Hu R. Yu?

Ha, thanks. I was afraid you were horrified.

Shilgia - yes, the person concerned in my example was Asian. Actually I realised that I made a post here last year about another CV i received due to the exact same issue. In both cases the applicant was Vietnamese but I have noticed it on a few different applications. The person had 3 names and in one example had four names but all were in a different order. I figured it was the same person and gave him the benefit of the doubt!

What do Indonesians and others with only one name do when they get to the West?

Saudi forms usually ask for first name, father's name, family name. So in the case of most Western expats (i.e. unless their middle name happened to be their father's name), there would be a mismatch. I don't use a middle name so it was less of an issue.

Family names were only imposed on Saudi Arabians within living memory and their attitude towards them is still a bit fluid.

You may write your name: given name father's name + (grandfather's + great grandfather's, as far back as you want) family name. (The family name will often be in the form Al X where Al = family of and X is a given name: Al Abdullah, Al Abdulaziz, etc.)

Usually in computerized documents, it's given name father's name family name, say Muhammad Abdullah Al Abdulaziz.

But that person may write his name:

Muhammad Abdullah

Muhammad Abdullah Muhammad (his grandfather's name)

Muhammad Abdullah Muhammad Wa'il (his great grandfather's name)

in either English or Arabic. And in English he may use all sorts of initials:

Muhammad A. Al AbdulAziz.

Muhammad Abdullah A.

Muhammad A. M. Wail.

etc.

I can easily imagine a Saudi's not using the name on his passport on a US driver's license application.

I laughed at #6 too, DianaH.

I laughed when I read "Kenny's" real name. He very likely thought that calling himself "Innocent" might get more strange looks and laughs than he wanted to deal with. In my own family, one Russian relative whose father called himself John had actually forgotten his patronymic. After having given his name as Pyotr Kyrilovich on official documents for years, he was surprised to come across his deceased father's passport only to find that his father's given name was Kyprian.

"Kenny" probably caused a few women in his native country to swoon when they heard his name; Innokenti Smoktunovsky was a famous actor in the Soviet Union. He played Hamlet in a filmed version of the play, and Uncle Vanya in a film that featured Sergei Bondarchuk (director of "War and Peace") as Dr. Astrov.

Here is Wikipedia's page on the actor Smoktunovsky.

Here is Wikipedia's page on the actor Smoktunovsky.

Sorry; my link above takes you only to an image from the film.

Edited by NorthAmerican to insert a correct link.

#13 -- Interesting post, both parts.

#12 -- Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Somali-Dutch politician now in the US) got into serious trouble with this. (On purpose or by mistake, opinions differ.) She was born the daughter of Hirsi, who was the son of Magan, the son of Ali, etc. When she came to the Netherlands from Somalia, she used Ali as her last name. Years later she was attacked for lying on the application, it was said that it was fraud and that she should have used Magan. (Ayaan Hirsi Magan, or maybe just Ayaan Magan.)

When she left the Netherlands in a huff, following this episode, this was part of her speech:

So now you may be wondering, what is my name? I am Ayaan, the daughter of Hirsi, who is the son of Magan, the son of Isse, the son of Guleid, who was the son of Ali, who was the son of Wai’ays, who was the son of Muhammad, of Ali, of Umar, of the line of Osman, the son of Mahamud. This is my clan. My ancestor is Darod, who came from Arabia to Somalia eight hundred years ago, and who founded the tribe of Darod. I am a Darod, a Macherten, an Osman Mahamud, and a Magan. Last week there was some confusion about my name. My name? You now know my name.

I once sat on a plane next to a kid from Malaysia who was on his way to an Americna university. I was trying to help him with his immigration forms. He had one of those single names, something like Mohammed ben Abdullah (I do remember the "ben"). "My name is Mohammed and my father is Abdullah. What do I do?" I tried to explain to him that he was going to have to pick a last name. It could be Abdullah or ben Abdullah, but he'd need one. He found it all pretty puzzling. It never occured to me to ask how he'd coped with his visa and university entrance stuff. I have no idea what he finally did.

In California, second generation immigrants (Nisei) were often given a Japanese and an "American" name. It was usually a Japanese first name and an American middle name. The Japanese name was used at home and the American name used in public. I had a boss who was Toshiro Roy, for example. His parents called him Toshiro, but everyone else called him Roy. He signed his name "T. Roy."

Glad to hear it, Vinny. Thanks.

Sometimes simple doesn't even help. I don't rember if it was a first name or last name, but several years back a Korean immigrant finally changed his name in exasperation since nobody ever believed it was his name. His name was O (one letter long). I think he added letters to it that didn't change the sound.

As for the one name dilemma, I've met a few Icelandic immigrants here in the US. They just adopt Hanssen or Hansdottir, etc. as their last name and give it to their children.