User:Douglas the Comeback Kid/Naming Convention of Non-English Names in English

There are numerous languages in the world and there are different naming conventions. In English, we present names in the order of 'first name (+middle name) + surname' which is different from some languages, e.g. Chinese.

As far as I can see, the English-language press presents names in accordance with the naming convention of the language the name is from, rather than the naming convention of English, if the language concerned does not follow the naming convention of English. Let us look at the following example: For example, the North Korean leader is commonly known as 'Kim Jong-il' in the Anglophone. 'Jong Il' ('Jong-il') is the given name and 'Kim' is the surname. In Korean, people present names in the order of 'surname + given name'. The press simply present his name as 'Kim Jong-il' without changing it to 'Jong Il Kim'.

As a British, I feel very strongly about that. To me, it is a disreagrd for the naming rules of the English language, a language of Britain, and a disrespect for the English language.

Some people argue that the name is not of English origin so it is not an English name and it does not have to follow the naming convention of English. This is utterly wrong. It is not the origin of the name that matters, it is the language it is being written in that matters. If a name is written in Chinese, it has to follow the naming convention of Chinese; if in English, then the naming convention of English. ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ can be a short summary of this idea. The same idea applies even if the language follows the naming convention of English.

Many languages which do not adopt the naming convention of English do not use Latin alphabets. When names of these languages appear in English, they are English transliterations and are not in their original form: they have become 'English names' and should follow to the naming conventions of English.

It is not just a matter of compliance with rules, but also a matter of convenience. People in the Anglophone are generally unfamiliar with non-European names; not adopting the naming convention of English can confuse people by making it hard to distinguish the surname and the given name(s). This is because we present names in the order of 'first name (+ middle name) + surname' in English and it is natural for us to assume that an unfamiliar name follows the same convention. For example, if we present the Chinese name of the former Senior Unofficial Member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong Sir Sze Yuen Chung in the order of Chinese like the press usually do, it will become 'Chung Sze-yuen' and people may mistake 'Sze-yuen' for the surname and 'Chung' for the given name.

Many people who do not follow the naming convention know exactly which part of the name is the surname and which part the given name; somehow, they just do not go one step further by reverting the order to make the name follow the naming convention of English. This is very disappointing.