3 ms·

nitpick: all names are hard to infer nationality from. you could be thinking of ethnicity, which might be easier, but nationality definitely not see: stephen

• notahacker 13y ago
  I agree that the names are actually rooted in ethno-linguistic groups rather than citizenship, but it's actually very easy to infer that someone calling himself Htun Myint Naing probably holds a Myanmar passport, and citizenship is the most pertinent fact when you're doing business internationally, especially when you're from a pariah state. Sure, you'd be hard pressed to guess the nationality of most people with standard Spanish and English names, and people can make a lot of wrong inferences about nationality because of migration, intermarriage (recently I've lived with Britons with very obviously Polish, Italian and Spanish-diaspora names respectively) or ethnic groups overlapping borders. You'd also be wrong in thinking that Lo Ping Zhong was likely to be a citizen of China rather than Myanmar, but you'd still be more inclined to background check his company more than Stephen Law's.
  • einhverfr 13y ago
    But also keep in mind that the name in question is a known alias of someone they are watching for. That means that any expectation you have of an ethnolinguistic connection to the individual goes out the window as well, since the individual has total control over it.