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International Commission on Civil Status (ICCS) - Convention on the law applicable to surnames and forenames (1980)

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convention 
        on the law applicable to surnames and forenames signed at munich on 5 september 1980

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Brechts European Civil Law: Convention on the law applicable to surnames and forenames signed at Munich on 5 September 1980

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The Internet site of Brecht's ECL (European Civil Law) provides online free information on the principles of European Civil Law and the rules of private international law of the European Communities and EU Member States.

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See Ch. 1: 'Family Names in Southeast Asia' (Reid, 2009)

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The world's population negotiates a multiplicity of naming systems. Some are compatible with the "normative" system of the world of passports and identity cards but a great many are not.

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Abstract

The Republic of Turkey was established in 1923 out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. Soon thereafter, Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) and his ruling Cumhuriyet Halkci Partisi (Republican People's Party) launched a series of reforms which were designed to transform all aspects of life, including costume and language and sever Turkey's ties with the Islamic, Ottoman past. Although we know what the reforms intended to accomplish, we know very little about how they were received by the populace at large. This dissertation explores the experienced aspect of the last of these reforms, the Surname Law of 1934, which enforced the mandatory registration and use of fixed, hereditary surnames in Turkish. Oral historical methodology, official parliamentary documentation, popular media sources, and other publications were utilized to access the multiple levels on which this law took shape. In oral interviews about surname adoption interviewees described interactions with population officials, community leaders, and family members. These provided unique access to the lives of ordinary citizens and to the texture of the boundaries between state and society. As previous research has shown, Turkish surnames were also more prevalent in cities, closer to officialdom, while peasants were often named en masse by a local elder or official. Ultimately, the surname law was mediated through agents who reinforced existing patterns of authority and in circumstances which particularized the nature of the surname adoption. For this reason, beyond these larger patterns, there was great variation among the experiences of surname adoption, depending on the relationship of the citizen and official to one another and to the particular geographic location. Members of the Greek, Jewish and Armenian minority did not have to change names but registries in Istanbul indicated they often did, especially if they were not native to Istanbul. Officials and citizens based their decisions on surnames on different interpretations of the law and of Turkishness and consequently many families changed or abandoned names by which they had been known. It is also important to see the issue of surnames, names and the state as a diachronic process. Documents and publications since 1934 show that surname change petitioning began very soon after the surname law. Today families are petitioning for old surnames or to alter embarrassing surnames. The changing of names does not apply, however, to Kurdish names, and parents of children who want to register them are often turned away by population officials. Surnames and names in general continue to be a site where the state and citizens negotiate inclusion in national communities.

Subject Area

Folklore|Cultural anthropology|Middle Eastern history

Recommended Citation

Turkoz, Meltem F, "The social life of the state's fantasy: Memories and documents on Turkey's 1934 Surname Law" (2004). Dissertations available from ProQuest. AAI3125908.
https://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3125908

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The social life of the state's fantasy: Memories and documents on Turkey's 1934 Surname Law

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The Republic of Turkey was established in 1923 out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. Soon thereafter, Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) and his ruling Cumhuriyet Halkci Partisi (Republican People's Party) launched a series of reforms which were designed to transform all aspects of life, including costume and language and sever Turkey's ties with the Islamic, Ottoman past.

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US SEVIS standards applied to nonimmigrant passport names

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Last updated: November 6, 2020

Quick Links:

The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) has implemented a set of standards for all nonimmigrant names entered in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). This user guide describes the new standards and their relationship to names written in passports.

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SEVIS Name Standards

Applying Name Standards

Machine-readable Passport Name Standards

Comparison of Names in Standard Passports

Exceptional Situations

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The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) has implemented a set of standards for all nonimmigrant names entered in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). This user guide describes the new standards and their relationship to names written in passports.

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2.6.1 Definition of a family name

2.6.2 Contents of a family name

2.6.3 Name components

2.6.4 Titles or occupations

2.6.5 Territorial designations

2.1.1 Definition of a personal name

A personal name is the name given to an individual, or a name by which he/she is known, consisting of such elements as surname, forename, patronymic, or toponym, and including official and unofficial changes to any of the elements e.g. William Shakespeare, John of Gaunt.

For the purpose of the present Rules, the name of a family indexed as a unit is to be regarded as a personal name e.g. Harley family.

Sovereigns, members of their immediate families, popes and office-holders acting in their personal capacities are usually to be recorded under personal names, not the names of their jurisdictions or offices e.g. Edward VII, John XXIII, Robert Walpole. For cases in which an office-holder is entered under the title of the office, see 4.8.

The following Rules explain the components and their applicability. For the concept of minimum conformity, see the Introduction 1.4.

For dates, titles, pre-titles and epithets known collectively as qualifiers, see 2.5.

For the components of family, royal and papal names, see 2.6.2, 2.7.2 and 2.8.2 respectively.

2.1.2B A personal name is constructed by combining mandatory and optional components of the name so that the person concerned can be identified with certainty and distinguished from others bearing similar names.

An individual should have only one authorised form of name and each name should apply to only one individual. In cases where it is unclear whether or not an existing authorised name applies to the person being described, another containing a distinguishing component must be created.

In general, there should be no parallel entries for personal names. Cross-references may be used to link non-preferred forms to the authorised name. The form and content of such references will depend on the medium in which they are held, its linking capabilities and whether retrieval is by the entry element alone or by any keyword. The Rules concerning cross-references are therefore recommendatory, not prescriptive and examples are not given in full.

The notes area of a personal name record is intended to hold additional pieces of information which may help to identify or distinguish an individual but are not to be treated as components of the authorised name.

significant dates other than life-spans and floruits e.g. dates of

titles and offices other than the latest or highest selected as qualifier

biographical notes

multiple pseudonyms, aliases or nicknames

other name changes not included in the authorised form

additional epithets or expansions and explanations of chosen epithets

reasons for fame or notoriety

status and feast days of saints

bibliographic or documentary sources of information used in the authority

Much of this information would be included in authority records created in accordance with the International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families, (ISAAR (CPF)), (1996).

2.2 GENERAL RULES FOR THE FORMATION OF A PERSONAL NAME

2.2.1 General rule for choice of a personal name

The chief source of a personal name will generally be the primary documentary evidence. If at all possible, the name as found there should be verified in standard English-language works of reference such as those cited in Appendix 1, and entered in an authorised form compatible with the present Rules as regards fullness, choice of language, transliteration, identification, etc.

If the name is not found in the secondary literature, it should be transcribed from the document, with any modernisation and rationalisation of spelling as can be made with confidence from knowledge of the immediate source and other contemporary evidence.

If there is conflict in the secondary literature, the form 'most commonly found' or 'best known' should be selected, provided it meets the criteria set out in the present Rules.

Diacritics should be reproduced as accurately as the system of recording allows.

It is recommended that the components of a personal name be presented consistently in the order given in 2.1.2A, both on screen and in print.

The main name or entry element which stands first in an authorised name is generally the surname proper, but in its absence may be a forename, patronymic or toponym standing as the main name.

If a surname consists of a single word, place it first as the entry element:

2.3A.2.1 Compound surnames

In compound surnames consisting of two or more unhyphenated proper names, use the last word as the entry element, with cross-references from other part(s).

2.3A.2.2 Hyphenated surnames

In surnames which are regularly or occasionally hyphenated, use the last word as the entry element, with cross-references from the other part(s). The hyphen should be retained.

2.3A.2.3 Surname with separable prefixes

In surnames with separable prefixes, use the last word as the entry element, with cross-references from the prefix plus name in direct order if the language of origin requires.

If a preposition or article is attached to a surname without a space, treat it as an integral part of the name.

The last, latest or most recent name is to be adopted as the authority, even if the change takes place late in an individual's life. Exceptions in the case of some married women are noted in 2.3A.5.1-3. Cross-references from earlier names, particularly if used in public life or over a long period, are recommended.

2.3A.5 Surnames of married women

A woman who marries and adopts her husband's surname is to be entered under that name. For the discretionary use of the maiden name in the epithet, see 2.5D.7. Cross-references are discretionary.

A woman who marries more than once is to be entered under the name of her last or latest husband, except as prescribed under 2.3A.5.1-3.

2.3A.5.2 Maiden and married names

A woman who consistently uses her husband's name in one sphere of life but her maiden name in another (e.g. uses the former socially but the latter professionally) is to be entered under her maiden name, see 2.5D.7. Cross-references are recommended.

2.3A.5.3 Names of former husbands, etc.

A woman who commonly uses a name which is neither her maiden name nor the name of her last or latest husband (e.g. the name of a former husband) is to be entered under that name. Cross-references are discretionary.

Williams | Shirley Vivien Teresa Brittain . . .

2.3A.7 Forename standing as the main name

Where there is no identifiable surname, a forename may be used as the entry element: see 2.3E for treatment of medieval names, 2.3B.1.1 for Welsh patronymics and 2.3F.1 for saints known by their forenames.

2.3B Special rules for Welsh and Gaelic names

For the use of epithets to distinguish common Welsh names, see 2.5D.1.

Use the surname as entry element when surnames on the English pattern begin to appear from 1500 onwards.

