A given name (also known as a first name, forename) is a part of a person's personal name.^[1] It identifies a specific person, and differentiates that person from other members of a group, such as a family or clan, with whom that person shares a common surname. The term given name refers to the fact that the name usually is bestowed upon a person, normally given to a child by its parents at or near the time of birth. This contrasts with a surname (also known as a family name, last name, or gentile name), which is normally inherited and shared with other members of the child's immediate family.^[2]

Regnal names and religious or monastic names are special types of given names, as they are given to adults upon them receiving a crown or entering a religious order and as such are replacing the original given name of those persons.

Given names are often used in a familiar and friendly manner in informal situations.^[1] In more formal situations the surname is more commonly used, unless it is necessary to distinguish between people with the same surname. The idioms "on a first-name basis" and "being on first-name terms" allude to the familiarity of addressing another by a given name.^[1]

Name order

The order given name – family name, commonly known as the Western order, is used throughout most European countries and in countries that have cultures predominantly influenced by Western Europe (North and South America, North, East, Central and West India, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines).

The order family name – given name, commonly known as the Eastern order, is primarily used in East Asia (for example in China, Japan, Korea, Malaysian Chinese, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam), as well as in Southern and North-Eastern parts of India, but also in Hungary. It is common in popular use also in Austria and Bavaria, but also in France, Belgium, Greece and Italy, possibly because of the influence of the bureaucratic use of putting the family name before the given name. In China and Korea, even part of the given name may be shared among all members of a given generation in a family and the family's extensions, to differentiate those generations from other generations.

The order "given name - father's family name - mother's family name" is commonly used in Spanish-speaking countries to acknowledge the families of both parents. Today the order can also be changed legally in Spain and Uruguay using "given name - mother's family name - father's family name".

Multiple given names

Under the common Western naming convention, people may have one or more forenames (either given or acquired). If more than one, there is usually a main forename (German: Rufname) for everyday use, and one or more supplementary forenames. Sometimes, however, two or more forenames may carry equal weight. There is no particular ordering rule for forenames – often the main forename is at the beginning, but other arrangements are quite common, too.

Legal status

A child's given name or names are usually chosen by the parents soon after birth. If a name is not assigned at birth, one may be given at a naming ceremony, with family and friends in attendance. In most jurisdictions, a child's name at birth is a matter of public record, inscribed on a birth certificate, or its equivalent. In western cultures, people normally retain the same given name throughout their lives. However, in some cases these names may be changed by petitioning a court of law. People may also change their names when immigrating from one country to another with different naming conventions.^[3]

In certain jurisdictions, mainly civil-law jurisdictions such as France, Quebec, the Netherlands or Germany, a government-appointed registrar of births may refuse to register a name that may cause a child harm, or which is considered offensive. In France, the agency can refer the case to a local judge. Some jurisdictions, like in Sweden, restrict the spelling of names.^[i]

Origins and meanings

Parents may choose a name because of its meaning. This may be a personal or familial meaning, such as giving a child the name of an admired person, or it may be an example of nominative determinism, in which the parents give the child a name that they believe will be lucky or favourable for the child. Given names most often derive from the following categories:

• Aspirational personal traits (external and internal). For example, the name Clement means "merciful".^[5][6] English examples include Faith, Prudence, and August.
• Occupations, for example George means "earth-worker", i.e., "farmer".^[7]
• Circumstances of birth, for example Thomas meaning "twin" or the Latin name Quintus, which was traditionally given to the fifth male child.^[8][9]
• Objects, for example Peter means "rock" and Edgar means "rich spear".^[10][11]
• Physical characteristics, for example Calvin means "bald".^[12]
• Variations on another name, especially to change the sex of the name (Pauline, Georgia) or to translate from another language (for instance, the names Francis or Francisco that come from the name Franciscus meaning "Frank or Frenchman").^[13][14][15]
• Surnames, for example Winston,^[16] Harrison,^[17] and Ross.^[18] Such names can honour other branches of a family, where the surname would not otherwise be passed down (e.g., the mother's maiden surname).
• Places, for example Brittany^[19] and Lorraine.^[20]
• Time of birth, for example day of the week, as in Kofi Annan, whose given name means "born on Friday",^[21] or the holiday on which one was born, for example, the name Natalie meaning "[born on] Christmas day" in Latin.^[22]
• Combination of the above, for example the Armenian name Sirvart means "love rose".^[23]

In many cultures, given names are reused, especially to commemorate ancestors or those who are particularly admired, resulting in a limited repertoire of names that sometimes vary by orthography.

