Patronymics, two surnames, generation characters and caste or clan names all do identity work.
Describe them as systems. Do not rank civilisations by how “modern” their names look.
Regions
- Iceland — Patronymic identity
Your “surname” says who your parent is this generation — identity as kinship update.
- Spain & Latin America — Dual surnames
Identity carries two lineages until a form deletes one.
- China — Generation names
A shared character locates you in a descent cohort.
- Korea — Hanja and 돌림자
Identity can include a Sino-Korean etymology plus a sibling-set syllable — description, not fortune.
- West Africa (varied) — Day and circumstance names
Akan and other systems encode birth circumstances as identity, still not destiny science.
- Arab world (varied) — Nasab chains
Ibn/bint chains and nisbas locate identity in ancestry and place.
Laws
- Lived-name policies Universities, several countries — Administrative identity without full legal change.
- German Namensrecht Germany — Identity after marriage and of children is tightly coded.
- Japanese koseki Japan — Household identity and surname unity rules shape who you are on paper.
- Gender Recognition / name statutes UK and others — Legal identity updates that may include a new given name.
A respectful worldwide view starts by asking which identity the local name is built to carry.