2.3B.1.3 Modern Welsh names with prefixes

In modern Welsh names (after c 1700-1850 see 2.3B.1.1) the prefixes ab and ap should be treated as inseparable and used as the entry element, whether or not they are followed by a space (compare the Rule for O' and Mac in 2.3B.2).

The surname is the preferred entry element for Bardic names. A cross-reference from the first element of the Bardic name is recommended.

In Gaelic names, O' and Mac are to be treated as inseparable prefixes and used as entry elements.

2.3B.2.1 Names found only in Gaelic

If the name occurs only in Gaelic in primary and secondary sources, use this language form.

2.3C Special rules for names in foreign languages

The spelling of names and titles in foreign languages should follow local conventions and standard reference sources from the country of origin, except where Anglicisation is specifically recommended below.

For example in Icelandic names, the patronymic will become the entry element.

For example in Spanish names, the last surname will become the entry element.

2.3C.2.1 Anglicised forms

If an Anglicised form of the name or an alternative name in English is known, use this in preference to the native form or straight transliteration. If different Anglicisations are found, use the version most common in reliable sources. Variants may be recorded in the notes area.

2.3C.2.2 Names with family or hereditary elements

If the name is written in roman script and is known or appears to include a surname, family name or hereditary name as the final component, the last element should be selected as the entry element following the general Rules in 2.3A. This will apply to Hindu and to many Sikh and Muslim names, especially those of persons resident in Great Britain who may have modified traditional name forms. The Rule is to be followed for both men and women.

2.3C.2.3 Names in direct order

If there is no identifiable surname, family name or hereditary name component e.g. in some Sikh and Muslim names, or if national usage is known to place the family name first e.g. in Chinese names, the name should be entered in direct order with the first word as entry element. Cross-references are recommended in all cases where searchers are likely to be uncertain about the choice of entry element.

2.3D Special rules for names in classical languages

A classical Greek name is to be entered in its Anglicised form, if one is known. If not, a Latin version should be selected. If neither form can be discovered, the Greek should be transliterated. Cross-references from alternative forms of the name are recommended.

2.3E Special rules for medieval names

For the purposes of this section, 'medieval names' are those of European persons born before 1500.

2.3E.1 Latin or vernacular language

2.3E.1.1 Names found in only one language

If a name is found in secondary and/or documentary sources only in Latin or only in the vernacular, record it in the language found, following the Rules for the order of components given below. Note that in England before 1400, the vernacular may be English or French.

2.3E.1.3 Names with no established form in English

If a name is found in more than one language excluding English, or if an English form is not considered well-established, select in order of preference:

In cases of conflict between secondary sources, follow the practice of the most recent writers in English. Cross-references are discretionary.

If there is no identifiable surname, the forename serves as entry element and may be qualified by a toponym, epithet or patronymic.

If the forename is qualified by a toponym, use the modern local vernacular form of place name if identifiable, with the particle of, de, etc. in the appropriate language. An unidentified place name found in Latin should be given in that language with the particle de, and inverted commas are not recommended. The forename should conform to the Rules given in 2.3E.1 and the entry should be in direct order.

When the toponym becomes a surname (see fn 21), the order should be inverted in accordance with section 2.3A and the particle omitted.

If the forename is qualified by an epithet relating to physical attributes, nationality or achievements, use the language and form found in common reference works or preferred by modern writers. The forename should conform to the Rules given in 2.3E.1 and the entry should be in direct order.

If the forename is qualified by a patronymic, use the form most commonly found in the sources. Patronymics consisting of more than one element should be entered with spaces between the words. The forename should conform to the Rules given in 2.3E.1. Forename and patronymic should be entered in direct order until such time as the patronymic is regarded as a surname (see fn 21). Thereafter they should be inverted, and word spacing should follow individual usage.

2.3F.1 Saints known by forenames

The forename, in its English form if generally recognised, should be used as the entry element.

2.3F.2 Saints known by surnames

The surname of a saint canonised long after death, or commonly known by a family name, should be used as the entry element.

For forenames which serve as entry elements in the absence of surnames, see 2.3A.7, 2.3B.1.1, 2.3E and 2.3F.1.

2.4.1 Definition of a forename

A forename is the component of the name which a person is given in addition to his/her surname.

2.4.2 Unused and variant forenames

If all elements of the forename are not normally used, or if a person is commonly known by a variant or abbreviated form of name, the forename(s) must be given in full and in proper form. Cross-references are recommended.

2.4.3 Initials and unknown forenames

Where only initials are known and cannot be expanded using common reference works, the initial letter may be used in place of a full forename. As punctuation is non-prescriptive, a full stop is not required. If no forename can be discovered, a single dash may be substituted:

If a woman is identified only by her husband's initials, use a dash in place of the forename and include the husband's name in the epithet.

2.4.4 Changes to forenames

Alternative forenames may be translations of original names e.g. on naturalisation, additional or adopted names e.g. names in religion, or substitute names like nicknames, etc. Once the authorised name has been established, any known additional or variant forenames should be recorded, either as cross-references or in the notes area. The dates of, or reasons for, the change or the precedence of alternative names may also be recorded in the notes area.

2.4.4.1 Latest form of name

The last, latest or most recent form of name is to be used in the authorised name.

A name in religion, although it has no legal validity, is to be regarded as a formal change of name and used as the authorised name, following the Rule at 2.3A.4 which gives preference to the last, latest or most recent form. Cross-references are recommended if the original forename(s) are known.

2.5.1 Definition of a qualifier

A qualifier is any addition to a proper name intended to identify and distinguish the individual or family from others bearing similar names.

A qualifier may comprise one or more of the following components. Each component is either mandatory for minimum conformity (M), mandatory where applicable (A), or optional (O).

Dates are mandatory qualifiers. For titled persons, inclusion of the last, latest or highest title is also mandatory. As many epithets as are needed to identify and distinguish an individual may be added at discretion. See 2.5D.9 for the order of multiple qualifiers.

Dates should be expressed in the form of life-span dates (birth and death) if these can be ascertained. The abbreviations b and d are not to be used here. To indicate uncertainty, ? and c (circa) may be introduced into span dates.

2.5A.2 Birth or death dates

Where both span dates are not available, either the birth date preceded by b, or the death date preceded by d, may stand alone. These should be separated from the figures by a space, but do not require a full stop. To indicate uncertainty, ? and c (circa) may be combined with b or d dates.

A question mark is to be used to indicate a degree of uncertainty about a given date. It is more precise than circa, meaning 'possibly in' rather than 'round about' the given year. It must stand in front of the date, separated from it by a space. As ? applies to one date only, it must be repeated if both birth and death dates are uncertain.

If either or both of the life-span dates are not known exactly, circa (meaning five years before or after) may be applied to an approximate date. The abbreviation for circa is c followed by a space but without a full stop. As c applies to one date only, it must be repeated if both dates are approximate.

Some persons are described in secondary sources as living during the course of a particular whole century, a fraction of a century, or in early, mid or late portions of a century. Dates in authorised names must be expressed in numbers, not words, and if it is impossible to be more precise, these phrases should be interpreted on the following model.

The same interpretation is to be applied to all centuries. When used as qualifiers for persons, these will generally be floruit dates, preceded by fl.

2.5A.7 Old style and new style dates

All year dates should accord with the Gregorian or new style calendar.

A title is an appellation or form of address attaching to an individual or family in respect of the peerage, the ownership of, or association with, certain lands and significant offices or ranks.

The last, latest or the highest title is generally to be selected for the authorised name.

Intermediate titles, if they appear in the primary sources or are well-known, should be recorded in the notes area and may be cross-referred at discretion.

Titles of hereditary peers should be numbered as in G.E. Cokayne, The Complete Peerage (1910). 29 Numbers are not required in cross-references.

The first letter of a peerage title should be a capital (Duke, Earl, Marquess etc.). A territorial designation should be included if it forms an integral part of the title.

2.5B.2 Unnumbered titles

The titles of life peers and courtesy titles are not to be numbered.

Wilson | James Harold | 1916-1995 | Baron Wilson of Rievaulx

A woman who holds a title in her own right should have that title appended as qualifier in the authorised name.

A woman who gains a title only by marriage should be described in the qualifier as wife of her husband's title, not as Duchess, Countess etc.

Russell | Diana | 1710-1735 | 1st wife of 4th Duke of Bedford

2.5B.4 Renunciation of titles

Exceptionally, where the last, latest or the highest peerage title to which a person has claim is not adopted or is renounced, the name or title most commonly used should be selected for the authorised name. The last, latest or highest title may be used as qualifier, preceded by the word 'formerly' in the case of renounced titles. If a title in common use serves as qualifier, the rejected title may be recorded in the notes area. Cross-references are discretionary.

An epithet is a word or phrase describing a person's status, position, occupation, characteristics, nationality, place of birth, residence or activity, alternative or previous or subsequent names, relationships, etc. Select the epithet(s) which are most appropriate to the person named in one or more spheres of life and are most readily identified with that person.

An epithet should be included as qualifier where any possibility of confusion between persons of the same name may arise, despite the mandatory inclusion of dates as the most specific identifiers. Beyond minimum conformity, the use of epithets is discretionary. More than one epithet may be attached to a single name, but epithets should not be used to excess. See 2.5D.9 for the order of epithets.

The initial letters of epithets should be in lower case unless they are formal titles, proper names or other words which always begin with a capital.

