A Nameless World

It is not often that you stumble upon some thing silly and when you think about them they don't remain silly any more. Yesterday as i was filling up a very irritating questionnaire i came across these options in the name section, SURNAME, FIRST NAME, GIVEN NAMES, LAST NAME etc. doesn't this sound very familiar, yes it is also there in the passport next to your unidentifiable, old photo(which always turns out to be your worst one too).

Why do we need so many names and what are the difference between them, as far as i know we all have only one name, which we are popularly known by. The name confusion doesn't end here also, there are more type of name than these like pet name, good name, bad name, AKA (known as), scientific name (doesn't concern us hopefully), code name etc.

Like Shakespeare said in Juliet:"What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." But i am not with him here what if Himesh Reshamiya and Shah Rukh Khan had their name exchanged. How would it be to hear "hey look at himesh's six pack ab, he is so handsome wow " impossible we cant even imagine that.(apologies to all those HR fans mesmerized by his nasal code skills). Example 2 what if Dhoni was called Shreeshanth and vice versa would he have ever made it to the captaincy, don't think so. So conclusively name has a big role to play in a persons success.

So back to where we began definitions of the various names (i am sure many of you are a confused lot like me)

Surname- The name of the family to which a person belongs. In the so-called Western Civilization the surname appears last; in Asian cultures the surname usually appears first.

First Name- The name chosen for a person by his or her parents.

Given Name- A given name is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name (surname).

Last Name- A family name or last name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs.

The more you look into it, the more confusing it can be, we are lucky that we have to use them only for questionnaire's and forms.