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A personal name is the proper name identifying an individual person, and today usually comprises a given name bestowed at birth or at a young age plus a surname. It is nearly universal for a human to have a name; except in rare cases, for example feral children growing up in isolation, or infants orphaned by natural disaster for whom no written record survives.^{[citation needed]} The Convention on the Rights of the Child specifies that a child has the right from birth to a name.^[1] Certain isolated tribes, such as the Machiguenga of the Amazon, also lack personal names. ^{[2] [3]}

Naming conventions are strongly influenced by culture, with some cultures being more flexible on naming than others. However, for all cultures where historical records are available, the naming rules are known to change over time.

Structure[link]

Common components of true names given at birth include:

• Personal Name: Universal. In most of Western culture, the given name precedes the family name; some other cultures place it after the family name, or use no family name.
• Patronymic: A surname based on the given name of the father.
• Matronymic: A surname based on the given name of the mother.
• Family name: A name used by all members of a family. In Europe, after the loss of the Roman system, the common use of family names started quite early in some areas (France in the 13th century, and Germany in the 16th century), but it often did not happen until much later in areas that used a patronymic naming custom, such as the Scandinavian countries, Wales, and some areas of Germany as well as Eastern European countries such as Russia and Ukraine. The compulsory use of surnames varied greatly. France required a priest to write surnames in baptismal records in 1539 (but did not require surnames for Jews, who usually used patronymics, until 1808). On the other hand, surnames were not compulsory in the Scandinavian countries until the 20th century (1923) in Norway, and Iceland still does not use surnames for its native inhabitants.
• In many families, single middle names are simply alternative names, names honoring an ancestor or relative, or, for married women, occasionally their maiden names. Many Catholic families choose a saint's name as their child's middle name or this can be left until the child's confirmation when they choose a saint's name for themselves. In countries such as Brazil the middle name is usually the mother's family name. Cultures that use patronymics or matronymics will often give middle names to distinguish between two similarly named people: e.g. Einar Karl Stefánsson and Einar Guðmundur Stefánsson. This is especially done in Iceland (as shown in example) where people are known and referred to almost exclusively by their given name/s.

Some people (called anonyms) choose to be anonymous, that is, to hide their true names, for fear of governmental prosecution or social ridicule of their works or actions. Another method to disguise one's identity is to employ a pseudonym.

Occasionally, a person is referred to by a single name. For example, Teller, of the magician duo Penn and Teller, has no given names. (His parents named him Raymond Joseph Teller but he legally changed his name to "Teller". In official government documents, such as his driver's license, his given name is listed as NFN, meaning "no first name"). Arvind of MIT CSAIL is another example.

The Inuit believe that the souls of the namesakes are one, so they traditionally refer to the junior namesakes, not just by the names (atiq), but also by kinship title, which applies across gender and generation without implications of disrespect or seniority. In Judaism, someone's name is considered intimately connected with his fate, and adding a name (e.g. on the sickbed) may avert a particular danger. Among Ashkenazi Jews it is also considered bad luck to take the name of a living ancestor, as the Angel of Death may mistake the younger person for his namesake (although there is no such custom among Sephardi Jews). Jews may also have a Jewish name for intra-communitary use and use a different name when engaging with the Gentile world. Chinese children are called insulting names to make them appear worthless to evil spirits. They receive a definitive name as they grow up.^{[citation needed]} Chinese and Japanese emperors receive posthumous names. In some Polynesian cultures, the name of a deceased chief becomes taboo. If he is named after a common object or concept, a different word has to be used for it.

Depending on national convention, additional given names (and sometimes titles) are considered part of the name.

Feudal names[link]

The royalty, nobility, and gentry of Europe traditionally have many names, including phrases for the lands that they own. The French developed the method of putting the term by which the person is referred in small capital letters. It is this habit which transferred to names of the Far East, as seen below. An example is that of Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch Gilbert du Motier, who is known as the Marquis de Lafayette. Notice that he possessed the lands both of Motier and Lafayette. Another example is Don Quixote de la Mancha, who is never referred to in literature by the phrase used as the title of the musical comedy, Man of La Mancha.