2.5D.2 Religious titles and epithets

2.5D.2.1 Archbishops, bishops, deans, archdeacons

These titles are to be treated as epithets, not pre-titles. The last, latest or highest diocese is to be cited in the authorised name but others may be recorded in the notes area. Cross-references are not required. See also 4.8 for cases where entry under the title of the office rather than the personal name is more appropriate.

2.5D.2.2 Other Christian and non-Christian clergy

The title reverend is not to be used as an epithet or pre-title. Use instead a specific title or the term clergyman, priest or minister (with indication of denomination). Details of livings, parishes, circuits etc. may be recorded in the notes area.

Academic, military, naval and other titles and ranks may be used as epithets where appropriate. The last, latest or highest is to be selected for the authorised name.

2.5D.4 Pseudonyms and nicknames

A pseudonym is to be treated as an epithet except when it is adopted in every sphere of life and constitutes a change of name (see 2.3A.6.1). In the case of a person who uses multiple pseudonyms or nicknames, the commonest or best-known should be selected as the epithet. The rest may be entered in the notes area to avoid an excessive number in the authorised name. The words 'pseudonym' or 'called' may be added in full as appropriate for explanation. Cross-references are discretionary if the pseudonym or nickname takes the form of a proper name. Such references should be entered under the 'pseudo-surname', not in direct order. Informal nicknames, pet names and descriptive phrases which are not necessarily unique or easily recognisable should not be cross-referred.

Barton | Elizabeth | ? 1506-1534 | called the Maid of Kent

Stuart | Charles Edward Louis Philip Casimir | 1720-1788 | the Young Pretender | Bonnie Prince Charlie

2.5D.5 Initials as nicknames

If initials serve as a nickname or pen-name (whether or not they are the first letters of the true names), use the initials as the epithet as if they were a full word, with the addition of the term 'called'. Cross-references are discretionary.

2.5D.6 Alternative names

An alternative name should be treated as an epithet, preceded by the word alias. Cross-references are discretionary.

Multiple aliases may be entered in the notes area, the commonest being selected as the preferred epithet.

2.5D.7 Women's maiden and married names

If a woman is known under both her married and maiden names in different spheres of life, or if it is desired to emphasise a family connection or to distinguish two women of similar names and dates, ne or afterwards may be used in the epithet. Use ne followed by the maiden name when the entry element is the married name. Use afterwards followed by the married name when the entry element is the maiden name (see 2.3A.5). Cross-references are recommended.

2.5D.8 Relationship to another person

The relationship of one person to another, better-known individual or to someone whose authorised name has already been established, should be used for identification only where no other epithet would serve. Such an epithet must be self-explanatory: avoid the use of e.g. 'sister of the poet', 'nephew of the preceding'. If necessary, add a qualifier for the person named in the epithet e.g. 'son of J Smith of Bristol'.

2.6.1 Definition of a family name

A family name is the name shared by a group of related individuals. Under the present Rules, the name of a family treated as a group is a personal name.

2.6.2 Contents of a family name

A family name may comprise the following components. Each component is either mandatory for minimum conformity (M), mandatory where applicable (A), or optional (O).

The Rules for surnames at 2.3 are to be applied in selecting entry elements for family names.

2.6.4 Titles or occupations (A)

The Rules for titles at 2.5B are to be applied to family titles, the last, latest or highest title being selected as qualifier.

If a family becomes ennobled during the period covered by the documentary sources, the title must be included as a component of the authorised name. If the documentary sources relate entirely to the period before ennoblement, any title acquired subsequently should not form part of the authorised name, though it may be recorded in the notes area. This Rule may result in parallel entries for some families which should be cross-referred (cf. parallel entries for corporate bodies which change their names in 4.2.3).

Lever | family | of Bolton, Lancashire

xx Lever | family | Viscounts Leverhulme and Lever | family | Viscounts Leverhulme

x Leverhulme

xx Lever | family | of Bolton, Lancashire

If a family is associated with a particular trade or occupation over several generations, include this information in the epithet.

Macmillan | family | publishers

2.6.5 Territorial designations (O)

If a family owns a landed estate or is distinguished from other families bearing the same name by association with a particular place, include this information in the epithet.

Campbell | family | of Lochnell

If a territorial designation forms part of a title, use 'of' and the place name following the main part of the title.

Herbert | family | Barons Herbert of Cherbury

If the territorial association is not part of the title, place it before the title

The county name is to be supplied if the place name is common. If the titles relate to more than one place and those place names are common, the names of the relevant counties are to be supplied. County names are to be given in full, but without the word 'county' or its abbreviation. For the form of a county name, see 3.8.1, 3.8.3, 3.8.5, 3.8.7.

2.7.1 Definition of a royal name

A royal name is one which refers to persons of the blood royal i.e. sovereigns and their consorts, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, paternal uncles and aunts, grandchildren in the male line and great-grandchildren by the eldest son of the heir apparent, bearing the titles King, Queen, Prince, Princess, Duke etc, and their foreign equivalents.

A royal name may comprise the following components. Each component is either mandatory for minimum conformity (M), mandatory where applicable (A), or optional (O).

Cross-references from dynastic names are discretionary.

Sovereigns of the whole of England up to and including Henry VII should be described as Kings of England (and the separate rulers of Wales, Scotland and Ireland as Kings/Princes/Lords of those jurisdictions or the appropriate parts thereof).

Sovereigns from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I should be described as King/Queens of England and Ireland.

Elizabeth I | 1533-1603 | Queen of England and Ireland

George III | 1738-1820 | King of Great Britain and Ireland

Elizabeth II should be described as Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Elizabeth II | b 1926 | Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

2.7.4 Foreign sovereigns

If a sovereign of a foreign country is well-known and found in English language reference sources with an Anglicised name, then that form shall be preferred for the authorised name. Cross-references are discretionary if the sovereign is also likely to be sought under his/her native-language name.

John I | 1357-1433 | King of Portugal

Peter II | 1923-1970 | King of Yugoslavia

Otherwise, the name of a foreign sovereign is to be entered in the official language of the country ruled. If no English language form is known, there will be no cross-references.

In both cases, the name of the country is to be given in the form customary in English.

If the customary name of the sovereign includes a surname, place it in direct order.

Joseph Bonaparte | 1762-1844 | King of Spain

The addition of other titles to the name of a foreign sovereign is discretionary.

The consort of a ruling king or queen should be entered under the forename(s). If a consort is well-known by and found in reference sources under a family name, that name should be cross-referred. Distinguish the epithet 'consort' with lower case initial letter from the formal title 'Prince/Queen Consort' with capitals.

Albert | 1819-1861 | Prince Consort of Queen Victoria

Charlotte Augusta Mathilde | 1766-1828 | Queen Consort of Frederick I, King of Wurtemberg

2.7.6 Princes and princesses

Princes and princesses should be entered under the forename(s) with the title as qualifier. For titles deriving from countries other than Great Britain, the country should be stated.

Other persons related to sovereigns in the degrees noted at 2.7.1 should be entered under the forename(s) with titles and optional qualifiers explaining the relationship.

A papal name is the name taken by a pope as head of the Roman Catholic Church, or by an antipope. 40

A papal name will comprise the following components. All are mandatory (M).

Select the form of name customary in English usage. Cross-references from original surnames and forenames are discretionary, if the subjects are well-known by those names and are so called in the documentary sources.

Clement III | d 1191 | Pope

Clement III | c 1025-1100 | Antipope

Innocent III | fl 1179-1180 | Antipope

2.9 Appendix 1 Sources for the formation of personal names

A wide range of reference books can be consulted to supplement and confirm the evidence of primary sources, and to provide the details required to construct an authorised form of personal name according to the present Rules.

The following list includes only a selection of those sources considered to be most reliable, most readily available and of most general application. It excludes specialist and local biographies, encyclopaedias, directories of professions and most foreign language reference works. It also excludes existing archival and bibliographic authority files and catalogues which will often supply precedents for a particular name.

P.H. Reaney, A Dictionary of British Surnames (3rd ed. with corrections, Oxford, 1995)

E.G. Withycombe, The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian names (3rd ed., Oxford, 1977)

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Personennamen des Mittelalters (Wiesbaden, 1989)

Judicial Studies Board (Ethnic Minorities Advisory Committee), Names and Naming Systems (London, 1994)42

Biographical reference

The Dictionary of National Biography (London, 1885-1900), plus supplements to 1990 (London and Oxford, 1901-1996), Missing Persons (Oxford, 1993) and The New Dictionary of National Biography (forthcoming). The DNB is also available on CD Rom.

Who's Who (London, annual publication) and Who was Who (London, decennial cumulations).

