Given name in the context of Mary (name)

A legal name or wallet name is the name that identifies a person for legal, administrative and other official purposes. A person's legal birth name generally is the name of the person that was given for the purpose of registration of the birth and which then appears on a birth certificate (see birth name), but may change subsequently. Most jurisdictions require the use of a legal name for all legal and administrative purposes, and some jurisdictions permit or require a name change to be recorded at marriage. The legal name may need to be used on various government issued documents (e.g., a court order). The term is also used when an individual changes their name, typically after reaching a certain legal age (usually eighteen or over, though it can be as low as fourteen in several European nations). A person's legal name typically is the same as their personal name, comprising a given name and a surname. The order varies according to culture and country. There are also country-by-country differences on changes of legal names by marriage. (See married name.) Most countries require by law the registration of a name for newborn children, and some can refuse registration of "undesirable" names.

Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phonetic mix-ups such as spoonerisms, obscure words and meanings, clever rhetorical excursions, oddly formed sentences, double entendres, and telling character names (such as in the play The Importance of Being Earnest, Ernest being a given name that sounds exactly like the adjective earnest).

Word play is quite common in oral cultures as a method of reinforcing meaning. Examples of text-based (orthographic) word play are found in languages with or without alphabet-based scripts, such as homophonic puns in Mandarin Chinese.

The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births register or birth certificate may by that fact alone become the person's legal name.

Over the course of some fourteen centuries, the Romans and other peoples of Italy employed a system of nomenclature that differed from that used by other cultures of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, consisting of a combination of personal and family names. Although conventionally referred to as the tria nomina, the combination of praenomen, nomen, and cognomen that have come to be regarded as the basic elements of the Roman name in fact represent a continuous process of development, from at least the seventh century BC to the end of the seventh century AD. The names that developed as part of this system became a defining characteristic of Roman civilization, and although the system itself vanished during the Early Middle Ages, the names themselves exerted a profound influence on the development of European naming practices, and many continue to survive in modern languages.

A personal name, full name or prosoponym (from Ancient Greek prósōpon – person, and onoma –name) is the set of names by which an individual person or animal is known. When taken together as a phrase, they all relate to that one individual. In many cultures, the term is synonymous with the birth name or legal name of the individual. In linguistic classification, personal names are studied within a specific onomastic discipline, called anthroponymy.

In Western culture, nearly all individuals possess at least one given name (also known as a first name, forename, or Christian name), together with a surname (also known as a last name or family name). In the name "James Smith", for example, James is the first name and Smith is the surname. Surnames in the West generally indicate that the individual belongs to a family, a tribe, or a clan, although the exact relationships vary: they may be given at birth, taken upon adoption, changed upon marriage, and so on. Where there are two or more given names, typically only one (in English-speaking cultures usually the first) is used in normal speech.

Guan Zhong (Chinese: 管仲; Wade–Giles: Kuan Chung; c. 720–645 BC) was a Chinese philosopher and politician. He served as chancellor and was a reformer of the State of Qi during the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history. His given name was Yiwu (Chinese: 夷吾; pinyin: Yíwú). Zhong was his courtesy name. He is mainly remembered for his reforms as chancellor under Duke Huan of Qi, as well as his friendship with his colleague Bao Shuya, though his reputation remained controversial among the Confucians, as detailed in the appraisal section.

Through Guan Zhong's reforms and skilful diplomacy Qi became the most powerful of the feudal states and Duke Huan became the first of the Five Hegemons. Though knowledge of his reforms is limited, in particular he instituted a famous fiscal policy known as "balancing the light and the heavy", associated with salt and iron monopolies. Otherwise a diverse work, the Guanzi compilation making use of his name makes similar such recommendations.

Chinese names are personal names used by individuals from Greater China and other parts of the Sinophone world. Sometimes the same set of Chinese characters could be chosen as a Chinese name, a Hong Kong name, a Japanese name, a Korean name, a Han Taiwanese name, a Malaysian Chinese name, or a Vietnamese name, but they would be spelled differently due to their varying historical pronunciation of Chinese characters.

Modern Chinese names generally have a one-character surname (姓氏; xìngshì) that comes first, followed by a given name (名; míng) which may be either one or two characters in length. In recent decades, two-character given names are much more commonly chosen; studies during the 2000s and 2010s estimated that over three-quarters of China's population at the time had two-character given names, with the remainder almost exclusively having one character.