The bare place name was used formerly to refer to the person who owned it, rather than the land itself (the word "Gloucester" in "What will Gloucester do?" meant the Duke of Gloucester). As a development, the bare name of a ship in the Royal Navy meant its captain (e.g., "Cressy didn't learn from Aboukir") while the name with an article referred to the ship (e.g., "The Cressy is foundering").

Naming convention[link]

In contemporary Western societies (except for Iceland, Hungary, sometimes Flanders (depending on the occasion) and most dialects in the south of the German language area), the most common naming convention is that of a given name, usually indicating the child's sex, followed by the parents' family name. In earlier times, Scandinavian countries followed patronymic naming, with people effectively called "X's son/daughter"; this is now the case only in Iceland and was recently re-introduced as an option in the Faroe Islands. It is legally possible in Finland as people of Icelandic ethnic naming are specifically named in the name law.

Different cultures have different conventions for personal names. This is a list of articles about particular cultures' naming conventions.

Name order[link]

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Haruko Momoi at the Anime Expo 2007 in Los Angeles; her name card features a spelling of her name ("Halko Momoi") written in Western order; in Japanese her name is 桃井はるこ Momoi Haruko

Since a name is made up of several parts, the order in which those parts are arranged can be significant. The order family-name given-name is commonly known as the Eastern order and is used in Hungary, parts of Africa, and East Asia (for example in China, Japan, Korea, Malaysian Chinese, Singapore, Taiwan, Southern India, and Vietnam). The order given-name family-name is commonly known as the Western order and is usually used in most European countries and in countries that have cultures predominantly influenced by Western Europe (North and South America and Australia and New Zealand). In these countries, the family name is often used first in lists and catalogues, with the family and given names separated with a comma (e.g. Smith, John). For example, most Western libraries use this order, and if one fills a form sheet, family name is usually asked first.

When East Asian names are transliterated into the Latin alphabet, some prefer to convert them to the Western order at the same time, while others leave them in the Eastern order but write the family name in capital letters. To avoid confusion, some always write a family name in capital letters, especially when writing for an international audience. This habit is commonly used in the international language Esperanto.

Chinese people, except for those traveling or living outside of China, rarely reverse their names to the western naming order (given name, then family name). Western publications usually preserve the Chinese naming order, with the family name first, followed by the given name. In regards to Japanese names, most foreign publications reverse the names of modern individuals, and most Japanese reverse their own names when creating materials for foreign consumption.^[4] In popular journalism publications, western order is used for Japanese names.^[5]

Japanese names of contemporary individuals and Hungarian names are usually "switched" when individuals who have such names are mentioned in media in Western countries; for example, Koizumi Jun'ichirō is known as Junichiro Koizumi in English, and Puskás Ferenc is known as Ferenc Puskás. But Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese names of historical figures are usually left in East Asian order; for instance, Máo Zédōng is known as Mao Zedong in English.^{[citation needed]}

Names of Japanese or Chinese sportspeople generally follow the above conventions. For Japanese examples, see Ichiro Suzuki instead of Suzuki Ichirō (although he is widely known simply as "Ichiro" in both Japan and North America), or Hidetoshi Nakata instead of Nakata Hidetoshi. As for Chinese sportspeople, Yáo Míng is Yao Ming and Liú Xiáng is Liu Xiang in the West.^{[citation needed]}

Names of Korean sportspeople may be rendered in East Asian or Western order in Western countries, apparently depending on the sport. For example, names of Korean footballers and athletes are usually left in East Asian order (e.g. Ahn Jung-hwan, Hong Myung-bo, Park Ji-sung, Sohn Kee-chung, Hwang Young-cho). Baseball players' names are usually changed to Western order; for example Park Chan-Ho is referred to in the West as Chan-ho Park. Golfers' names are also typically switched to Western order; the female golfer Pak Se-ri is known in the West as Se Ri Pak. Confusion can be avoided by noticing that in all the above cases, the words linked by a hyphen are the given name.^{[citation needed]}

Nonhuman personal names[link]

Apart from the Linnaean taxonomy, some humans give individual nonhuman animals and plants names, usually of endearment.