Who's Who in Scotland (Ayr, biennial publication)

Sir J.E. Lloyd and R.T. Jenkins (eds), The Dictionary of Welsh Biography down to 1940 (London, 1959)

M. Stephens (ed.), The Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales (Oxford, 1986)

A.M. Hyamson, A Dictionary of Universal Biography (2nd ed., London, 1951, reprint 1966)

J. Foster, Alumni Oxonienses (Oxford, 1888-1892, Kraus reprint 1968)

J. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses (Cambridge, 1922-1954)

J. Haydn, Book of Dignities (3rd ed., London, 1894, reissued Baltimore, 1970)

C.G. Allen (ed.), Rulers and Governments of the World (London, 1977-1978)

C.R. Cheney, Handbook of Dates (London, 1945, reprint 1981) [for British sovereigns and popes]

E.B. Fryde et al., Handbook of British Chronology (3rd ed., London, 1986, reprint Cambridge, 1996)

J.N.D. Kelly, The Oxford Dictionary of Popes (Oxford, 1986)

G.E. Cokayne (GEC), The Complete Peerage (London, 1887-1898, revised and enlarged ed., Gloucester, 1982)

The Complete Baronetage (London, 1900-1909, microprint ed., Gloucester, 1983)

J.B. Burke, Peerage and Baronetage (105th ed., 4th impression, 1980)

J.B. Burke, Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies (2nd ed., London, 1844)

J.B. Burke, Knightage (London, 1841)

J.B. Burke, Landed Gentry (18th ed., London, 1965-1972)

J.B. Burke, Landed Gentry of Ireland (4th ed., London, 1958)

J.B. Burke, Colonial Gentry (London, 1891)

J.B. Burke, Royal Families of the World (London, 1977-1980)

J. Debrett, Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (London, 1995)

J.E. Doyle, The Official Baronage of England (London, 1885-1886)

L.G. Pine, The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971 (London, 1972)

J. Whitaker, Whitaker's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage (London, annual publication)

Sir J.B. Paul, The Scots Peerage (Edinburgh, 1904-1914)

W.A. Shaw, The Knights of England (London, 1906)

J. Bateman, The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland (4th ed. reprint, Leicester, 1971)

2.10 Appendix 2 Alphabetical list of complete examples

In the text of the Rules, some examples are truncated to illustrate particular points more clearly. The following list shows all the examples used in the Personal Names section of the Rules in their completed form, with reference back to the Rule at which they appear. All elements included here are mandatory, or mandatory where applicable, except for epithets which must be used to distinguish similar names but are otherwise discretionary. As punctuation is non-prescriptive and may follow local conventions, it is not shown. Cross-references are also omitted from this list, although indications are given in the text where they are recommended or discretionary.

42 Obtainable from the Judicial Studies Board at 9th Floor, Millbank Tower, Millbank, London SW1.
Back

Back to NCA rules contents page

NCA Rules chapter 3: Rules for the Construction of Place Names

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National Council on Archives: Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names

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2.6.1 Definition of a family name 2.6.2 Contents of a family name 2.6.3 Name components 2.6.4 Titles or occupations 2.6.5 Territorial designations 2.1.1 Definition of a personal name A personal name is the name given to an individual, or a name by which he/she is known, consisting of such elements as surname, forename, patronymic, or toponym, and including official and unofficial changes to any of the elements e.g.

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IFLA updated conventions

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According to the International Cataloguing Principles (ICP) the Form of Name for Persons as an authorized access point should be constructed following a standard: "When the name of a person consists of several words, the choice of first word for the authorized access point should follow conventions of the country and language most associated with that person, as found in manifestations or reference sources". Thus, this set of documents summarizes the conventions for each country, established by each national cataloguing agency, to help other cataloguing agencies creating authority data worldwide.

The IFLA Cataloguing Section has published a list including conventions for 105 countries in 1996. This document is out of print, but a scanned version is available below:

Names of persons : national usages for entry in catalogues. - 4th revised and enlarged edition. - München : K.G. Saur, 1996. - xi, 263 p. - (UBCIM publications ; new series, vol. 16)

Scanned version (PDF; 11 MB)

Work to update the Names of Persons document has been carried out in 2009 and 2010, and the IFLA Cataloguing Section has requested and received answers from many cataloguing agencies from around the world. Currently, the Names of Persons Working Group is making efforts to publish these updates online in order to make them available for other cataloguing agencies and to facilitate its revision .

UPDATE PROCESS

National libraries or cataloguing agencies willing to contribute with updates from your countries, please contact Ricardo Santos, Priscilla Pun or Ahava Cohen.

You will receive the last version available from your country in editable format (if not posted below yet), so that you review it and submit your revised version for posting as soon as possible.

It's highly recommendable to submit your updates using the template.

List of files available, sorted by alfabetical order, along with the date of the last update.

Languagues files:

Names of Persons - Arabic names (2018)

Names of Persons - Hebrew names (2018)

Names of Persons - Chinese names (2020)

Countries files:

Names of Persons - Albania (2016)

Names of Persons - Argentina (2010)

Names of Persons - Armenia (1977)

Names of Persons - Australia (2015)

Names of Persons - Azerbaijan (1977)

Names of Persons - Belarus (1997)

Names of Persons - Belgium (1995)

Names of Persons - Bosnia and Hercegovina (1996)

Names of Persons - Brazil (2016)

Names of Persons - Bulgaria (2016)

Names of Persons - Canada (1994)

Names of Persons - Chile (2016)

Names of Persons - Croatia (2010)

Names of Persons - Cuba (1995)

Names of Persons - Czech Republic (2016)

Names of Persons - Denmark (2016)

Names of Persons - Estonia (2016)

Names of Persons - Finland (2016)

Names of Persons - France (2009)

Names of Persons - Georgia (1977)

Names of Persons - Germany (2016)

Names of Persons - Greece (2020)

Names of Persons - Hungary (2016)

Names of Persons - Kazakhstan (1977)

Names of Persons - Kirgiziya (1977)

Names of Persons - Iceland (2010)

Names of Persons - Ireland (1996)

Names of Persons - Italy (2017)

Names of Persons - India (1996)

Names of Persons - Indonesia (2010)

Names of Persons - Japan (2016)

Names of Persons - Latvia (2016)

Names of Persons - Lithuania (2017)

Names of Persons - Mexico (2010)

Names of Persons - Moldova (1977)

Names of Persons - Netherlands (2016)

Names of Persons - New Zealand (2009)

Names of Persons - Nigeria (1995)

Names of Persons - Norway (2016)

Names of Persons - Peru (2010)

Names of Persons - Portugal (2009)

Names of Persons - Romania (2016)

Names of Persons - Russian Federation (2016)

Names of Persons - Scotland (2016)

Names of Persons - Serbia (1994)

Names of Persons - Slovenia (2016)

Names of Persons - Spain (2015)

Names of Persons - South Africa (2016)

Names of Persons - Sweden (2016)

Names of Persons - Switzerland (2009)

Names of Persons - Tadzhikistan (1977)

Names of Persons - Tanzania (1976)

Names of Persons - Turkey (2018)

Names of Persons - Turkmenistan (1977)

Names of Persons - Ukraine (1977)

Names of Persons - Uruguay (2010)

Names of Persons - Uzbekistan (1977)

Please note that we are editing and uploading country files gradually. Do not hesitate to contact us if you need the file from your specific country, or if you need to submit updates or corrections to those already online.

Reports

Report of activities, 2015-2016

Report of activities, 2014-2015

Report of activities, 2009-2010

Report of activities, 2008-2009

Last update: 19 October 2020

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According to the International Cataloguing Principles (ICP) the Form of Name for Persons as an authorized access point should be constructed following a standard: "When the name of a person consists of several words, the choice of first word for the authorized access point should follow conventions of the country and language most associated with that person, as found in manifestations or reference sources".

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Naming conventions for 105 countries, by national agencies

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This document sets out the Home Office's approach to a request for a change of name on official documents, such as the British passport, Home Office Travel Documents (HOTD) and biometric residence permits (BRP).

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Airline guide to entering various names in binomial name fields

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Please enter your name as it appears on your passport and use alphabetical characters A-Z and a-z, maximum 40 characters for Last/Family name; 25 characters for First & Middle name.

Total combined maximum length of name title, first, middle and last name including date of birth of child or infant is 56 characters.

As a guide, please refer to the following examples.

For Malaysian passport holders where name on passport is without first and last name columns.

All other passports with separate first and last name columns, enter the name accordingly.

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Please enter your name as it appears on your passport and use alphabetical characters A-Z and a-z, maximum 40 characters for Last/Family name; 25 characters for First & Middle name. Total combined maximum length of name title, first, middle and last name including date of birth of child or infant is 56 characters.

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Australian Immigration name format rules

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Academic Registry and Council Secretariat / Students / Your MySIS record / Personal details / Policy on student names

Due to the General Medical Council's registration rules, the below policy does not apply to undergraduate medical students. Please contact the Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry Student Office if you have a query regarding the name on your student record.
Under the law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, you can change your name at any time, provided you do not intend to deceive or defraud another person.

There is no legal procedure to follow in order to change a name. You simply start using the new name. You can change your forename or surname/family name, add names or rearrange your existing names. However, like other public organisations and financial institutions in the UK, universities have a duty to prevent fraud and so can exercise the right to make certain requirements mandatory.

In an attempt to eliminate fraudulent applications and enrolments, we require every applicant, whether applying directly, online or on paper, or via a clearing-house, to apply using the name shown on your passport or birth certificate. This name will be used throughout your academic career, unless a formal change of name is requested later.

The name will be used on any acceptance and visa letter that the university issues before enrolment. You must notify us of any spelling errors immediately, so they can be corrected before any further correspondence is sent to you.

If the British style of forename and surname/family name is not used in your culture, you should insert the complete name on the surname/family name line of any form.

