Names (middle, first and last name)

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

1/ Please read:

[color=red]Joseph Ovila Roland Daoust.
(1) (2) (3) (4)

(2): Middle name.
(3): First name.
(4): Last name.

What is (1) called?

2/ On one business card, I see:

Clinton, Bill Willian.

If I remove “Willian”, I have on the card:

[color=green] Clinton, Bill (a)

The way of writing in (a) is correct and usual?

Thanks
K

2

.
1/

What makes you think that this is the name of one person and not two?
.
2/
Have you actually seen this strange format on a business card?
.

3

Hi,

1/ One of my friends is Canadian.His complete name is
Joseph Ovila Roland Daoust.
This the name of only one person. You know, in French, Joseph is called “nom de saint”. This kind of noun doesn’t exist in English because most of English aren’t catholic. That’s the reason I’d like to know the kind of name of “Joseph” in English, besides middle name, first name…

2/
Yes, just this morning, when meeting one of my partner, this person gave me his business card on which there is:
(I have changed the real noun of this person).

Clinton, Bill Willian.

I wonder if I were this person and if I remove “Willian”, is it acceptable? That means “Clinton, Bill Willian” changes into
“Clinton, Bill”?

I ask so because in business : (on business card)

Bill Willian Clinton can be written Bill W. Clinton or Bill Clinton.

So,

Can Clinton, Bill Willian be written:

a. Clinton, Bill.
b. Clinton, Bill W.

For not spending much time, please only tell me as follows:

a. Not, b. yes, for example…
or “Joseph” is called second middle name, for example…

Thanks
K

P.S: I ask so because in Vietnamese name, we can do that.

4

.
1/
For me Joseph is the first name, Ovila and Roland are both middle names, and Daoust would be the last name.

2/

  • Bill is usually a nickname for William. Therefore using Bill on a business card would be less formal.

  • The format Clinton, Bill Willian is not normal on a business card.

  • If we use the name of the former US president as an example, I would expect the format of the name to be one of the following (on a formal business card):

William J. Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton
.

5

Thanks

6

my name is KAPILDAS.P what is first, middle last names