"Lena B Katz" > wrote in message
...
>
>
> On Wed, 31 Aug 2005, Dimitri wrote:
>
>>
>> "Stark" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> Like to watch the first 10 or 15 minutes of Iron Chef, especially when
>>> they're preping big fish. But when they introduce the challenger chef,
>>> his named is printed on the screen as Komico Seiko, for example. But
>>> when the host bellows out his name he calls Seiko Komico. What's with
>>> the reversal?
>>
>> Generally people in Japan refer to others by their surname followed by a
>> term of
>> respect (san, = Mr or Mrs. sama = Mr. or Mrs. (pol) , manner, kind,
>> appearance) or familiarity (kun Mr (junior) (suf), master, boy). The
>> given name
>> is seldom used.
>>
>> I work with a Mr. Naruo (given) Uchida (surname) he is almost always
>> referred to
>> as Uchida san.
>
> In Japan, the Surname comes first. As in most Asian countries. given
> names are used to talk about close friends and relatives. If you want to
> give the impression of formality (and, trust me, unless you've known
> someone for a long time, you do.), you generally use -san.
>
> Sama is something that is not considered "polite". it is beyond "polite".
> it is calling someone royalty.
>
>> In the Eastern European countries people were known by their given name
>> follows
>> by their fathers given name. As example Anna Ivanivavna = Anna the
>> daughter of
>> Ivan.
>
> I've noticed, when reading dostoyevsky, that russian names tend to be
> entirely too complicated. three different last names, depending on what
> you want to use (if someone's russian on here, and feels like illuminating
> my ignorance, i'd appreciate it)
>
> lena

Maybe not quite an answer, but in German families, many have their baptismal
given name as well as the given name they use everyday. Sometimes on court
records, they might use their offical 'baptismal' name which will greatly
confuse genealogy descendancy. Some families might have the same given name
and be called another given name. My grandmother and her sister both had
the name of Isabelle. One was called Isabelle, the other Josephine.
This is not exactly like the Russian names you mention above (3 of them),
but perhaps it's a bit like Americans use of the mother's maiden name for
the middle name of a child; perhaps they used the mother's maiden name and
the father's mother's maiden name; hence 3 names.
Nowadays with the advent of genealogy software, when I read any historical
non-fiction books, I use my genealogy software program to enter their
relationships. European royalty did a lot of marrying into their own
families. I used to have to do this in a little notebook --
Dee Dee