The correct name will also be registered on your student record and will eventually appear on the final award certificate if you are successful. During Queen Mary enrolment you will be asked to provide original documentation showing your full name. A list of approved identification for enrolment can be found on the new student webpages. If this name is different to that shown on your entry qualifications, you will need to provide suitable evidence at enrolment.

Any subsequent request to change your name on the student record during your programme of study must be made to the relevant office and accompanied by written evidence (see list of approved documentation for a change of name), either in its original form or as a certified, true copy of the original.

Please note that changes cannot be made retrospectively e.g. you cannot have your award certificate re-issued in your maiden name following a divorce after you have finished your course at QMUL. However a transgender student may ask for a degree/diploma certificate to be reissued in his/her new name.

Acceptable documentation as proof of identity (enrolment)

A list of approved identification for enrolment can be found on the new student webpages.

Where to request a change of name

If your name has changed since enrolling or you have found a spelling error on your student record please take the relevant original documentation to the designated office below:

Approved documentation for a change of name

Examples of appropriate forms of evidence are:

A marriage/civil partnership certificate

A divorce decree absolute/civil partnership final order
If you wish to revert to your maiden name we will also need to see your birth certificate and a statement from you confirming the reversion to your maiden name for all purposes.

A certified copy of a birth entry
This will be evidence of a change of name if the new name has been recorded in the birth entry.

Public announcement
You may want to record your name change by placing an advertisement in a local or national newspaper. This should state that you have stopped using your previous name and have assumed a new one. A copy of the advertisement can then be used as evidence that you have changed your name.

Statutory declaration
For most purposes, a statutory declaration is generally accepted as evidence of your change of name. A statutory declaration is a statement that records your intention to abandon your old name and adopt a new one. Preparing a statutory declaration can be complicated. If you want to prove your change of name by making a statutory declaration you should consult an experienced adviser, for example at a Citizens Advice Bureau.

Change of name deed (previously known as a 'deed poll')
A change of name deed is a formal statement to prove that your name has been changed. Only a person with parental consent can use a deed to record a change of name for children or young persons under the age of 18; however, if you are over 16, this can only be done with your consent.

You can have a change of name deed prepared by a solicitor. Solicitors' fees for preparing deeds can vary and can be expensive so it is advisable to find out the cost before proceeding. Alternatively, you can prepare your own deed on a prescribed form that is available from legal stationers.

Changing your name by deed can be complicated. If you want to use this as evidence of change of name you should consult an experienced adviser such as an officer of your local Citizens' Advice Bureau.

Police report
The university is aware that family problems can lead sometimes to the adoption of a pseudonym for personal safety by students during their academic careers. If you are in this situation, the university will require a police report as verification of the change.

Transgender students

If you intend to change your name, please note the following:

Current students: You should write to the university stating your intention to make the transition, at which point a meeting will be arranged with relevant staff only. Records will be changed to reflect your chosen name at the agreed time. You will need to provide a statutory declaration of name change only if you originally registered under another name and wish to obtain a degree/diploma certificate in your new name.

Graduates: You will need to provide a statutory declaration of name change if you originally registered under another name and wish to obtain a degree/diploma certificate in your new name. This information will only be viewed by the registry officer who will make the necessary changes to the system.

Applicants: If you took your entry qualifications in another name, you will need to provide a statutory declaration of name change.

Please note that all data held by the university in connection with any name change will be treated in confidence and will never be disclosed to a third party without your permission.
This policy is based on that of De Montfort University and we thank them for permission to use it.

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Academic Registry and Council Secretariat

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Academic Registry and Council Secretariat / Students / Your MySIS record / Personal details / Policy on student names Due to the General Medical Council's registration rules, the below policy does not apply to undergraduate medical students. Please contact the Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry Student Office if you have a query regarding the name on your student record.

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The name must be your official name as provided on your University application and must match formal documentation such as your birth certificate or your passport. Data held by the University in connection with the change of a student's name will be processed in accordance with the data protection policy.

Name error corrections

If your name has been recorded incorrectly on your student record, such as a typographical error, you should provide evidence of your exact name details by way of your birth certificate or passport (original or certified copy). If you are an undergraduate student, the error should be reported to your college. If you are a graduate student, the error should be reported to either your college or your Graduate Studies Assistant.

Official name changes

If you change your name while you are a student at Oxford and wish your new name to be recorded in your student record, you must submit a formal request in writing, accompanied by documentary evidence of the change of name (original or certified copy). If you are an undergraduate student, the request must be made to your college. If you are a graduate student, the request must be made to either your college or your Graduate Studies Assistant.

If you are a British Citizen, appropriate documentary evidence to support a request to change your name on your student record could include:

your passport

deed poll / change of name deed

marriage certificate / civil partnership certificate and decree absolute / final order (for name changes following marriage / civil partnership or divorce / ending a civil partnership)

statutory declaration of change of name

public announcement: a copy of an advertisement in a local or national newspaper stating that you have stopped using your previous name and have assumed a new one

police report or solicitor's letter: if you have to adopt a pseudonym for personal reasons (including personal safety) while you are a student at Oxford you should provide a police report or solicitor's letter as evidence of the change.

If you are not a British citizen, the University requires a copy of your passport as evidence of your name change. For students who require a visa to study in the UK, it is particularly important that the University's record of your name matches the name in your passport.

Names changes that are not possible

It is not usually possible to:

include special characters on names (for example, accents) at the current time, however, you may request to have special characters included on your certificates by contacting Degree Conferrals

change the display order of your forename, middle name and surname. Names will always be displayed in transcripts and certificates as forename, middle name and SURNAME (with the surname in block capitals). There are some limited circumstances in which you will be permitted to swap the order of your name on your Degree Certificate. Please contact Degree Conferrals

revert back to your birth name after this has been changed on the student record further to a deed poll or statutory declaration; unless you have made a subsequent change by further deed poll or statutory declaration

change your name on the student record after you have completed your degree (are granted 'leave to supplicate'). Your name as recorded in the University's record at the time of supplication is the name that will generally be presented on all official documentation such as the Degree Certificate and Degree Confirmation Letter. It is therefore essential that you ensure the University has your correct name at the time of supplication.

The only retrospective changes that can be made are where an administrative error has occurred or in accordance with the University's Transgender Policy and Guidance.

Preferred forename

If you wish to be known by a preferred first name, which is different from your official first name, you will have the opportunity to enter this using Student Self Service. Your preferred first name can then be used in your University email address and informal correspondence or course and college documentation. All formal University documentation such as your University card, transcript and Degree Certificate will retain your official first name.

Choice of gender title

The titles Mr, Miss, Ms, Mrs are social titles and have no legal status. If you do not wish to use the title assigned to your record, please contact your College Office to have your title amended from this list. You may also choose NULL (no title) or Mx (a gender-neutral title). You do not need to provide any documentary evidence to support your request. You may choose any of these options, regardless of your legal sex or preferred gender.

Your University card

Your name will appear on your University card as first name, middle initial and surname. For security purposes it is not possible to use a preferred name on your University card. It is not possible to display special characters on your University card.

Your University email address

You may use a preferred name on your email address. For example, if your official name is Thomas Smith, but you are known as Tom Smith, then you may request that your email address is tom.smith@college.ox.ac.uk. Contact IT Services to request the amendment to your email account. Initials or unrelated nicknames are not acceptable.

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The name must be your official name as provided on your University application and must match formal documentation such as your birth certificate or your passport. Data held by the University in connection with the change of a student's name will be processed in accordance with the data protection policy.

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Degree certificates (parchments)

Your degree certificate is often referred to as a parchment and will have the University seal affixed.

The certificate you receive contains:

your primary name, as recorded in your student record

the type of award (certificate, diploma, degree)

the classification of the award (if appropriate)

Name on parchment

Your degree certificate will be printed with your name shown in the following format:

First/given name(s)

Middle name(s), then

Family name/surname unless you ask us to have your family name/surname shown first (you can do this when you enrol to graduate)

If you request your family name/surname to be shown first, your name will be shown in the following format:

Family name/surname

First/given name(s), then

Middle name(s)

Your parchment will print your primary name as recorded in your student record.

Your primary name

Please ensure that your primary name is correctly recorded in your student record.

To make any changes to your primary name: you must contact the Student Services Enquiry Team (SSET) before the enrolment deadline as you are unable to amend this via your MyCampus record.

Your primary name in your student record should be the same as that on an officially recognised form of identification document such as:

Your birth, adoption or marriage certificate

Passport

Driving licence

National identity card

Other legal document

Using a different version of your name may cause you difficulty in the future in proving that the certificate is yours.

Changing your name on a parchment

Once you receive your certificate it is not possible to amend your name. The only retrospective changes that can be made are where:

an administrative error has occurred and is notified to Registry Graduation Team within three calendar months of your graduation date, or

change is required under the provisions of the Gender Recognition Act 2004

Replacement parchments

Change to normal service
We sincerely regret that due to current exceptional circumstances and the limitations and challenges of staff working out of office we are currently unable to produce replacement degree parchments.

The Student Services Enquiry Team may be able to provide you with a certified letter confirming your award. However, due to the aforementioned restrictions the Student Services Enquiry Team are only able to produce unstamped digital documents until further notice.