The most familiar example of this, to Western readers, is the use of Biblical and saints' names in most of the Christian countries (with Ethiopia, in which names were often ideals or abstractions—Haile Selassie, "power of the Trinity"; Haile Miriam, "power of Mary"—as the most conspicuous exception). However, the name Jesus is considered taboo or sacrilegious in some parts of the Christian world, though this taboo does not extend to the cognate Joshua or related forms which are common in many languages even among Christians. In some Spanish speaking countries, the name Jesus is considered a normal given name.

Similarly, the name Mary, now popular among Christians, particularly Roman Catholics, was considered too holy for secular use until about the 12th century. In countries that particularly venerated Mary, this remained the case much longer; in Poland, until the arrival in the 17th century of French queens named Marie.^[24]

Most common given names in English (and many other European languages) can be grouped into broad categories based on their origin:

• Hebrew names, most often from the Bible, are very common in—or are elements of names used in—the historically Christian countries. Some have elements meaning "God", especially "Eli". Examples: Michael, Joshua, Daniel, Joseph, David, Adam, Samuel, Elizabeth, Hannah and Mary. There are also a handful of names in use derived from the Aramaic, particularly the names of prominent figures in the New Testament—such as Thomas, Martha and Bartholomew.
  • All of the Semitic peoples of history and the present day use at least some names constructed like these in Hebrew (and the ancient Hebrews used names not constructed like these—such as Moses, probably an Egyptian name related to the names of Pharaohs like Thutmose and Ahmose). The Muslim world is the best-known example (with names like Saif-al-din, "sword of the faith", or Abd-Allah, "servant of God"), but even the Carthaginians had similar names: cf. Hannibal, "the grace of god" (in this case not the Abrahamic deity God, but the deity—probably Melkart—whose title is normally left untranslated, as Baal).
• Germanic names are characteristically warlike; roots with meanings like "glory", "strength", and "will" are common. The "-bert" element common in many such names comes from beraht, which means "bright". Examples: Robert, Edward, Roger, Richard, Albert, Carl, Alfred, Rosalind, Emma, Emmett, Eric and Matilda.
• French forms of Germanic names. Since the Norman conquest of England, many English given names of Germanic origin are used in their French forms. Examples: Robert, Charles, Henry, Albert.
• Slavic names are often of a peaceful character, the compounds being derived from word roots meaning "to protect", "to love", "peace", "to praise [gods]", "to give". Examples: Milena, Vesna, Bohumil, Dobromir, Svetlana, Vlastimil. The names have also warlike character and are built of words meaning "fighter", "war", "anger". Examples: Casimir, Vladimir, Sambor, Wojciech and Zbigniew. Many of them derive from the root word "slava" - glory: Boleslav, Miroslav, Vladislav, Radoslav and Stanislav.
• Celtic names are sometimes anglicised versions of Celtic forms, but the original form may also be used. Examples: Alan, Brian, Brigid, Mórag, Ross, Logan, Ciarán, Jennifer, and Seán. These names often have origins in Celtic words, as Celtic versions of the names of internationally known Christian saints, as names of Celtic mythological figures, or simply as long-standing names whose ultimate etymology is unclear.
• Greek names may be derived from the history and mythology of Classical Antiquity or be derived from the New Testament and early Christian traditions. Such names are often, but not always, anglicised. Examples: Helen, Stephen, Alexander, Andrew, Peter, Gregory, George, Christopher, Melissa, Margaret, Nicholas, Jason, Timothy, Chloe, Zoë, Katherine, Penelope and Theodore.
• Latin names can also be adopted unchanged, or modified; in particular, the inflected element can be dropped, as often happens in borrowings from Latin to English. Examples: Laura, Victoria, Marcus, Justin (Latin Justinus), Paul (Lat. Paulus), Julius, Cecilia, Felix, Julia, Pascal (not a traditional-type Latin name, but the adjective-turned-name paschalis, meaning 'of Easter' (Pascha)).
• Word names come from English vocabulary words. Feminine names of this sort—in more languages than English, and more cultures than Europe alone—frequently derive from nature, flowers, birds, colours, or gemstones. Examples include Jasmine, Lavender, Dawn, Daisy, Rose, Iris, Petunia, Rowan, Jade, and Violet. Male names of this sort are less common—examples like Hunter and Fischer, or names associated with strong animals, such as Bronco and Wolf. (This is more common in some other languages, such as Northern Germanic and Turkish).
• Trait names most conspicuously include the Christian virtues, mentioned above, and normally used as feminine names (such as the three Christian virtues—Faith, Hope, and Charity).
• Diminutives are sometimes used to distinguish between two or more people with the same given name. In English, Robert may be changed to "Robbie" or Thomas changed to "Tommy". In German the names Hänsel and Gretel (as in the famous fairy tale) are the diminutive forms of Johann and Margarete. Examples: Vicky, Tommy, Abby, Allie.
• Shortened names (see nickname) are generally nicknames of a longer name, but they are instead given as a person's entire given name. For example, a man may simply be named "Jim", and it is not short for James. Examples: Beth, Ben, Zach, Tom.
• Feminine variations exist for many masculine names, often in multiple forms. Examples: Charlotte, Stephanie, Victoria, Philippa, Jane, Jacqueline, Josephine, Danielle, Paula, Pauline, Patricia, Francesca.

