames (e.g. Josephine Awanto Nchang). The latter structure is rare in Francophone Cameroon, however, where a third structure prevails: First surname, second surname, forename (e.g. Awanto Nchang Josephine).
Depending on national convention, additional given names (and sometimes ) are considered part of the name.
The bare place name was used formerly to refer to the person who owned it, rather than the land itself (the word "Gloucester" in "What will Gloucester do?" meant the Duke of Gloucester). As a development, the bare name of a ship in the Royal Navy meant its captain (e.g., "Cressy didn't learn from Aboukir") while the name with an article referred to the ship (e.g., "The Cressy is foundering").
In contemporary Western societies (except for Iceland, Hungary, and sometimes Flanders, depending on the occasion), the most common naming convention is that a person must have a given name, which is usually gender-specific, followed by the parents' family name. In onomastic terminology, given names of male persons are called andronyms (from Ancient Greek ἀνήρ / man, and ὄνομα / name), while given names of female persons are called gynonyms (from Ancient Greek γυνή / woman, and ὄνομα / name).
Some given names are bespoke, but most are repeated from earlier generations in the same culture. Many are drawn from mythology, some of which span multiple language areas. This has resulted in related names in different languages (e.g. George, Georg, Jorge), which might be translated or might be maintained as immutable proper nouns.
In earlier times, Scandinavian countries followed patronymic naming, with people effectively called "X's son/daughter"; this is now the case only in Iceland and was recently re-introduced as an option in the Faroe Islands. It is legally possible in Finland as people of Icelandic ethnic naming are specifically named in the name law. When people of this name convert to standards of other cultures, the phrase is often condensed into one word, creating last names like Jacobsen (Jacob's Son).
There is a range of personal naming systems: (2025). 9780191630415, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191630415
Different cultures have different conventions for personal names.
In the case of the American presidents George H. W. Bush and his son George W. Bush, distinct middle initials serve this purpose instead, necessitating their more frequent use. The improvised and unofficial "Bush Sr." and "Bush Jr." were nevertheless tossed about in banter on many entertainment journalism opinion panels; alternatively, they became distinguished merely as "W." and "H. W.".
In formal address, personal names, inclusive of a generational designation, if any, may be followed by one or more post-nominal letters giving office, honour, decoration, accreditation, or formal affiliation.
Within alphabetic lists and catalogs, however, the family name is generally put first, with the given name(s) following and separated by a comma (e.g. Steve Jobs or Van Gerwen, Michael). representing the "lexical name order". This convention is followed by most Western libraries, as well as on many administrative forms. In some countries, such as France, or countries previously part of the former Soviet Union, the comma may be dropped and the swapped form of the name be uttered as such, perceived as a mark of bureaucratic formality. In the USSR and now Russia, personal initials are often written in the "family name - given name - patronymic name" order when signing official documents (), e.g. "Rachmaninoff S.V.".
When East Asian names are transliteration into the Latin alphabet, some people prefer to convert them to the Western order, while others leave them in the Eastern order but write the family name in letter case. To avoid confusion, there is a convention in some language communities, e.g., French, that the family name should be written in all capitals when engaging in formal correspondence or writing for an international audience. In Hungarian, the Eastern order of Japanese names is officially kept, and Hungarian transliteration is used (e.g. Mijazaki Hajao in Hungarian), but Western name order is also sometimes used with English transliteration (e.g. Hayao Miyazaki). This is also true for Hungarian names in Japanese, e.g. Ferenc Puskás (, written in the same Eastern order "Puskás Ferenc").
Starting from the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Western name order was primarily used among the Japanese nobility when identifying themselves to non-Asians with their Romanization names. As a result, in popular Western publications, this order became increasingly used for Japanese names in the subsequent decades. In 2020, the Government of Japan reverted the Westernized name order back to the Eastern name order in official documents (e.g. identity documents, academic certificates, birth certificates, marriage certificates, among others), which means writing family name first in capital letters and has recommended that the same format be used among the general Japanese public.
Japan has also requested Western publications to respect this change, such as not using Shinzo Abe but rather Abe Shinzo, similar to how Chinese leader Xi Jinping is not referred to as Jinping Xi. Its sluggish response by Western publications was met with ire by Japanese politician Taro Kono, who stated that "If you can write Moon Jae-in and Xi Jinping in correct order, you can surely write Abe Shinzo the same way."
Some Chinese, Malaysians and Singaporeans may have an anglicised given name, which is always written in the Western order. The English and transliterated Chinese full names can be written in various orders. A hybrid order is preferred in official documents including the legislative records in the case for Hong Kong.
Examples of the hybrid order goes in the form of Hong Kong actor “Tony Leung Chiu-wai” or Singapore Prime Minister "Lawrence Wong Shyun Tsai", with family names (in the example, Leung and Wong) shared in the middle. Therefore, the anglicised names are written in the Western order (Tony Leung, Lawrence Wong) and the Chinese names are written in the Eastern order (Leung Chiu-wai, 梁朝偉; Wong Shyun Tsai, 黄循财).
| Male | Rajeev | Suresh | S. Rajeev | Rajeev Suresh | Rajeev son of Suresh |
| Female | Meena | Suresh | S. Meena | Meena Suresh | Meena daughter of Suresh |
Note: *M.Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi Karunanidhi uses the patronymic suffix naming system. Her given name is Kanimozhi, her father's given name is Karunanidhi, she uses as her name: Kanimozhi Karunanidhi.
using only given names (without using family name or surname) is as below: for Tamil Hindu son's name using the initials system: S. Rajeev: (initial S for father's given name Suresh and Rajeev is the son's given name). The same Tamil Hindu name using Patronymic suffix last name system is Rajeev Suresh meaning Rajeev son of Suresh (Rajeev (first is son's given name) followed by Suresh (father's given name)). As a result, unlike surnames, while using patronymic suffix the same last name will not pass down through many generations. For Tamil Hindu daughters, the initials naming system is the same, e.g.: S. Meena. Using the Patronymic suffix system it is Meena Suresh: meaning Meena daughter of Suresh; Meena (first is daughter's given name) followed by Suresh (father's given name). As a result, unlike surnames, while using patronymic suffix the same last name will not pass down through many generations. And after marriage the wife may or may not take her husband's given name as her last name instead of her father's. E.g.: after marriage, Meena Jagadish: meaning Meena wife of Jagadish: Meena (first is wife's given name) followed by Jagadish (husband's given name).
According to a 2024 article of a study of elephant calls in Amboseli National Park, Kenya and Samburu National Reserve and Buffalo Springs National Reserves between 1986 and 2022 done with machine learning, elephants learn, recognize and use individualized name-like calls.
Many pet owners give human names to their pets. This has been shown to reflect the owner having a human-like relationship with the pet. The name given to a pet may refer to its appearance or personality, or be chosen for endearment, or in honor of a favorite celebrity. Pet names often reflect the owner's view of the animal, and the expectations they may have for it.
Dog Animal breeding often choose specific themes for their names, sometimes based on the number of the litter. In some countries, like Germany or Austria, names are chosen alphabetically, with names starting with 'A' for puppies from the first litter, 'B' for the second litter, and so on. A puppy called "Dagmar" would belong to a fourth litter. Dog owners can choose to keep the original name, or rename their pet.
It has been argued that the giving of names to their pets allows researchers to view their pets as ontologically different from unnamed laboratory animals with which they work.
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