We will provide any update to this service as soon as possible.
General Replacement Parchment Information
If your degree parchment is lost, stolen or damaged and you graduated in academic session 1988/89 onwards, you may obtain a replacement. If you graduated before this date and require confirmation of your degree you should apply for a Certifying Letter.

Parchment design - On 21st October 2019, the design of our degree parchments, diplomas and certificates changed. From this date onwards, we are no longer able to issue A3 sized degree parchments. All replacement documents issued will be in the newly designed A4 format.

Replacement Cost:

£50 per parchment

Please note: replacement parchments cannot be issued until payment has been received or if you graduated before Academic Session 1988/89.

How to apply:

Payment Options:

By credit/debit card: Telephone +44 (0)141 330 7000. (Please Note: No payments can be taken after 4pm). The University does not accept American Express or Diners Club.)

By cheque: payable to 'University of Glasgow', by post or in person at the Student Services Enquiry Desk - (Please note: No payments can be taken after 4pm).

By cash: in person at the Student Services Enquiry Desk - (Please Note: No payments can be taken after 4pm) Please do not send cash in the post.

By post: Using this Payment Form - send to Student Services Enquiry Team, University of Glasgow, Fraser Building, Glasgow, G12 8QQ (Payment forms cannot be submitted by email).

Timescale:

Normally replacements can be prepared within 10 working days from the receipt of the application or processing of payment where applicable.

During graduation diets, the preparation time will be 15 working days-

Summer - end of May until 7 July

Winter - end of October until 7 December

Changes of name:

Once your certificate has been issued it is not possible to amend your name. The only retrospective changes that can be made are where

an administrative error has occurred and has been notified to the Registry Graduation Team within three calendar months of graduation, or

a change is required under the Gender Reassignment provisions of the Equality Act 2010. In this case please email us at Graduation@glasgow.ac.uk. To verify your identity, we will ask for identification in your new chosen name, such as deed poll, passport, or drivers licence. For doctorates or if you have a dissertation stored at the library, we will notify them of any changes to names to ensure that this change can be reflected to ensure consistency of records. When contacting us to request your new parchment, please specifically state if you do not want us to do this.

If you have changed your name following completion of your course of study, (for example, through marriage, or by Deed Poll), and wish to demonstrate to a prospective employer or educational institution that your degree certificate belongs to you, supporting documentation showing the name change should accompany the certificate.

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Your degree certificate is often referred to as a parchment and will have the University seal affixed.

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Policy on Changes to Student Names1

Under the law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, if you want to be known by a different name you can change your name at any time, provided you do not intend to deceive or defraud another person. There is no legal procedure to follow in order to change a name. You simply start using the new name. You can change your forename or surname, add names or rearrange your existing names.

Like other public organisations and financial institutions in the UK, however, universities have a duty to prevent fraud and so can exercise the right to make certain requirements mandatory.

In order to reduce the risk of fraudulent applications and enrolments the University of York requires every applicant, whether applying through a clearing house or directly to the University, online or on paper, to apply using the name shown on their passport, birth certificate or marriage certificate. If the style of separate forename/given name(s) and surname/family name is not used in your culture, then you should insert your complete name on the surname line of any form.

This is the name that will be logged into the University's student records database and must be used throughout your academic career at the University of York, unless a change of name is formally requested. The recorded name will be used on any acceptance letter and visa documentation that the University issues before the completion of the enrolment process. Any discrepancy between your official documents and our correspondence to you is likely to cause delays in subsequent processes, therefore any misspelling that may have occurred, however minor, must be notified to us immediately so it can be corrected before any further correspondence is issued. You can check what is held in your record by looking at your e:Vision account.

Your formally recorded name will be that which appears on your official University record and will appear on your academic transcript and your final award parchment if you are successful. If you need to have your name changed, the University will change all of your records to reflect that new name, so your new name will replace your old name on all the University's records and will be used from that time on. Only in exceptional circumstances will a second change of name be permitted during a period of study and the award certificate presented on successful completion of the programme will bear that name which cannot thereafter be changed.
You should also note that the University accepts no responsibility for any consequences arising from the change of name which occur outside the University; if you change your name within the University you should also notify all other relevant external bodies of the change.
A request to change your name as recorded on the University's student records system during your academic career must be submitted in writing and accompanied by written evidence of the relevant change (see below), either in original form or as a certified true copy of the original. The official documentation issued and validated by the University during your study and after you have left shows the name under which you enrolled, studied and graduated so it is important to make sure that any corrections or changes to your name as it is held in the University's official student record are altered before an award is made.

To action a change of name you need to call into the Student Hub in Market Square, or write, email or fax to:

Student Services
University of York
Heslington
York
YO10 5DD
UK

Email: student-records@york.ac.uk

Fax: +44 (0)1904 324039

Examples of appropriate forms of evidence to support a change of name are listed below:

A marriage certificate or divorce decree absolute

If you are wishing to revert from your married name to your previous name we will need to see the above documents, together with your birth certificate and a statement from you confirming the reversion to your previous name for all purposes.

A certified copy of a birth entry

A certified copy of a birth entry will be evidence of a change of name if the new name has been recorded in the birth entry.

Public announcement

You may decide to record your name change by placing an advertisement in a local or national newspaper. This should state that you have stopped using your previous name and have assumed a new one. A copy of the advertisement can then be used as evidence that you have changed your name.

Statutory declaration

A statutory declaration is a statement recording your intention to abandon your old name and adopt a new one. For most purposes, a statutory declaration is generally accepted as evidence of your change of name. Preparing a statutory declaration can be complicated. If you want to prove your change of name by making a statutory declaration you should consult an experienced adviser, for example, one of the University's Student Welfare Advisers, or an adviser at a Citizens Advice Bureau.

Change of name deed (previously known as a 'deed poll')

A change of name deed is a formal statement to prove that your name has been changed.

If you are a child or young person under 18 you can only have your change of name recorded by a change of name deed by a person who has parental responsibility for you, although if you are over 16, this can only be done with your consent.

Changing your name by change of name deed can be complicated. If you want to use this as evidence of change of name you should consult an experienced adviser such as one of the University's Student Welfare Advisers, or an adviser at a Citizens Advice Bureau.

Police report

The University is aware that some students may choose to adopt a pseudonym for personal reasons (including personal safety) during their academic careers. If you are in this situation, the University will require a police report or solicitor's letter as verification of the change.

Note for alumni

Once you have graduated it is not usually possible to retrospectively change the name held on your student record or produce documentation such as academic transcripts or award certificates in your new name. You cannot, for example, have your award certificate reissued in your new name if you change your name due to marriage or divorce after you have finished your studies.

Your student record can however be changed, and your documentation reissued, if your name change is due to a gender reassignment. If this applies to you, or you believe that you have other circumstances that warrant exceptional consideration, you can apply in writing with the relevant supporting documentation to the Director of Student and Academic Services, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD.

Please note that all data held by the University in connection with any change of name will be treated in confidence and will never be disclosed to a third party without your permission.
1This policy is based on that of De Montfort University, Bedford and we thank them for permission to use it.

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Policy on changes to student names - Student home, University of York

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Under the law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, if you want to be known by a different name you can change your name at any time, provided you do not intend to deceive or defraud another person. There is no legal procedure to follow in order to change a name.

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World Wide Web Consortium recommendations for Web forms

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How do people's names differ around the world, and what are the implications of those differences on the design of forms, databases, ontologies, etc. for the Web?

People who create web forms, databases, or ontologies are often unaware how different people's names can be in other countries. They build their forms or databases in a way that assumes too much on the part of foreign users. This article will first introduce you to some of the different styles used for personal names, and then some of the possible implications for handling those on the Web.

This article doesn't provide all the answers - the best answer will vary according to the needs of the application, and in most cases, it may be difficult to find a 'perfect' solution. It attempts to mostly sensitize you to some of the key issues by way of an introduction. The examples and advice shown relate mostly to Web forms and databases. Many of the concepts are, however, also worth considering for ontology design, though we won't call out specific examples here.

There are a couple of key scenarios to consider.

You are designing a form in a single language (let's assume English) that people from around the world will be filling in.

You are designing a form in one language but the form will be adapted to suit the cultural differences of a given locale when the site is translated.

In reality, you will probably not be able to localize for every different culture, so even if you rely on approach 2, some people will still use a form that is not intended specifically for their culture.

To get started, let's look at some examples of how people's names can be different around the world.

In the Icelandic name Björk Guðmundsdóttir Björk is the given name. The second part of the name indicates the father's (or sometimes the mother's) name, followed by ‑son for a male and ‑dóttir for a female, and is more of a description than a family name in the Western sense. Björk's father, Guðmundur, was the son of Gunnar, so is known as Guðmundur Gunnarsson.

Icelanders prefer to be called by their given name (Björk), or by their full name (Björk Guðmundsdóttir). Björk wouldn't normally expect to be called Ms. Guðmundsdóttir. Telephone directories in Iceland are sorted by given name.

Other cultures where a person has one given name followed by a patronymic include parts of Southern India, Malaysia and Indonesia.

In the Malay name Isa bin Osman the word 'bin' means 'son of' ('binti' is used for women). If you refer to this person you might say Mr. Isa, or if you know him personally, Encik Isa (Encik is a Malay word rather like Mr.).

