FLHIG
 

Family and Local History
Indexing Group

Selected articles from the Newsletter

This article first appeared in SIGGNL 22  pages 8 to 11

Cataloguing and Indexing of Personal Names
Colin Mills

Following the articles on personal names in the last newsletter, I feel it is necessary to stress that the discussion referred to surnames which followed the forename-surname (or sometimes forename-patronymic) model current in most parts of Europe and partly in the countries colonized by European countries. I have purchased a copy of the IFLA manual on cataloguing personal names, which I hope will be reviewed (1) in the next issue, along with some other relevant books, all of which are listed in the reference list at the end of this article.

It seemed to me that it would be useful to extract the principal name models and list them here for reference. The classification of national usages into six categories necessarily, for reasons of space, simplifies actual practice, even though I have footnoted the listings. For instance, the word patronymic covers both the single word, "Johnson", and the father's name, "John" or the father's name with a prefix, "son of John". Forenames may be simple or compound, as may surnames. Surnames, and in some cases forenames, may include prefixes.

I have not attempted to cover the complexities of religious or secular titles or honorifics, or the cataloguing of royalty, nobility, or religious hierarchies, or of pseudonyms, including pen-names.

Full details can be found in the country entries given in the IFLA manual: in fact anyone thinking of indexing or cataloguing names should examine these entries, or the corresponding entries in a similar standard reference work, together with a reference work giving an exhaustive list of examples of names, for example a name authority file (2). When a personal name consists of a string of names, it is not always easy to work out which category each name belongs to. If you cannot find these on the shelves of your local library, inquire whether you may look at a copy in their cataloguing section.

Summary of different name models

forename + surname
Albania, Algeria, Australia (3), Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso (4), Burma (5) (Myanmar), Cambodia, England, Canada (6), Croatia (7), Czech lands (ie Bohemia & Moravia), Denmark, Estonia, Finland (8), France, Georgia, Germany, Iceland (9), Iran (10), Ireland (11), Israel (12), Italy, Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldavia, New Caledonia, New Zealand (13), Nigeria (14), Norway, Peru, the Phillippines, Poland, Portugal, Scotland (15), Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa (16), Spain, Switzerland, Tadzhikistan, Thailand, Turkey (17), Turkmenistan, Uganda (18), Uzbekistan, Zambia

family name + personal name
China (19), Hungary, Japan, Korea, Vietnam (20)

forename + individual name
Burundi (21)

forename + patronymic
Cameroun (22), Ethiopia (23), Wales (24)

forename + patronymic + surname
Armenia, Byelorussia, Bulgaria, Greece, Lebanon (25), Macedonia, Malawi, Netherlands (26), Romania (27), Russia (28), Serbia, Sweden (29), Ukraine (30)

complex
Arabic names, Ceylon (31) (Sri Lanka), the Gambia, Ghana, India (32), Indonesia, Ivory Coast (33), Jewish names (34), Kenya (35), Malaysia, Pakistan (36), Senegal, Tanzania (37)

References

Names of persons: national usages for entry in catalogues / [International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions]. - 4th revised and enlarged edition. - Munich; New Providence; London; Paris: K.G. Saur, 1996. - Universal Bibliographic and International MARC Programme [UBCIM], new series, vol 16. - ISBN 3-598-11342-0. [Provisional edition, 1963; definitive edition, 1967; 3rd revised edition, 1977; supplement to 3rd edition, 1980.]

The Oxford Dictionary of English christian names by E.G. Withycombe. - 2nd edition. - Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1950 (in paperback, 1973). - ISBN 0-19-881302-3.

Notes

(1)

I shall in any event seek permission to republish or summarise the reviews published in the Library Association Record or the Indexer

(2)

authority file - list of authorative forms such as names, subject headings to be used in bibliographic records - Dictionary of Library and Information Management, compiled by Janet Stevenson. Teddington: Peter Collin Publishing, 1997.

name authority file - a file, usually on cards, listing the forms of name of both personal and corporate authors, editors etc authorised for use as headings in a catalogue, together with an indication of references from variant forms or other parts of each name, from Encyclopaedia of Libarianship, compiled by Thomas Landau, 3rd revised edition. London: Bowes and Bowes, March 1966.

