First name or last name?
Paste a name the way you saw it in an email or on LinkedIn. We tell you which part is the family name and how to address the person.
Name order around the world
Family name first or last depends on where a name comes from, and on whether its owner has already switched it around for international contacts.
Why the answer is not always obvious
Reversed for you
Many people from China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan and Hungary flip their name to Western order when they write to you. “Wei Zhang” and “Zhang Wei” are the same person.
Two family names
In Spain and much of Latin America people carry two family names, usually the father's first. “Mr. López” for María García López is the wrong one.
A father's name
The middle part of a Russian name is a patronymic, and Ethiopians and Icelanders have no family name at all.
Names that change gender
Andrea is a woman's name in the US and a man's name in Italy. That is why we ask where the person is based.