In the Chinese name 毛泽东 (Mao Ze Dong) the family name is Mao, ie. the first name when reading (left to right). The given name is Dong. The middle character, Ze, is a generational name, and is common to all his siblings (such as his brothers and sister, 毛泽民 (Mao Ze Min), 毛泽覃 (Mao Ze Tan), and 毛泽紅 (Mao Ze Hong)).

Among people who are not on familiar terms, Mao may be referred to as 毛泽东先生 (Mao Ze Dong xiān shēng) or 毛先生 (Mao xiān shēng) (xiān shēng being the equivalent of Mr.). Although not everyone has a generational name these days, especially in Mainland China, those who do have one expect it to be used together with their given name. Thus, if you are on familiar terms with someone called 毛泽东, you would normally refer to them using 泽东 (Ze Dong), not just 东 (Dong).

Note also that the names are not separated by spaces.

Other cultures, such as in Japan, Korea, and Hungary, also order names as family name followed by given name(s).

Chinese people who deal with Westerners will often adopt an additional given name that is easier for Westerners to use. For example, Yao Ming (family name Yao, given name Ming) may write his name for foreigners as Fred Yao Ming or Fred Ming Yao.

Spanish-speaking people will commonly have two family names. For example, María José Carreño Quiñones (José being a part of her given name) may be the daughter of Antonio Carreño Rodríguez and María Quiñones Marqués.

You could refer to her as Señorita Carreño, but not Señorita Quiñones. However, more recently there is also a preference to move away from titles that indicate the married status of women (especially when they are not so indicated for men), so 'Señorita' may be replaced with 'Señora'.

Brazilians have similar customs, and may even have three or four family names, drawing on the names of other ancestors, such as José Eduardo Santos Tavares Melo Silva.

Typically, two Spanish family names would have the order paternal+maternal, whereas Portuguese names in Brazil would be maternal+paternal. However, this order may change.

Furthermore, some names add short words, such as de or e between family names, such as Carreño de Quiñones, or Tavares e Silva.

We already saw that the patronymic in Iceland ends in ‑son or ‑dóttir, depending on whether the child is male or female. Russians use patronymics as their middle name but also use family names, in the order givenName-patronymic-familyName. The endings of the patronymic and family names will indicate whether the person in question is male or female. For example, the wife of Борис Николаевич Ельцин (Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin) is Наина Иосифовна Ельцина (Naina Iosifovna Yeltsina) - note how the husband's names end in consonants, while the wife's names (even the patronymic from her father) end in ‑a.

By the way, a slightly less formal way of writing Russian names follows the order familyName-givenName-patronymic, such as Ельцина Наина Иосифовна.

Americans often write their name with a middle initial, for example, John Q. Public. Often forms designed in the USA assume that this is common practice, whereas even in the UK, where people may indeed have (one or more) middle names, this is often seen as a very American approach. People in other countries who have more than two names and don't usually initialise them may be confused about how to deal with such forms. Bear in mind, also, that many people who do use an initial in their name may use it at the beginning.

Filipinos also write their name with a middle initial, but it represents the mother's name before marriage rather than a given name. For example, in Maria J. Go, the initial represents Jimenez, the previous family name of Maria's mother. (In fact, an initial may represent more than one name: 'D' may stand for 'Dela Cruz' when the name is written in full.)

It would be wrong to assume that members of the same family share the same family name. There is a growing trend in the West for wives to keep their own name after marriage, but there are other cultures, such as China, where this is the normal approach. In some countries the wife may or may not take the husband's name. If the Malay girl Zaiton married Isa, mentioned above, she may remain Mrs. Zaiton, or she may choose to become Zaiton Isa, in which case you might refer to her as Mrs. Isa.

Some Hispanic names approach this slightly differently. In 1996 Manuel A. Pérez Quiñones described the names in his family. As mentioned above, his family names, known as apellidos, became Pérez Quiñones because his father's apellidos were Pérez Rodríguez and his mother's apellidos were Quiñones Alamo. In time, he courted a girl with the apellidos Padilla Falto. When they married, her apellidos became Padilla de Pérez. Their children were called Pérez Padilla, and so on. The point here is that only the children in the family have the same apellidos.

I have slightly changed Manuel's name here. In fact, he typically spells his name with a hyphen (Pérez-Quiñones) to get around confusion in the USA about how his name works. Others may do this too.

You should also not simply assume that name adoption goes from husband to wife. Sometimes men take their wife's name on marriage. It may be better, in these cases, for a form to say 'Previous name' than 'Maiden name' or 'née'.

Many cultures mix and match these differences in personal names, and add their own novelties.

For example, Velikkakathu Sankaran Achuthanandan is a Kerala name from Southern India, usually written V. S. Achuthanandan which follows the order familyName-fathersName-givenName.

In many parts of the world, parts of names are derived from titles, locations, genealogical information, caste, religious references, and so on. Here are a few examples:

the Indian name Kogaddu Birappa Timappa Nair follows the order villageName-fathersName-givenName-lastName.

the Rajasthani name Aditya Pratap Singh Chauhan is composed of givenName-fathersName-surname-casteName.

in another part of India the name Madurai Mani Iyer represents townName-givenName-casteName.

the Arabic Abu Karim Muhammad al-Jamil ibn Nidal ibn Abdulaziz al-Filistini translates as "Father of Karim, Muhammad (given name), The beautiful, Son of Nidal, Son of Abdulaziz, the Palestinian". Karim is Muhammad's first-born son. (For more details about this rich naming tradition, see Wikipedia.)

In Thailand people have a nickname, that is usually not related to their actual name, and will generally use this name to address each other in non-formal situations. (They will also typically introduce themselves to Westerners with this name, since it is usually only one or two syllables and therefore easier to pronounce.) Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has the nickname Maew (แม้ว). Often they will have different nicknames for family and friends.

In Vietnam, names such as Nguyễn Tấn Dũng follow the order familyName-middleName-givenName. Although this seems similar to the Chinese example above, even in a formal situation this Prime Minister of Vietnam is referred to using his given name, ie. Mr. Dũng, not Mr. Nguyễn.

Ideographic characters in Japanese names can typically be pronounced in more than one way. In some cases this makes it difficult for people to know exactly how to pronounce a name, and also causes problems for automatic sorting and retrieval of names, which is typically done on the basis of how the name is pronounced. For example, the family name of 東海林賢蔵 (ie. the first three ideographic characters on the left) may be transcribed or pronounced as either Tōkairin or Shōji.

Furthermore, different kanji characters may be pronounced in the same way, so romanization (ie. Latin script transcription) tends to lose important distinctive information related to names. For example, 庄司, 庄子, 東海林, and 小路 can all be romanized as Shōji.

Some Japanese names use archaic ideographic characters, or characters that are no longer used in modern Japanese. The pronunciation of these characters may not be recognized.

Because of these issues, Japanese people will commonly provide a phonetic version of their name (using a non-ideographic Japanese kana alphabet) along with the normal written version.

The information above uses only simple cases to describe a number of significant divergences in the way people construct names. The reality, even within a single culture, is typically even more complicated. Wikipedia sports a large number of fascinating articles about how people's names look in various cultures around the world. It is recommended that you read more detailed the information accessed via the following links.

Akan * Arabic * Balinese * Bulgarian * Czech * Chinese * Dutch * Fijian * French * German * Hawaiian * Hebrew * Hungarian * Icelandic * Indian * Indonesian * Irish * Italian * Japanese * Javanese * Korean * Lithuanian * Malaysian * Mongolian * Persian * Philippine * Polish * Portuguese * Russian * Spanish * Taiwanese * Thai * Vietnamese

As mentioned above, one possible approach is to localize forms for a particular culture. In theory this should allow you to tailor your forms exactly to the needs of the audience. Unfortunately, there may still be a number of possible disadvantages to this approach:

If you need to centralise data from several locales within a single database, using localized form layouts will simply defer the difficulties of synthesizing the information across cultures until the time when you need to store the data.

Even within a single country people will typically have different ways of forming personal names. For example there may be foreigners living in the country, there may be different cultural elements within the country (eg. Singaporeans have names of Chinese, Malay and South Indian origin), or there may just be more than one way of using names. Therefore your forms will often need to allow for some flexibility.

In what follows we propose some general guidelines that may help. Unfortunately, this is a complex topic and the suggestions here are for the very general case, and don't address all the issues.

If designing a form or database that will accept names from people with a variety of backgrounds, you should ask yourself whether you really need to have separate fields for given name and family name .

This will depend on what you need to do with the data, but obviously it will be simpler, where it is possible, to just use the full name as the user provides it.

Bear in mind that names in some cultures can be quite a lot longer than your own. Make input fields long enough to enter long names, and ensure that if the name is displayed on a web page later there is enough space for it . Also avoid limiting the field size for names in your database. In particular, do not assume that a four-character Japanese name in UTF-8 will fit in four bytes - you are likely to actually need 12.

If you do still feel you need to ask for constituent parts of a name separately, try to avoid using the labels 'first name' and 'last name' in non-localized forms , since these can be confusing for people who normally write their family name followed by given names.

For some cultures this is still problematic (for example Icelanders, who don't actually have family names), but, short of very localized customization, this is probably the best we can make a generic form.

In some cases you want to identify parts of a name so that you can sort a list of names alphabetically, contact them, etc. Consider whether it would make sense to have one or more extra fields, in addition to the full name field, where you ask the user to enter the part(s) of their name that you need to use for a specific purpose.

