Re: Alright you primitive screwheads, LISTEN UP!!

On Wed, May 18, 2005 at 07:05:04PM +0400, Andrey Smirnov wrote:
> Gary Kline wrote:
> >
> >	Well, (Gary said, ddeliberately changing the ^Subject:),
> >	interesting. My mother's parents are from Hungary, two of my
> >	dad's grandparents from  Germany.  
> >
> >	Didn't know about Hungary (or Japan).  China, yes.  Anybody 
> >	on this geek list know any other societies where the surname 
> >	is traditionally presented first and the given name last?  
> >
> 
> In Russia, in all official documents name is written:
> 	Family_Name First_Name Middle_Name
> 
> So, my full name would be:
> 	Smirnov Andrey Andreevich
> 
> In short form, we usually put first name in head of family name (surname):
> 	Andrey Smirnov
> This feels less official.
> 
> So, it's sometimes hard to find out what is what if you don't know 
> Russian names well.


	Well, names everywhere that I know of are listed in reverse
	alphabetical order in (1) documents, (2) telephone directories,
	(3) attendence records.  That only makes sense (IMHO).   

	So far, in conversational reference, say, one might introduce
	a person from East or Southeast Asia by [ Family_Name, First_Name ].
	But almost everywhere else, I think it is the reverse.

	For example, if we were at a BSD meeting you would introduce me
	as "Gary Kline" rather than "Kline Gary"; but if you were 
	introducing someone from China, Korea, or Vietnam, you would
	introduce him Family_Name first.  --If I still have this
	convention wrong, I'd be  much obliged if one of my fellow
	geeks would correct me!

	Andrey, while I'm talking to a real Russian, I've got a 
	question that you can answer.  [[Sorry that this is going
	far OT, gang, but I've been wondering about this since I read 
	Dostoevsky.]]  *Why* are some people addressed by their
	first name _and_ by what may/must? be their middle names??
	I remember some woman who seemed upset at Boris Yeltsin
	(when he was still President) call him "Boris 
	[A_Very_Long_String_of_Characters]"  Is this to indicate
	irony, or affection, or anger...  or what?

	...And now we return to our regularly schduled programming :-)

	gary




-- 
   Gary Kline     kline_at_thought.org   www.thought.org     Public service Unix