Names of pets[link]

Pet names often reflect the owner's view of the animal, and their expectations they have for their companion.^[6][7] It has been argued that giving names allows researchers to view their pets as ontologically different from unnamed laboratory animals with which they work.^[8]

Some of the reasons used to decide a pet name include:

• Appearance^[9]
• Personality of the animal^[10]
• Endearment^[11]
• Favorite celebrities^[12]

Some pet owners give human names to their pets. This has been shown to reflect the owner having a human-like relationship with the pet.^[13]

In some cultures, pets or sporting animals are sometimes given names similar to human names. Other cultures, such as the Chinese, give animals nonhuman names, because it would be seen as offensive and disrespectful to the person of the same name. In Japan, dogs are often given non-Japanese first names, such as "John" or "Charley".^{[citation needed]}

Dolphin names for each other[link]

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences claims that humans are not the only animals that use personal names. Researchers from the University of North Carolina Wilmington studying bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay, Florida, found that the dolphins had names for each other.^[14] A dolphin chooses its name as an infant.^[15]

See also[link]

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Matthews, Elaine; Hornblower, Simon; Fraser, Peter Marshall, Greek Personal Names: Their Value as Evidence, Proceedings of The British Academy (104), Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-19-726216-3

External links[link]

• The use of personal names
• Kate Monk's Onomastikon(Dictionary of Names)
• Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, a Major Research Project of the British Academy, Oxford, contains over 35,000 published Greek names.

Ben Cross (born 16 December 1947) is a British actor of the stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of the British Olympic athlete Harold Abrahams in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire.

Early life[link]

Cross was born Harry Bernard Cross in London to a working class Irish Catholic family.^[1][2] His mother was a cleaning woman and his father a doorman and nurse.^[3] He began acting at a very young age and participated in grammar school plays – most notably playing Jesus in a school pageant at age 12. Cross was educated at Devonport High School for Boys, a grammar school in Plymouth, Devon, but was bullied by a teacher and left home at 15.^[4]

Early work[link]

Cross initially worked in various jobs including work as a window cleaner, waiter and joiner. He was master carpenter for the Welsh National Opera and property master at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham.

In 1970 at the age of 22, he was accepted into London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) - the alma mater of actors such as John Gielgud, Glenda Jackson and Anthony Hopkins, but later expressed little interest in pursuing the classical route.^[5]

After graduation from RADA, Cross performed in several stage plays at Duke's Playhouse where he was seen in Macbeth, The Importance of Being Earnest and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. He then joined the Prospect Theatre Company and played roles in Pericles, Twelfth Night, and Royal Hunt of the Sun. Cross also joined the cast in the immensely popular musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and played leading roles in Sir Peter Shaffer's Equus, Mind Your Head and the musical Irma La Douce – all at Leicester's Haymarket Theatre.

Cross's first big screen film appearance came in 1976 when he went on location to Deventer, Netherlands, to play Trooper Binns in Joseph E. Levine's World War II epic A Bridge Too Far which starred an international cast, including Dirk Bogarde, Sean Connery, Michael Caine and James Caan.

In 1977, Cross became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and performed in the premier of Privates on Parade as "Kevin Cartwright" and played Rover in a revival of a Restoration play titled Wild Oats.

Cross's path to international stardom began in 1978 with his performance in the play Chicago in which he played Billy Flynn, the slick lawyer of murderess Roxie Hart.

[edit] Chariots of Fire

During Cross's performance in Chicago, he was recognised and recommended for a leading role in the multiple Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire. For their performances in the film, Cross and his co-star Ian Charleson both won "Most Promising Artiste of 1981" awards from the Variety Club Awards in February 1982.^[6]

Cross's starring role in Chariots of Fire has been credited with continuing a transatlantic trend in elegant young English actors that had been set by Jeremy Irons in Brideshead Revisited, and was followed by Rupert Everett in Dance with a Stranger, Rupert Graves in A Room With a View, and Hugh Grant in Maurice.^[7]

Cross followed up Chariots of Fire with performances as a Scottish physician, Dr Andrew Mason, struggling with the politics of the British medical system during the 1920s, in The Citadel, a 10-part BBC dramatisation of A.J. Cronin's novel, and as Ashton (Ash) Pelham-Martyn, a British cavalry officer torn between two cultures in the ITV miniseries The Far Pavilions.