In many societies, a surname, last family name, or first family name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several given names and surnames are possible in the full name. In modern times most surnames are hereditary, although in most countries a person has a right to change their name.

Depending on culture, the surname may be placed either at the start of a person's name, or at the end. The number of surnames given to an individual also varies: in most cases it is just one, but in Portuguese-speaking countries and many Spanish-speaking countries, two surnames (one inherited from the mother and another from the father) are used for legal purposes. Depending on culture, not all members of a family unit are required to have identical surnames. In some countries, surnames are modified depending on gender and family membership status of a person. Compound surnames can be composed of separate names.

The T–V distinction is the contextual use of different pronouns that exists in some languages and serves to convey formality or familiarity. Its name comes from the Latin pronouns tu and vos. The distinction takes a number of forms and indicates varying levels of politeness, familiarity, courtesy, age or even insult toward the addressee. The field that studies and describes this phenomenon is sociolinguistics.

Many languages lack this type of distinction, instead relying on other morphological or discourse features to convey formality. English historically contained the distinction, using the pronouns thou and you, but the familiar thou largely disappeared from the era of Early Modern English onward, with the exception of a few dialects. Additionally, British commoners historically spoke to nobility and royalty using the third person rather than the second person, a practice that has fallen out of favour. English speakers today often employ semantic analogues to convey the mentioned attitudes towards the addressee, such as whether to address someone by given name or surname or whether to use sir or madam. Under a broader classification, T and V forms are examples of honorifics.

An Afghan personal name consists of a given name (Dari: نام, Pashto: نوم) and sometimes a surname at the end. Personal names are generally not divided into first and family names; a single name is recognized as a full personal name, and the addition of further components – such as additional given names, regional, or ethnic family/clan names or patronymics – is often a matter of parents' choice. This structure is shared amongst the different ethnicities of Afghanistan and people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Bhutanese names usually consist of one or two given names, and no family names, with the exception of names of foreign origin and some family names of prominent families, such as the royal family name Wangchuck. The second given name or the combination of the given names may indicate a person's gender.

Bhutanese people are traditionally mononymous. There are around 19,000 unique names in Bhutan, and the most common names are Tshering, Sonam, Dorji, Kinley, Sangay, and Karma. Babies are typically not named immediately after birth; instead, parents will seek spiritual guidance from a religious leader such as a lama to name their babies within the first few weeks of their life. Names often have some religious significance. Some famous lamas are asked to name babies every time they travel, which can become taxing, so they may carry slips of paper with pre-written names on them to give out quickly. Some lamas may impart blessings on children by giving them names derived from their own. Names may also be chosen by looking through religious texts or through astrological symbols. Many people are named after the day of the week on which they were born. When babies are named, there is a ceremony at a local temple or monastery. Blessings are offered to local gods to ensure the well-being of the children. New names are usually given to babies, but adults may also assume new names at different stages of their lives.

Arabic names have historically been based on a long naming system. Many people from Arabic-speaking and also non-Arab Muslim countries have not had given, middle, and family names but rather a chain of names. This system remains in use throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Tropical cyclones and subtropical cyclones are named by various warning centers to simplify communication between forecasters and the general public regarding forecasts, watches and warnings. The names are intended to reduce confusion in the event of concurrent storms in the same basin. Once storms develop sustained wind speeds of more than 33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph), names are generally assigned to them from predetermined lists, depending on the basin in which they originate. Some tropical depressions are named in the Western Pacific, while tropical cyclones must contain a significant amount of gale-force winds before they are named in the Southern Hemisphere.

Before it became standard practice to give personal (first) names to tropical cyclones, they were named after places, objects, or the saints' feast days on which they occurred. Credit for the first usage of personal names for weather systems is generally given to Queensland Government meteorologist Clement Wragge, who named systems between 1887 and 1907. When Wragge retired, the practice fell into disuse for several years until it was revived in the latter part of World War II for the Western Pacific. Formal naming schemes and lists have subsequently been used for major storms in the Eastern, Central, Western and Southern Pacific basins, and the Australian region, Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean.

Barsegh (Armenian: Բարսեղ) is an Armenian given name. Parsegh is an alternative in Western Armenian.

Vasile is a male Romanian given name or a surname. It is equivalent to the English name Basil which is of Greek origin and means "King". It is also used by the Megleno-Romanians.

