For an Indian ex-pat like me wandering in America, the notion of a 'first name' was a cultural adjustment. Where I come from I simply had a name. In India some rather formal types might even have asked for my good name. But that is all I knew about a name. My own that was given to me by my parents at birth. Of course there was the matter of what came after it. Well as the English left they left us with their formatting. Hence a surname. Not to be confused with 'Suriname', a country and former Dutch colony on the north edge of South America.
Origin of the word surname is Latin as in 'sur' which means 'from above' and 'nom' or name. As in the family or tribe identifier that you carry to indicate your own heredity.
Hence a name and surname.
Now in America it was not so. There was the concept of a first name. It to me implied the dude or gal I meet had more than one name. To follow the first? And how many exactly? Vexing.
I had heard of 'first aid' and 'first class' but what is this first name?
Well as Americans would know their birth is followed by the classical naming ritual involving the assignment to the new critter of a first and middle name and sometimes in a moment of flourish or familial tradition multiple names before the whole titling ends with a last name. Last name in this case is same as surname.
So naming one Anne Marie Smith would be a very common occurrence for a new born baby girl. So far so good. First, Middle and Last. Got that. But then came gender agnostic naming. Regan. Brogan. Alex. Kelly. Days of the week and months. And so on. You get the drift. You could not really tell who you might run into if you merely had a name to go with.
Also of note is the names itself. Gone are the days where the name meant something. Indian names usually tend to mean something. A verb, a moment, a state of being, name of a river or famous mythical entity. Most western names and American ones more so tend to be repeating, meaning they are the same saint or apostle over and over. Michael, John, David, et al. Why might it be?
Religious beliefs could explain some of it. But there has to be more to it.
Now the Europeans do have unusual names never heard before. But that trend is also dying in favor of the usual bag of 12 or so commonly assigned. Indian names were truly dramatic and long. Now they are getting standardized partly because I think people know their kid needs to go in IT and therefore a simpler name might stand them a better chance of success than say Ravichandrashekhar or Vettimuni or some such.
The Chinese ex-pat have quickly ditched their own sounds (names that many of the western tongue cannot get to say right) and adopted anglicized ones like Jennifer and Tiffany.
Some interesting names from round the globe (and not found in newborns include but not limited to):
Pelham
Agatha
Satyajit
Resham
Yudhishthira
Kaikaee
Vasundhara
Dashrath
Ravana
Constantin
Leopold
Then of course if you are Costanza you could get away with calling your baby Soda or Seven!
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