4 ms·

> Similarly, don't require that people supply a family name. In cultures such as parts of Southern India, Malaysia and Indonesia, a large number of people have

> Similarly, don't require that people supply a family name. In cultures such as parts of Southern India, Malaysia and Indonesia, a large number of people have names that consist of a given name only, with no patronym. Yes, please! For eg., in my part of south India, people's last names used to be the name of their caste. When caste discrimination became somewhat uncool, most people stopped using those caste-based last names and being mononymous (having just the "given name") became the norm. Now, because most US-based services make entering a last name a necessity, there's a resurgence of caste identity in names here. A lot of others use their father's name or the name of their home city, and end up being addressed as "Mr. <City name>" or "Ms. <Father's name>" in communication. In general, a lot of people here find the whole firstname-lastname business just confusing.

paulmooreparks 2y ago
> A lot of others use their father's name or the name of their home city, and end up being addressed as "Mr. <City name>" or "Ms. <Father's name>" in communication. This pisses my Singaporean-Tamil wife off more than anything I've ever seen. Emails beginning "Dear Ms. (or worse, Mrs.) Father's-given-name" have been the end of a few business relationships with service companies.
- pif 2y ago
  As a service company in the Western world, does it make financial sense to even start wondering what changes could retain a couple customers more? I suppose it doesn't!
  - paulmooreparks 2y ago
    When it's a Western company, she swears a bit and rolls her eyes and moves on. What really pisses her off is when it's a local company that ought to know better.
samarthr1 2y ago
Or, to put it a bit more bluntly, when the supporters of EV Ramaswamy Naicker started becoming violent with people who had surnames that were traditionally used by the brahmins, people out of fear started to not use their family names. Even years after his death, his philosophy of "If you see a cobra and a brahmin, kill the brahmin" still has a large foothold in Tamil Nadu.

paulmooreparks 2y ago

> A lot of others use their father's name or the name of their home city, and end up being addressed as "Mr. <City name>" or "Ms. <Father's name>" in communication. This pisses my Singaporean-Tamil wife off more than anything I've ever seen. Emails beginning "Dear Ms. (or worse, Mrs.) Father's-given-name" have been the end of a few business relationships with service companies.

pif 2y ago
As a service company in the Western world, does it make financial sense to even start wondering what changes could retain a couple customers more? I suppose it doesn't!
- paulmooreparks 2y ago
  When it's a Western company, she swears a bit and rolls her eyes and moves on. What really pisses her off is when it's a local company that ought to know better.

samarthr1 2y ago

Or, to put it a bit more bluntly, when the supporters of EV Ramaswamy Naicker started becoming violent with people who had surnames that were traditionally used by the brahmins, people out of fear started to not use their family names. Even years after his death, his philosophy of "If you see a cobra and a brahmin, kill the brahmin" still has a large foothold in Tamil Nadu.