Remarks

Care should be taken with multipart names to divide the components into family names (usually <surname>) and personal names (<given-names>) in as culturally appropriate a fashion as possible. Initials can be preserved separately using the @initials attribute.

<surname initials=”Q”>Llanos De La Torre Quiralte</surname>   
<given-names initials=”M”>M</given-names>    

<surname initials=”U”>Usdin</surname>   
<given-names initials=”BT”>B. Tommie</given-names>

<surname initials=”GM” >Gonzalez Martin</surname>   
<given-names initials=”J”>Josquin</given-names>    

<surname initials=”M”>McNair</surname>   
<given-names initials=”KPC”>Kenneth Pritchard Carnu</given-names>    

<surname initials=”B”>Ben Gurion</surname>   
<given-names initials=”D”>David</given-names>    

<surname initials=”B”>Ben-Gurion</surname>   
<given-names initials=”D”>David</given-names>    

<surname initials=”M”>de la Mare</surname>   
<given-names initials=”WJ”>Walter John</given-names>                

<surname initials=”D” >Di Iorio</surname>   
<given-names initials=”S”>Silvio</given-names>

<surname initials=”T”>Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa, de</surname>   
<given-names initials=”H”>Henri Marie Raymond</given-names>

<surname initials=”L”>Lewis</surname>   
<given-names initials=”CS”>CS</given-names>

<surname initials=”L”>Lewis</surname>   
<given-names initials=”CS”>C.S.</given-names>

Best Practice: There is no single style that best handles all single (one-part) names. Tibetan, Indian, and Burmese single names that are not surnames may be tagged as <given-names>; there is no need to commit the tag abuse of calling the given name a surname. Most westernized single names (“Pele”, “Prince”, “Babyface”, “Aztek”) are more likely to be retrieved properly if they are tagged as <surname>s. Where it is allowed by this Tag Set, for example, within a bibliographic reference (the <element-citation> and <mixed-citation> elements), a single name could also be tagged as a <string-name>.

Design Note: The <name> element is one of the few elements in this Tag Set to require a specific element sequence. The idea was that names would be converted to this sequence during import conversion, allowing a publisher or archive to regularize the names in their repository, since names are frequently critical search items. However, that leaves the case of names where the component parts are not in the required order. If the name parts are unknown or untagged in the input to be converted, or if the name would require complex conversion processing, for example, “His Royal Highness The Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester”, there are several options. The whole name can be put within the element <string-name> where that element is allowed (for example, within a bibliographic reference):

<string-name>His Royal Highness The Prince Charles,
  Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester </string-name>
  

Since the <string-name> element permits the tagging of name parts within it, “Charles” could be tagged as a <given-names> element and the <prefix> and <suffix> element used to tag the remainder, but such tagging is likely to be rare.

If the complexity is less or the element <string-name> is not allowed in the context, the entire name can be placed into the <surname> element. For example:

<surname>Prince Charles</surname>