In 1982, the U.S. union Actors' Equity, in a landmark reversal of a previous ruling, allowed Cross to appear in John Guare's off-Broadway play Lydie Breeze. The decision was tied to a joint effort by Actors' Equity, the League of New York Theatres and the British union Equity to allow British and U.S. actors unrestricted opportunities to work in both countries.^[8] The agreement eventually led to regular equal exchange agreements for equivalent acting jobs between London and New York.^[9]

During the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, Cross appeared in a commercial for American Express ('Don't leave home without it') with the 87-year-old Jackson Scholz, a sprinter for the 1924 American Olympic team whose character was featured in the film Chariots of Fire. When Cross says something about beating Scholz, the latter remarks, "You didn't beat me!" with mock indignation. Proving he is 'still pretty fast', Scholz beats Cross to the draw in picking up the tab with his credit card.

He subsequently replaced James Garner as the featured actor endorsing the Polaroid Spectra camera in 1986. Cross was also featured in GQ Magazine as one of the annual "Manstyle" winners in January, 1985 followed by a featured photo shoot in March, 1985.

In 1985, he played Barney Greenwald in a hit revival of Herman Wouk's courtroom drama The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial at the Queen's Theatre, London.

In a 1985 interview the actor admitted he preferred American roles because of their emotionalism, saying of English acting: 'Over here, people hide behind mannerism and technique and don't come up with any soul. American actors are much freer with the emotions. It's pretty hard in Europe not to have experience of Americans because we're exposed to a lot of American product.'^[5] Cross also said that he was sympathetic to the American dream of success: 'I am ambitious. There's no point of being ashamed of the fact that one has ambitions. Despite what a lot of people think in our profession, you can have ambitions and still turn in good work and still earn a living. There's no clash there.'^[5] Cross expressed the hope that his reputation would 'span the Atlantic,' and that those in the industry would not ignore him because he did not live in New York or Los Angeles. 'A prospective director would have to convince me that I could bring something new, fresh and exciting to a classical part that hundreds of other people have played,' he said.^[5]

Over the years, Cross has played Solomon in the 1997 Trimark Pictures production Solomon;^[10] Captain Nemo in the 1997 CBS film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; vampire Barnabas Collins in the 1991 MGM miniseries remake of the cult classic soap opera Dark Shadows; another vampire in the 1989 USA Network film Nightlife; Sir Harold Pearson in the 1994 Italian production Caro Dolce Amore (Honey Sweet Love); Iraqi pilot Munir Redfa blackmailed into flying a MiG from Iraq to Israel in the 1988 HBO spy film Steal the Sky; and Nazi SS colonel and certified war criminal Helmut von Schraeder, who has his face and voice surgically changed, poses as a Jew, becomes a Zionist and ends up an Israeli major general in the 1989 NBC film Twist of Fate.

2000 to present[link]

Cross played Ikey Solomon in the Australian production The Potato Factory in 2000. In 2005, Cross, an anti-death penalty campaigner, starred as a death-row prisoner in Bruce Graham's play, Coyote on a Fence, at the Duchess Theatre.^[11] He played Rudolf Hess in the 2006 BBC production Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial.