Sometimes you may opt for separate fields because you want to be able to use part of the name to address the person directly, or refer to them. For example, when Google+ refers to "Richard's contacts". Or perhaps it's because you want to send them emails with their name at the top. Note that not only may you have problems due to name syntax here, but you also have to account for varying expectations around the world with regards to formality (not everyone is happy for a stranger to call them by their given name). It may be better to ask separately, when setting up a profile for example, how that person would like you to address them .

This extra field would also be useful for finding the appropriate name from a long list, and for handling Thai nicknames.

By the way, for sorting Japanese names you will need an additional field for them to type how their name is pronounced, since you can't always tell how to pronounce it from the ideographic characters. Such pronunciation information is used for sorting Japanese names.

Also, if you have separate fields for parts of a person's name, ensure that you label clearly which parts you want where. For example, don't assume that the order they will provide names in will be given followed by family.

Be careful, also, about assumptions built into algorithms that pull out the parts of a name automatically . For example, the v-card and h-card approach of implied "n" optimization could have difficulties with, say, Chinese names. You should be as clear as possible about telling people how to specify their name so that you capture the data you think you need.

Don't assume that a single letter name is an initial. People do have names that are one letter long. These people can have problems if the form validation refuses to accept their name and demands that they supply their name in full. If you want to encourage people not to use initials, perhaps you should make that a warning message, rather than block the form submission.

Similarly, don't require that people supply a family name. In cultures such as parts of Southern India, Malaysia and Indonesia, a large number of people have names that consist of a given name only, with no patronym. If you require family names, you may create significant problems in these cultures, as users enter garbage data like "." or "Mr." in the family name field just to escape the form.

Don't forget to allow people to use punctuation such as hyphens, apostrophes, etc. in names. Don't require names to be entered all in upper case - this can be difficult on a mobile device. Allow the user to enter a name with spaces , eg. to support prefixes and suffixes such as de in French, von in German, and Jnr/Jr in American names, and also because some people consider a space-separated sequence of characters to be a single name, eg. Rose Marie.

Don't normalize the casing in names. Some names (such as 'McNamara') contain capital letters that are not the first letter; others (such as 'van der Waals') include words that are not capitalized. Forms should preserve the case the user enters and not coerce such names to always and only use capital letters at the start of each word.
Don't assume that members of the same family will share the same family name.
Ask yourself whether it's necessary to require that people supply a title. Some people don't expect to use titles at all. In that case, they should be able to leave such a field blank. If you are requiring people to supply a title such as Mr./Mrs./Ms. in order to indicate their gender, why not ask directly? This also gets around the issue that you may be inadvertently asking women to take decisions about revealing their marital status, but not men. Of course, also bear in mind that titles vary signficantly around the world (see below).

As mentioned earlier, because it is not only women who change their family names, it may be better for a form to ask for 'Previous name' rather than 'Maiden name' or 'née' .

If you are designing forms that will be localized on a per culture basis, don't forget that atomized name parts may still need to be stored in a central database, which therefore needs to be able to represent all the various complexities that you dealt with by relegating the form design to the localization effort.

The first thing that English speakers must remember about other people's names is that a large majority of them don't use the Latin alphabet, and of those that do, a majority use accents and characters that don't occur in English. It seems obvious, once it is said, but it has some important consequences for designers that are often overlooked.

If you are designing an English form you need to decide whether you are expecting people to enter names in their own script (eg. 小林康宏) or in an Latin-only transcription (such as Yasuhiro Kobayashi), or both.

Remember that even names in English may involve non-ASCII characters (eg. Zoë).

On the other hand, there are some situations, such as a login name on an ASCII-only system, where you can't permit non-ASCII characters.

What people will type into the form will often depend on whether the form and its page is in their language or not. If the page is in their language, don't be surprised to get back non-Latin or accented Latin characters.

In terms of letters, ASCII-only means using the basic letters of the English alphabet, ie. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ (upper- and lowercase).

If you hope to get Latin- or ASCII-only, you need to tell the user.

Don't forget to tell the people who are translating your page to explain this to users.

The decision about which is most appropriate will depend to some extent on what you are collecting people's names for, and how you intend to use them.

Are you collecting the person's name just to have an identifier in your system? If so, it may not matter whether the name is stored in ASCII-only or native script.

Or do you plan to call them by name on a welcome page or in correspondence? If you will correspond using their name on pages written in their language, it would seem sensible to have the name in the native script.

Is it important for people in your organization who handle queries to be able to recognise and use the person's name? If so, you may want to ask for a Latin transcription.

Will their name be displayed or searchable (for example Flickr optionally shows people's names as well as their user name on their profile page)? Or will you want to send them correspondence in their own language, but track them in your back-office in a language such as English? If so, you may want to store the name in both Latin and native scripts, in which case you probably need to ask the user to submit their name in both native script and Latin-only form, using separate fields .

Note that Japanese users may need to provide a transcription in a Japanese syllabic script rather than/in addition to the ideographic form. This could lead to a third field in the example above.

If you do accept non-ASCII names, you should use a Unicode character encoding (eg. UTF-8) in your pages, your back end databases and in all the software code in between. This will significantly simplify your life.

Lists of names are not always sorted by family name around the world. For example, Thai and Icelandic people expect lists to be sorted by given name instead.

In another example, it is possible that sort orders can also be different in different parts of the Spanish-speaking world. For instance, María-Jose Carreño Quiñones in one place would expect to find her name in a list by looking up Carreño Quiñones. María-Jose Carreño Quiñones from another place, however, would expect her name to be sorted by Quiñones.

The treatment of small words such as "von", "de", and "van" brings additional complexity to sorting. Sometimes the prefixes are significant, other times they are not.

Different levels of formality apply in different cultures. When addressing someone you need to take this into account. Whereas given names are becoming a popular form of address in Western and technology circles, it is by no means universally appropriate. Contacting someone for the first time in the UK using their given name can sometimes imply that you have previously met them.

On the other hand, addressing someone using a title and given name (eg. "Mr. Edward") or just by their family name (eg. "Windsor!") are acceptable in some parts of the world, but not in others (such as the UK).

In Germany, titles are important, and you may need to refer to someone as not just Herr Schmidt, but Herr Professor Doktor Schmidt.

In a culture such as that in Japan, it is normal to add an honorific or job title to the name of someone you contact. For example, it would be expected to refer to someone as Tanaka-san or Tanaka-sama (depending on your relationship to them). A departmental manager named Tanaka would expect to be referred to as Tanaka-bucho (Department-head Tanaka). Although you can attach ‑san to given names, it would be very unusual to do so with people in the work environment.

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How do people's names differ around the world, and what are the implications of those differences on the design of forms, databases, ontologies, etc. for the Web? People who create web forms, databases, or ontologies are often unaware how different people's names can be in other countries.

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To register for a scientific conference is an easy task for most, but not for us. Like many Indonesian people, we have a single name. Websites often do not allow us to proceed from one page to the next unless we fill out a 'Last/Family name' box - something we're unable to do honestly. Instead, we populate these boxes, wherever they appear, with our first name again or some variant of 'NA'.

We face the same struggle when applying for research grants and fellowships, submitting admission forms for graduate programmes and publishing in scientific journals. We often send a follow-up e-mail to the institutions and journal editors to explain our situation. When we forget to do this, we receive letters addressed to our name, twice, or e-mails that begin 'Dear Null' or 'Dear NA'. That, of course, is assuming we're not written off as spam, or deleted from databases, for filling out a form 'incorrectly'.

Collection: Careers toolkit

Many Indonesian scientists still have few records of publishing in international journals or attending conferences, but the scientific community does not seem to be fully aware of this issue yet. Many other scientists from Asia face similar name-related problems: people from southern India often do not have surnames and must use their father's given name as a substitute; Japanese, Korean and Chinese scientists have to put up with their names being inconsistently abbreviated and ordered.

Making a name for themselves

For convenience, many Indonesian scientists are forced into inventing a family name, and many other Asian colleagues adopt alternative, westernized names. We used names from relatives (one of us uses the name of an older sister, the other uses their father's name) to create our e-mail accounts, but it is difficult to build scientific records consistently using our correct names. People treat our 'fake' second names as our family names and put them straight into formal documents such as graduation books or conference reports. Sometimes we could spend time clarifying our situation, but often the documents have already been printed or the damage otherwise done, and we must accept being wrongly named again. And as the digital world eclipses the physical one - and online services such as LinkedIn and ResearchGate become more powerful - our lack of a family name leaves us increasingly at a disadvantage in science.

Science should be made more culturally sensitive. For example, unique identifiers such as ORCID codes, rather than names, should be compulsory for identifying individual authors; confirmation e-mails should be addressed without making assumptions about recipients' surnames; and second names should no longer be mandatory in academic applications. Next time you have to fill in your last name on a form, ask yourself - what would you do without one?

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged.

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Attention science: some people have only one name

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To register for a scientific conference is an easy task for most, but not for us. Like many Indonesian people, we have a single name. Websites often do not allow us to proceed from one page to the next unless we fill out a 'Last/Family name' box - something we're unable to do honestly.

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Covers 'names from unfamiliar countries or regions'