Frequently, a given name has versions in many different languages. For example, the biblical name Susanna also occurs in its original biblical Hebrew version, Shoshannah, its Spanish and Portuguese version Susana, its French version, Suzanne, and its Polish version, Zuzanna.

East Asia

Despite the uniformity of Chinese surnames, Chinese given names can be fairly original because Chinese characters can be combined extensively. Unlike European languages with their Biblical and Roman heritage, the Chinese language does not have a particular set of words reserved for given names: any combination of Chinese characters can theoretically be used as a given name. Nonetheless, a number of popular characters commonly recur, including "Strong" (伟, Wěi), "Learned" (文, Wén), "Peaceful" (安, Ān), and "Beautiful" (美, Měi). Despite China's increasing urbanization, a great many names – such as "Pine" (松, Sōng) and "Plum" (梅, Méi) – also still reference nature.

Most Chinese given names are two characters long and – despite the examples above – the two characters together may mean nothing at all. Instead, they may be selected to include particular sounds, tones, or radicals; to balance the Chinese elements of a child's birth chart; or to honor a generation poem handed down through the family for centuries. Traditionally, it is considered an affront and not an honor to have a newborn named after an older relative, so that full names are rarely passed down through a family in the manner of American English Seniors, Juniors, III, etc. Similarly, it is considered disadvantageous for the child to bear a name already made famous by someone else, although Romanizations might be identical or a common name like Liu Xiang might be borne by tens of thousands.

Korean names and Vietnamese names are often simply conventions derived from Classical Chinese counterparts.^{[citation needed]}

Many female Japanese names end in -ko (子), meaning "child". This can make them seem decidedly unfeminine to Europeans accustomed to Indo-European tendencies to end masculine names in o.^{[citation needed]}

In many Westernised Asian locations, many Asians also have an unofficial or even registered Western (typically English) given name, in addition to their Asian given name. This is also true for Asian students at colleges in countries such as the United States, Canada, and Australia as well as among international businesspeople.

Gender

Most names in English are traditionally masculine or feminine, but there are unisex names as well, such as Jordan, Jamie, Jesse, Alex, Ash, Chris/Kris, Hilary/Hillary, Kim, Leslie/Lesley, Joe/Jo, Jackie, Pat, Dana, Sam or Ryan. Often, one gender is predominant. Also, a particular spelling is often more common for either men or women, even if the pronunciation is the same. Predicting gender using names in the US or Europe is about 99% accurate.^[25]

Many culture groups, past and present, did not or do not gender names strongly, so that many or all of their names are unisex. On the other hand, in many languages including most Indo-European languages (but not English), gender is inherent in the grammar. Some countries have laws preventing unisex names, requiring parents to give their children sex-specific names. Names may have different gender connotations from country to country or language to language.

Popularity distribution of given names

The popularity (frequency) distribution of given names typically follows a power law distribution.

Since about 1800 in England and Wales and in the U.S., the popularity distribution of given names has been shifting so that the most popular names are losing popularity. For example, in England and Wales, the most popular female and male names given to babies born in 1800 were Mary and John, with 24% of female babies and 22% of male babies receiving those names, respectively.^[26] In contrast, the corresponding statistics for in England and Wales in 1994 were Emily and James, with 3% and 4% of names, respectively. Not only have Mary and John gone out of favour in the English speaking world, also the overall distribution of names has changed significantly over the last 100 years for females, but not for males. This has led to an increasing amount of diversity for female names.^[27]

Choice of names

Education, ethnicity, religion, class and political ideology affect parents' choice of names. In the United States, popular names tend to be chosen by parents with more education.^{[citation needed]} Politically conservative parents choose common and traditional names, while politically liberal parents choose the names of literary characters or other relatively obscure cultural figures.^[28] Devout members of religions often choose names from their religious scriptures. For example, Hindu parents may name a daughter Saanvi after the goddess, Jewish parents may name a boy Isaac after one of the earliest ancestral figures, and Muslim parents may name a boy Mohammed after the prophet.

