Viewpoint Family Name First? First Name First?

[Crow]

I make a lot of characters where their original language would have their surname first then name second - East Asian languages, so they say.

A lot of people would prefer to have a standardized thing where everyone's first name comes first.

I myself have a Chinese name where the surname comes first, so I tend to lean towards that.

How about you all? What do you feel about how the names of some characters should be ordered? Is there at least one of you in the audience who think it's wrong to say it inaccurately? How about those of you who think it's fine to go ahead and use it? How about if it's applied to more fictitious or fantasy settings with their own fantasy naming structures?

Let's discuss.

 

[Idea]

I think in character sheets, one should always put first name first and family name second (middle names in the middle of course) irrespective of the character's original culture. The character sheet is not supposed to be limited to the character's perspective, it's meant to be informational- as such, it should be made in such a way that minimizes the resulting confusion.

In-character however, this is something to be discussed with partner or group. As an anime fan who likes to actively bring some elements from the medium into my roleplays, I actually think it can be pretty fun to do things like giving the kind of emphasis on the usage of last names until the characters are close enough for first names, or even doing something like adding honorifics which admittedly is pretty cringy if it's not done with self-awareness, but I wouldn't and won't do it unless it's something that it's agreed for everyone to do. Its the kind of thing that is interesting and can even bring a new angle to how characters interact, but only if people are in on it- otherwise it just looks out of place.

 

[Uxie]

for me personally, i put it as the culture does but usually specify which one they should be called by, either by referring to them as that name for the rest of the sheet or stating explicitly! idea's point about it being informative is important, since i've seen people who aren't as familiar with the culture get confused by it, but as a chinese person myself, i'm always preferable to respecting the conventions ( ◡‿◡ )

i don't think you could be faulted for doing either as long as you make the effort to help others avoid confusion! to me, the biggest error would be calling it wrong when it's really just a different culture. my view applies for fictitious worlds as well!

 

[Crayons]

It doesn't matter. I would tend to put it in the order that the character would use it, unless the source material (for example anime) commonly uses the first name, last name structure, in which case I might use that. Also if it's an RP set in a place where first name, surname is usual I would put it first name, surname even if the character would think of themselves as surname, first name.

When I was in a forum where there were mainly European style names and characters, I tried to (optionally) standardise my Japan-style nation's character names as first name, surname because otherwise people were confused. However there were some characters that I literally had no idea which was their first name and which their surname, particularly if they were made using a .. ugh ... name generator.

If I was GMing I might have different fields for given name and surname on the CS or explicitly state what order they should go in.

 

[Onmyoji]

It depends on the setting, however is "standard" in the setting I rp.
If it's Japanese, for example, I'd use last name first. In western settings first name first. Unless otherwise stated.