In November 2007, Cross was cast in the role of Sarek, in the new Star Trek film directed and produced by J.J. Abrams.^[12][13] Cross spoke to Star Trek magazine following the film's release, saying, 'My agent put me forward for Star Trek, and he sent a couple of films to J.J.. I'm sure he was too busy to watch the whole of Species, but when we were on the set, he mentioned to me that there was one particular shot in it where I turned to the camera, and in that moment, it came to him how perfect it would be for me to play Sarek.'^[14] In order to prepare for the role, Cross drew on his experience as a parent as well as Sarek's previous on-screen appearances. Having been present when his daughter was born, he was able to 'call on all sorts of things' in the scene where Amanda has baby Spock, a scene which did not make it into the theatrical cut of the film.^[14] While he found the emotionless trait of a Vulcan a challenge to play, he found the father/son relationship between Sarek and Spock easier to play. 'As Sarek, I had to be true to the Vulcan cultural ethic, which in the beginning, I found very difficult. I got a lot of help with that from J.J.. Dealing with the adult Spock (played by Zachary Quinto) was a much more mature relationship, and I found the father/son aspect one of the easier things to play.'^[14]

Other professions[link]

Cross is a director, writer and musician as well. He has written music, screenplays and articles for English language publications and has also written the lyrics for an album with Bulgarian singer Vasil Petrov, which will be released in late 2007. He also sang two Sinatra songs with Petrov in the Apollonia Festival at the Black Sea in September 2007. Among many of his original works is the musical Rage about Ruth Ellis, which was performed in various regional towns in the London area. He also starred in it and played the part of the hangman. Cross's first single as a lyricist was released by Polydor Records in the late 1970s and was titled Mickey Moonshine. The nom de guerre for the performance had occurred to Ben when he recalled an earlier involvement with the music industry as a session singer for Decca between 1972 and 1974. At this time, he had recorded at a moment's notice an uptempo number called 'Name it, You Got it', when the scheduled performer had failed to arrive at the studio on time. Interestingly, this recording achieved some play on the British Northern soul scene and Ben intends to reprise his performance as Micky Moonshine at a forthcoming Northern event. Other works include The Best We’ve Ever Had and Nearly Midnight, both written by Cross and directed by his son Theo. In addition, the original soundtrack for Nearly Midnight was written, produced and performed by his daughter Lauren. These works were performed in Edinburgh in 2002 and 2003 respectively. Square One, directed by Cross, was performed at the Etcetera Theatre in London in 2004.

Personal life[link]

Cross has lived all over the world, including London, Los Angeles, New York, southern Spain, Vienna, and, most recently, Sofia, Bulgaria. He is familiar with the Spanish, Italian and German languages and enrolled in a course studying Bulgarian.

He has been married twice: first to Penny, from 1977 to 1992, with whom he has two children named Lauren and Theodore; and then to Michelle until 2005.

Filmography[link]

• A Bridge Too Far (1977)
• The Flame Trees of Thika (TV Series) (1981)
• Chariots of Fire (1981)
• The Citadel (1983)
• The Far Pavilions (1984)
• L'Attenzione (1984)
• The Assisi Underground (1985)
• Paperhouse (1988)
• Steal the Sky (1988)
• The Unholy (1988)
• The Jeweller's Shop (1988)
• La Bottega dell'orefice (1989)
• Nightlife (1989)
• Twist of Fate (1989)
• Eye of the Widow (1989)
• Dark Shadows (Revivals) (1991)
• Live Wire (1992)
• The Criminal Mind (1993)
• Cold Sweat (1993)
• The Ascent (1994)
• Temptress (1994)
• Caro dolce amore (1994)
• First Knight (1995)
• El Último viaje de Robert Rylands (1996)
• The Invader (1997)
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997)
• The Corporate Ladder (1997)
• Turbulence (1997)
• Solomon (1997)
• The Venice Project (1999)
• The Order (2001)
• Young Blades (2001)
• She Me and Her (2002)
• Trial and Retribution 7 (2003)
• Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)
• Icon (2005)
• The Mechanik (2005)
• Wicked Little Things (2006)
• Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (2006)
• Finding Rin Tin Tin (2007)
• When Nietzsche Wept (2007)
• War, Inc. (2008)
• Lost City Raiders (2008)
• Hero Wanted (2008)
• Star Trek (2009)
• William and Kate (2011) - TV film
• A Common Man (2012)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ben Cross at the Internet Movie Database
• Ben Cross at AllRovi
• Ben Cross at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Ben Cross Fan Site
• Ben Cross at FEARnet