Vasil (Bulgarian and Macedonian: Васил, Georgian: ვასილ) is a Bulgarian, Macedonian and Georgian masculine given name. It may refer to:

• Vasil Adzhalarski, Bulgarian revolutionary, an IMARO leader of revolutionary bands
• Vasil Amashukeli (1886–1977), early Georgian film director & cinematographer in Azerbaijan and Georgia
• Vasil Angelov (1882–1953), Bulgarian military officer and a revolutionary, a worker of IMARO
• Vasil Aprilov (1789–1847), Bulgarian educator
• Vasil Barnovi (1856–1934), Georgian writer popular for his historical novels
• Vasiľ Biľak (1917–2014), Slovak Communist leader of Rusyn origin
• Vasil Binev (born 1957), Bulgarian actor
• Vasil Boev (born 1988), Bulgarian footballer
• Vasil Bollano, the ethnic Greek mayor of Himara municipality, in southwest Albania
• Vasil Bozhikov (born 1988), Bulgarian football defender
• Vasil Bykaŭ (1924–2003), prolific Belarusian author of novels and novellas about World War II
• Vasil Chekalarov (1874–1913), Bulgarian revolutionary and one of the leaders of IMARO in Aegean Macedonia
• Vasil Dragolov (born 1962), Bulgarian footballer
• Vasil Etropolski (born 1959), Bulgarian Olympic and world champion sabre fencer
• Vasil Garvanliev (born 1984), Macedonian classic and pop singer
• Vasil Gendov (1891–1970), Bulgarian actor, film director and screenwriter
• Vasil Gigiadze (born 1977), Georgian footballer
• Vasil Glavinov (1872–1929), Bulgarian socialist from Ottoman Macedonia, a member of the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party
• Vasil Gruev (born 1926), Bulgarian cross country skier who competed in the 1950s
• Vasil Gyuzelev, Bulgarian historian who studies Bulgaria during the Middle Ages
• Vasil Iliev, Bulgarian mobster, businessman and wrestler
• Vasil Iljoski (1902–1995), Macedonian writer, dramatist, professor
• Vasil Kaloyanov (born 1988), Bulgarian footballer
• Vasil Kamburov (born 1975), Bulgarian footballer
• Vasil Kanchov (1862–1904), Bulgarian geographer, ethnographer and politician
• Vasil Khamutowski (born 1978), Belarusian football goalkeeper
• Vasil Kirov (born 1975), Bulgarian footballer
• Vasil Kiryienka (born 1981), Belarusian racing cyclist for UCI ProTeam Team Sky
• Vasil Kochev (born 1988), Bulgarian professional footballer
• Vasil Kolarov (1877–1950), Bulgarian communist political leader and leading functionary in the Communist International
• Vasil Kutinchev (1859–1941), Bulgarian officer
• Vasil Laçi (1922–1941), Albanian patriot and monarchist; attempted to kill the King of Italy and Prime Minister of Albania
• Vasil Levski (1837–1873), Bulgarian revolutionary and a national hero of Bulgaria
• Vasil Mzhavanadze (1902–1988), the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Georgian SSR from 1953 to 1972
• Vasil Naydenov, Bulgarian singer-songwriter, popular in Bulgaria and the Eastern bloc during the late 1970s and 1980s
• Vasil Panayotov (born 1990), Bulgarian football player
• Vasil Radoslavov (1854–1929), leading Bulgarian liberal politician who twice served as Prime Minister
• Vasil Ringov (born 1955), Macedonian football player
• Vasil Ruci, Albanian football striker
• Vasil Shanto (1913–1944), Albanian communist leader and a hero of World War II
• Vasil Shkurti (born 1992), Albanian footballer
• Vasil Sikharulidze (born 1968), Georgian diplomat and politician
• Vasil Slavov (born 1958), Bulgarian author and poet
• Vasil Spasov (chess player) (born 1971), Bulgarian chess grandmaster
• Vasil Tole (born 1963), Albanian composer of European classical music
• Vasil Tsereteli (1862–1937), Georgian physician, journalist and public benefactor
• Vasil Tupurkovski, Macedonian academic, politician and the current president of the Macedonian Olympic Committee
• Vasil Varlamos (born 1942), Australian rules footballer
• Vasil Vasilev (footballer, born 1976), Bulgarian footballer
• Vasil Vasilev (footballer, born 1984), Bulgarian football defender
• Vasil Velev (born 1984), Bulgarian footballer
• Vasil Yakusha (1958–2020), Belarusian rower who competed for the Soviet Union in the 1980 Summer Olympics and in the 1988 Summer Olympics
• Vasil Zacharka (1877–1943), Belarusian statesman and the second president of the Belarusian People's Republic in exile
• Vasil Zlatarski, Bulgarian historian-medievalist, archaeologist, and epigraphist

