Regular irregular gripe

[bktheirregular]

Dear document drafters:

I know that in the Greek language, sometimes people put the surname first, sometimes the given name first. Is it too much to ask for people to pick one order and stick with it? As opposed to switching back and forth in the same document?

And especially when you're transcribing English names, when there is a definite rule about how it has to be done? Especially, especially, when dealing with someone with a surname that can be mistaken for a given name?

*headdesk*

Comments

[bktheirregular]

...thanks. :)

They weren't that haphazard with names in ancient Greek and Latin, were they?

[thanatos-kalos.livejournal.com]

In Latin you had the trinomy in a particular order, but when bouncing from work to work, it is very easy to get confused by which Scipio is doing what, when, and with whom. Ancient Greek tended to do given name, then a patronymic and/or a location name (e.g., 'Demetrios, son of Phillipos, of Acharnia'), thuogh the main problem there is that names tended to repeat every couple of generations...