What is the correct way to write the name.
Canada, British Columbia, Victoria and Cranbrook Counties—Naturalization records, 1859–1926 [MST7-H36]
It may not be common knowledge nowadays, but the Chinese use to put their last name first. What should I do in this batch and others like it? Technically, the man's name is Ging On Chong, not Chong Ging On. Thanks!
Risposte
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Chinese people still put their last name first. We call it family name. His name is Chong Gin On.
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Thank you.
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Hope this doesn't sound like a simple question, but besides you just recognizing that Chong was the Surname and Ging On is the given name, how would the rest of us figure that out.
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good questio. You do have to have a basic knowledge of chinese family names to know that. Most Chinese family names are one character, with some exception of two or more characters for a few family names.
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Thanks. I just wanted to know if my suppositions like yours have any validity. I grew up in Taiwan so naturally without thinking recognize surnames. But given names are harder because a lot of my friends had western given names or just allowed me to use just one of their two sound given name without explaining it was a two word name. Or we used je je, mei mei. Etc.
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You almost need someone who can speak Chinese to determine the surname. From my experience I would say that Chong is the surname and Ging On is the given name because On probably means peace and I don't think there is surname of On. Another hint, especially in Hawaii, is that most surnames do not begin with an "A" or "Ah" in front. 99.9% of the time it is a given name. Examples are Aki, Awah, Apo, Ahmui, Apang,etc. common surnames in Hawaii that were originally given names. Also, there is no standard spelling of Chinese characters into English romanizations. Most from Hong Kong or Kwantung province used the British Meyer-Wemp system. The problem is that according to that method The "K" letter took the "K" sound as we know it. But the British used a (K') designation to take the soft "G" sound. When the asterisk was left out the pronunciation was different. So a surname of Kau, could have been Gao in Hakka or Mandarin or Gou in Cantonese.
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Thank you very much
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