Some countries such as France allow their citizens to have several first names. E.g., first names = Bob, Charlie, David. Last name = Smith.
Is there a term to designate the first first name of someone's name? (which is Bob in this example)
asked Nov 12, 2022 at 2:37
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We just call that a "first name". The other ones are "middle names" even if they could also be used as first names.– stangdonCommented Nov 12, 2022 at 4:35
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@stangdon thanks, on official paperwork in the US, the first name would be "Bob Charlie David" and the middle name would be empty.– Franck DernoncourtCommented Nov 12, 2022 at 4:37
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1I am puzzled by the notion that 'some countries' allow their citizens to have more than one given name. I am British, and I have two, so does my daughter, and my son has three. The King has four.– Michael HarveyCommented Nov 12, 2022 at 9:46
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1The use of what you might call "double barrelled" first names (like Jean-Paul) is ''much'' less common in English custom than in French. If you see "John Francis Smith" written down the normal assumption would be that "Francis" was his middle name, and he was known as John. If his use-name was "John Francis" that would probably be written hyphenated, "John-Francis". Of course there are other possibilities, such that his first name is John, and his middle name is Francis, but Francis is his use-name.– Colin FineCommented Dec 19, 2022 at 11:38
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1You might ask for something like "preferred name" or "what name would you like to be addressed by?" Which isn't necessarily the first, but is a more useful question. If someone has a double-barrelled first name (whether hyphenated or not) they generally want to be addressed by the full name, not by a part of it, but check the conventions for the specific language.– Stuart FCommented Dec 19, 2022 at 17:53
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2 Answers
It would be from the perspective of the person you're talking about, I suppose that nobody would want to get called "Bob Charlie David" everytime, they would usually refer themselves by one name only.
The one preferred name of his/hers would be essentially assigned the "first name", while his other "first names" would be assigned as his middle names.
answered Dec 19, 2022 at 11:20
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We do sometimes distinguish between a "Christian name" and a regular first name! Commented Dec 19, 2022 at 11:26
On offical paperwork, it is likely that there would be "Forenames" (note plural) and "Surname".
It is normal in English-speaking cultures for people to have multiple forenames.
Names are hard. See this famous blog post Falsehoods Programmers Believe about Names. Nevertheless many people in English speaking countries and cultures have a "First name" (which may be one or more words possibly with a hyphen), zero or more "middle names", and a surname (which again may be more than one word.) The first name and the middle names together form the "Forenames".
So Robert Charles David Smith is a full name. The first name is "Robert", the forenames are "Robert Charles David" and the surname is "Smith". Charles and David are his middle names. His nickname might be "Charlie" (if he doesn't like "Robert" for some reason).
What you enter depends somewhat on the level of formality. For most matters I use "James {Surname}", for passports and other legal documents I use my two forenames.
So Robert Charles David Smith would use his full name when applying for an immigration visa to move to France. But if he was just signing up for Facebook, he might use "Charles Smith" or just "Charlie Smith".
