Re: [docbook] On family/given/first/last names

[Scott Hudson <scott.hudson@flatironssolutions.com>]

Indeed. I think James' post provides a very interesting perspective that 
most of us are not typically as aware of. I encourage folks to read the 
full blog post!

There just isn't an easy way to deal with names because of the 
multi-cultural aspects. Perhaps that's why there is such a proliferation 
of name/address standards and not much alignment betwixt them...

Best regards,

--Scott

Norman Walsh wrote:
> Our decision not to deal with the apparently insensitive use of
> firstname/surname rather than givenname/familyname (or something like
> that) in DocBook V5.0 is one of the few areas where I feel like I wish
> we'd done a little more.
> 
> Maybe I don't have to: 
> 
>   http://blog.jclark.com/2007/12/thai-personal-names.html
> 
> In particular, 
> 
>    "(I have to say that this has led me to question what I perceive to
>    be the i18n orthodoxy that it's more i18n-ly correct to talk of
>    given name/family name than first name/last name. Why does it
>    matter whether a name is a family name or a given name? Surely what
>    matters is the cultural role that the name plays.)"
> 
>                                         Be seeing you,
>                                           norm
>