Take for example Group Manager Jan Roelof Falkena.
His last name is Falkena.
Now in Jan Roelof's own words, "The use of double names (without hyphens) is fairly common back home."
Thus his first name is not merely Jan, any more than Captain Jean-Luc Picard's first name is Jean. and putting Jan R. Falkena in such a form would be ridiculous, and not at all how his parents or he would have wanted his name expressed.
Or take Test Lead Gerardo Villarreal Guzman.
His first name is Gerardo.
His last name is derived half from his father's name (Villarreal) and his mother's (Guzman). The hyphen is not used between these two halves, and the name itself becomes an interesting symbol of what singer/songwriter Gavin DeGraw referred to as "the birth of two souls in one". Which in my opinion is actually kind of a nice thing, culturally speaking.
Link Posted by Tim at August 9, 2008 09:20 PM | TrackBack