There are many tools parents can use to choose names, including books, websites and applications. An example is the Baby Name Game that uses the Elo rating system to rank parents preferred names and help them select one.^[29]

Influence of popular culture

Popular culture appears to have an influence on naming trends, at least in the United States and United Kingdom. Newly famous celebrities and public figures may influence the popularity of names. For example, in 2004, the names "Keira" and "Kiera" respectively became the 51st and 92nd most popular girls' names in the UK, following the rise in popularity of British actress Keira Knightley.^[30] In 2001, the use of Colby as a boys' name for babies in the United States jumped from 233rd place to 99th, just after Colby Donaldson was the runner-up on Survivor: The Australian Outback.^{[citation needed]} Also, the female name "Miley" which before was not in the top 1000 was 278th most popular in 2007, following the rise to fame of singer-actress Miley Cyrus (who was named Destiny at birth).^[31]

Characters from fiction also seem to influence naming. After the name Kayla was used for a character on the American soap opera Days of Our Lives, the name's popularity increased greatly. The name Tammy, and the related Tamara became popular after the movie Tammy and the Bachelor came out in 1957. Some names were established or spread by being used in literature. Notable examples include Pamela, invented by Sir Philip Sidney for a pivotal character in his epic prose work, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia; Jessica, created by William Shakespeare in his play The Merchant of Venice; Vanessa, created by Jonathan Swift; Fiona, a character from James Macpherson's spurious cycle of Ossian poems; Wendy, an obscure name popularised by J. M. Barrie in his play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up; and Madison, a character from the movie Splash. Lara and Larissa were rare in America before the appearance of Doctor Zhivago, and have become fairly common since.

Songs can influence the naming of children. Jude jumped from 814th most popular male name in 1968 to 668th in 1969, following the release of The Beatles' "Hey Jude." Similarly, Layla charted as 969th most popular in 1972 after the Eric Clapton song. It had not been in the top 1,000 before.^[31]

Kayleigh became a particularly popular name in the United Kingdom following the release of a song by the British rock group Marillion. Government statistics in 2005 revealed that 96% of Kayleighs were born after 1985, the year in which Marillion released "Kayleigh." ^{[citation needed]}

Popular culture figures need not be admirable in order to influence naming trends. For example, Peyton came into the top 1000 as a female given name for babies in the United States for the first time in 1992 (at #583), immediately after it was featured as the name of an evil nanny in the film The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.^[31] On the other hand, historical events can influence child-naming. For example, the given name Adolf has fallen out of use since the end of World War II in 1945.

In contrast with these anecdotal evidence, a comprehensive study of Norwegian first name datasets^[32] shows that the main factors that govern first name dynamics are endogenous. Monitoring the popularity of 1000 names along 130 years, the authors have identified only five cases of exogenous effects, three of them are connected to the names given to the babies of the Norwegian royal family.

Name at birth

Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births register or birth certificate may by that fact alone become the person's legal name.^[33] The assumption in the Western world is often that the name from birth or perhaps from baptism or brit milah will persist to adulthood in the normal course of affairs – e.g., throughout life for men and until marriage for women. Some possible changes concern middle names, diminutive forms, and changes relating to parental status (e.g., due to divorce of the parents or adoption by different parents). Matters are very different in some cultures in which a name at birth is only a childhood name, rather than the default choice for later life.

The French and English-adopted terms née and né (/ˈneɪ/; French: [ˈne], from French né[e] 'born') are used to indicate the name at birth. The term née, having feminine grammatical gender, can be applied to a woman's surname at birth that has been replaced or changed, most often (in English-speaking cultures) at marriage.^[34] The masculine form né, though uncommon, can likewise be applied in English or French to men's family names changed for any reason.^[35] The accent marks are significant to the spelling but sometimes omitted.

The term "birth name" is sometimes used for the name before marriage of a woman, in cultures where a married woman's name customarily changes.

The term "dead name" is sometimes used by transgender people who change their names to match their gender identity as part of their transitioning.^[36][37]