Alexander Leidinger wrote: > >They are not allone. China also does it and the 'official' Germany, > >but it is not commonly used. > In Germany it's > family_name, first_name > or > first_name family_name
Both forms appear in Dutch as well (although the first is pretty formal).
However, Dutch names frequently include 'interjections' (tussenvoegsels)
as well - something like "van" (v.), "de", "van der" (v/d), etc. - which
is part of the family name, but is not relevant when sorting by last
name. You see this as "d'" or "de" in other languages as well. Paperwork
in the Netherlands usually offers three fields for a name: first
name(s), interjection, family name - filling in forms in other languages
is sometimes confusing.
So my name might be listed as
Johan van Selst (Johan v. Selst)
or
Selst, Johan van
Other variations may appear as well, but are not very common. You may
address me as 'Johan', 'Johan van Selst' or even 'Mr. van Selst' -
but _not_ (never ever) as 'Johan van'. Thank you.
Hopefully this helps clarifying things,
Greetings,
JohanS
P.S. IIRC the Flemish, who also speak Dutch, tend to prefer another
ordering, but that's their choice ;)
P.P.S. Please let's not discuss the family names of married people.
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