(3)

Aboriginal names may also be a simple or compound whole name, and in either case may be prefixed by a term of kinship.

(4)

Certain Mossi names may consist of two inseparable elements

(5)

Frequently includes an honorific prefix, and a distinguishing epithet before both prefix and name. Family names are a recent innovation; they are hard to distinguish and regarded as a personal name.

(6)

Native names consist of a given name, and optionally a surname; either may be simple or compound.

(7)

Mediaeval names consisting of forename and territorial name are indexed by forename.

(8)

Surname may be patronymic

(9)

Icelandic names do not always include a surname in the accepted sense and may be formed as forename(s), followed by patronymic or patronymic or family name or family name or prefix plus place name

(10)

Names before Islam were usually personal names; for names during the Islamic period, up to 1926, refer to Arabic names.

(11)

viz Gaelic names or English versions thereof.

(12)

See also Jewish names.

(13)

Maori usage now often follows the Western model using Maori names but the traditional model was a compound personal name, sometimes with a prefix.

(14)

The forename plus surname model is followed in the west, mid-west and east, the forename often being shortened, but names in the north are more complex: the Hausa and Fulfulde use a given-name plus extra-name plus surname model (the surname may be dropped, leaving the extra name as surname) and the Tiw use either personal names or forename plus surname.

(15)

Scottish names often have equivalent forms in English and Gaelic; however both patronymic and family name may be used.

(16)

It appears that similar models apply to names of English, French, Dutch and African origin.

(17)

Surnames were introduced in 1934.

(18)

The surname may be a patronymic.

(19)

Overseas Chinese or Chinese writing in Western languages frequently invert the name order.

(20)

An intercalary word may or may not be inserted between the family name and the given name.

(21)

An individual name may be compound.

(22)

The forename may be multiple; alternatively the name may be solely a personal name.

(23)

Personal names may be simple or compound; the patronymic consists of the personal names of father and grandfather, in that order.

(24)

Welsh names are usually forename plus patronymic, sometimes going back several generations, although epithets, job names or place names are sometimes substituted [or added]. However, over the course of time, patronymics tended to stabilise as surnames.

(25)

The middle name is usually the father's name; see also under Arabic names.

(26)

Patronymic optional.

(27)

Patronymics are not often used. The name may consist instead of a personal name, either simple, or compound, ie personal name plus epithet or byname, or personal name plus locative name.

(28)

The patronymic is sometimes omitted.

(29)

Swedish usage is more complex than it sounds.

(30)

The patronymic is sometimes omitted.

(31)

For Sinhalese, ancient and mediaeval usage was for a personal name, sometimes preceded by an epithet. Modern usage consists of a selection of personal name, family name and surname in a variety of orders. For Tamil the selection is from place name, patronymic, personal name, surname, and caste name, again in a bewildering variety of orders.

(32)

Indian languages can for name purposes be grouped as follows: i. Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, and Oriya (complex); ia. Gujerati and Marathi (complex); ii. Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam (complex); iii. Punjabi (personal name with complementary word plus surname plus optionally honorific or qualification).

(33)

Usually patronymic plus forename, although a particle may be included either before or just after the patronymic.

(34)

i.e. Israel and the Jewish Diaspora: Biblical & post-Biblical period - forename plus patronymic plus epithet, though the last two are unusual; mediaeval period onwards - forename plus patronymic plus descent plus surname, though the middle two are unusual in Israel.

(35)

Kenyan languages are classed for name purposes into the following: 1. Afroasiatic group (forename plus patronymic); 2. Bantu group (forename plus personal name plus patronymic plus family name); 3. Nilotic group (forename plus personal name plus patronymic); 4. Banjuni group (individual name plus patronymic).

(36)

Names are, like other Islamic countries, heavily influenced by Arabic usage: the entry point is usually the last part of the name (unless it is an honorific), though there are numerous exceptions.

(37)

Many names follow Western or Islamic form; traditional usage is for simple or complex names, but traditional names are often adapted for use in names according to Western or Islamic form.

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