>> Later, i came across lots of American and Japanese students, and we were told to
>> use the term "last name" as they "won't understand what the word surname means". I
>> don't know how true that is.
I don't know if it still exists but the Ministry of Justice (probably still the Lord Chancellor's Dept at the time) published guidance for staff on different naming conventions. Originally a booklet, later on line. It used the convention of family name and given name, explaining how they were used in different cultures. Very useful but cannot eliminate every confusion.
Some cultures, France for one, use surname first in documents, often capitalising the former; my site bookings for my summer holiday had me as Mr BROMPTONAUT, Simon. That's simple enough but there are folks, like a former colleague called Richard Guy, where there is scope to get them confused. Last week I was helping a Romanian couple in dealings with DWP, he had a similar combination and, when asked for his name gave it surname first. Fortunately the DWP guy, one of their better people, was on the ball and got the interpreter to ask him to clarify. There was also a lot of confusion over his work and earnings history, which is key to whether he is entitled to claim. I suspect HMRC have managed to get it wrong way round so no match.
These days our diversity training suggests avoiding the term Christian name. Partly because of the cultural thing but also because it's not always understood. Some 30 years ago I had a new staff member start as a Clerical Assistant, a data inputter. She was, IIRC Malaysian, a youngster and a recent arrival in the UK on a spousal visa. English not first language and some confusion arose over what colleagues should call her. Her supervisor, a Black English woman, asked which of her names was her Christian name; the slightly fuddled response was that she was a Muslim!!.
We sorted it but the issue was simply that the term Christian name was not known to her.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Fri 25 Sep 20 at 09:29
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