Vasilije (Cyrillic: Василије) is a South Slavic masculine given name, a variant of Greek given name Vassilios ("Basil"). It may refer to:

• Vasilije, Serbian Patriarch (fl. 1763–1765), Serbian cleric born Vasilije Jovanović-Brkić
• Vasilije Calasan (born 1981), French racing driver
• Vasa Čarapić (1768–1806), Serbian voivode (military commander)
• Vasa Jovanović (1874–1970), Serbian lawyer, politician, founder of the Chetnik movement and a founding member of the League of Nations
• Vasilije Krestić (born 1932), intellectual and historian, and a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
• Vasilije Matić (1906–1981), forestry expert born in Srpske Moravice
• Vasilije Micić (born 1994), Serbian basketball player
• Vasilije Mokranjac (1923–1984), Serbian composer
• Vasa Pelagić (1833–1899), Bosnian Serb writer, physician, educator, clergyman, nationalist and proponent of utopian socialism
• Vasilije Petrović (1709–1766), Prince Bishop of Montenegro
• Vasilije Popović (disambiguation), multiple people
• Vasilije Prodanović (born 1985), Serbian footballer
• Vasilije Radović (1938–2019), Yugoslav football goalkeeper and manager
• Vasilije Šijaković (1929–2003), Montenegrin football player
• Vasilije Tomović (1906–1994), Montenegrin chess master
• Vasilije Trbić (1881–1962), Serbian Chetnik leader and politician
• Vasa Živković (1819–1891), Serbian poet and Orthodox priest

Vasili, Vasily, Vasilii or Vasiliy (Russian: Василий) is a Russian masculine given name of Greek origin and corresponds to Basil. It may refer to:

• Vasily I of Moscow Grand Prince from 1389–1425
• Vasily II of Moscow Grand Prince from 1425–1462
• Vasili III of Russia Grand Prince from 1505–1533
• Vasili IV of Russia Tsar from 1606–1610
• Basil Fool for Christ (1469–1557), also known as Saint Basil, or Vasily Blazhenny
• Vasily Alekseyev (1942–2011), Soviet weightlifter
• Vasily Arkhipov (1926–1998), Soviet Naval officer in the Cuban Missile Crisis
• Vasily Boldyrev (1875–1933), Russian general
• Vasily Chapayev (1887–1969), Russian Army commander
• Vasily Chuikov (1900–1982), Soviet marshal
• Vasily Degtyaryov (1880–1949), Russian weapons designer and Major General
• Vasily Dzhugashvili (1921–1962), Stalin's son
• Vasili Golovachov (born 1948), Russian science fiction author
• Vasily Grossman (1905–1964), Soviet writer and journalist
• Vasily Ignatenko (1961–1986), Soviet firefighter in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster
• Vasilii Alekseevich Iskovskikh (1939–2009), Russian mathematician
• Vasily Kuznetsov (1901–1990), Soviet politician, acted three times as head of state of USSR
• Vasyl Ivanchuk (born 1969), Ukrainian chess grandmaster
• Wassily Kandinsky (Vasily Kandinsky; 1866–1944), Russian painter and art theorist.
• Vasily Karatygin (1802–1880), Russian actor
• Vasily Lanovoy (1934–2021), Russian actor
• Vasily Livanov (born 1935), Russian actor and screenwriter
• Vasily Lobanov (born 1947), Russian composer and pianist
• Vasyl Lomachenko (Vasily Lomachenko; born 1988), Ukrainian boxer
• Vasily Markovich (born 1955), Belarusian politician
• Vasily Nezabitovsky (1824–1883), Ukrainian jurist
• Vasily Petrenko (born 1976), Russian conductor
• Vasily Podkolzin (born 2001), Russian ice hockey player currently playing for the Vancouver Canucks
• Vasily Seseman (1884–1963), Russian and Lithuanian philosopher
• Vasily Smyslov (1921–2010), Soviet chess player
• Vasily Tsibliyev (born 1954), Russian cosmonaut
• Vasily Zaytsev, Soviet sniper
• Vasily Zakharov (1934–2023), Soviet culture minister
• Vasily Zhdanov (born 1963), Soviet cyclist

Ahmad (Arabic: أحمد, romanized: ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other English spellings of the name include Ahmed. It is also used as a surname.