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Welcome to the forum rchapman. Tough question. Some discussion here but no real consensus.
Browsing there and elsewhere, I found the following "answers" ...
- unconventional anthroponym
- reversible name
- surname name
- There is no special word describing this, since parents can name their children anything they want, so it's simply a name.
Sorry I couldn't be of more assistance. Maybe some other forum member will have an idea.
Surnames haven't been around all that long. I've been told, but have never had it verified, that the King )perhaps of England?) demanded that families adopt a surname and strong advice was that it be an occupation (Joe Don Baker) or a color (Giuseppe Verdi, whose name translates as Joe Green) but many people adopted a surname indicating where they came from geographically or genetically(Catherine of Aragon, Ponce de Leon).
Nikita Khruschev was called Nikita Sergevich, (son of Serge) and his kids would be called Nikitavitch as well as Khruschev. It's not so much that parents are allowed to give their kids and given name (Moon Unit Zappa!) but a significant fraction of all people change their surnames, and not just women. Gerry Ford was originally Leslie King, and Bill Clinton was William Jefferson Blyth III. I recently posted of Bo Diddley and Jelly Roll Morton.
Native Americans commonly adopted different names at different stages of life, which makes sense; you're not the same guy you were when you were decades earlier.
But I'll pose a question that's related. Your last name is a patronymic, or a surname. Your first name ought not be called your Christian name if you are Jewish, and "given name" is, like "first name", pretty wordy. Can you think of a one-word synonym?
deaconB said
[...]"given name" is, like "first name", pretty wordy. Can you think of a one-word synonym?
Since the OxED gives the etymology of surname as containing "sire name", perhaps we can make a similar shorting and vowel substitution and start using guvname.
Another constructed possibility would be firname or furname. Just now writing this last one makes me like it. It is just one letter off but significantly enough different from surname to indicates its complement. We might even extend to murname.
I have a slightly different understanding of the patronymic. It is indeed derived from the father's first name as deaconB says, but it isn't a surname, but a middle name. The first name is still Nikita, and the last name Kruschev, but Sergeivich the middle name in honor of his father Sergei. Nikita Sergeivich Kruschev, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (to name two prominent commies). At least this is the practice in Russian, and it isn't even this simple. The patronymic is used in different ways in other languages.
Icelandic is an example of the patronymic surname, where Sven is the father of Karl, Karl's surnname then is Svenson or Svensson. Sven's daughter is Ingrid Svensdottir.
I knew an historian named Lacey Baldwin Smith. Poor chap didn't have a first name.
EmmettRedd said
Another constructed possibility would be firname or furname. Just now writing this last one makes me like it. It is just one letter off but significantly enough different from surname to indicates its complement. We might even extend to murname.
And all your father's children, regardless of their mother, would be firkin?
Sorry, that argues with biology. A woman who drinks a firkin may couple indiscriminantly, but a man who does that may be unable to.
I think middle names are more likely to honor her family name. When Anne Bethany Carter married David Edward Fowler, Anne typically assumes the name Anne Carter Fowler, and her kids may end up named George Carter Fowler and Elizabeth Fowler. If Anne's mother was a Rockefeller, though, she might be more likely to trade Anne Rockefeller Carter for Anne Rockefeller Fowler, anfd name her kids George Rockefeller and Elizabeth Rockefeller Fowler.
Jackie O's mother was Janet Norton Lee, and so she was originally Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. She "married down" so after marriage, she styled herself Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. By the time she married again, Jack had become a more significant name, so she became Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Nobody seems to remember the Norton connection because Janet was notable in her own right, and Bouvier is mostly remembered because of Jack's self deprecating humor about marrying up, and Jackie's sister's fame.
Maybe I'm lucky we don't frequently change names, for I might have a name mentioning a train taking a dirt road.
stevenz said
I knew an historian named Lacey Baldwin Smith. Poor chap didn't have a first name.
I used to work with a woman whose first name was Hamilton, and one day she happened to say something in which she mentioned both her husband, Morgan, and her daughter, Payton. I looked her straight in the eye and said "doesn't anybody in your family have a first name for a first name?"
(I wonder if Elton John and Paul Simon would have anything constructive to add to this thread.)
Ron Draney said
(I wonder if Elton John and Paul Simon would have anything constructive to add to this thread.)
Elton John was originally Reginald Kenneth Dwight. He didn't have a last name, before or after.
There is a bill under consideration in Indiana that would make it illegal for a transgendered person to use a public restroom for persons not of their birth gender. I'm not sure why bigots would be more pleased to have someone who looks, acts, and has the genitalia of a man were to use the women's restroom because they were thought to be female when they were born. Because the artist formerly known as Mr Dwight is openly gay, I've been expecting people to joke about the it being the "Elton" John Bil, but so far, so good. Maybe Hoosiers are less bigoted than they appear. Communities all over the state are passing local ordinances protecting gay rights in response to the ugly legislation passed by the state a year ago.
I used to know a Kirk Gary. The substitute teachers typically called him Gary Kirk. A lifetrime of people getting your name backwards must be tedious.
Paul Simon's father, Louis, performed as a musician under the name Lee Sims. I don't know of anyone with a given name of Sims, but I know people with Louis, Simon, and Lee as surnames and others as given names.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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