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This contains the name or names that generally would be inherited or indicative of a person's family.
In Western contexts, this is what is commonly referred to as a "last name."
If a person has multiple family names, the order in which the names appear is deemed significant.
Generally, that order should correspond to the order in which the names would appear in a
typical formatted representation. The order may be specifically identified by the sequence.
A "primary" family name may be indicated using the attribute supplied for this purpose.
Where multiple family names are presented, only a single name may be designated
as primary = "true"
Note that the attribute "prefix" may optionally contain a part of the person’s name that precedes the family name.
For example: Van den, Von, Al, de, etc.
Some implementers may choose not to represent a prefix separately from a Family Name. However,
it may be desirable to do so for a number of reasons:
1. name sorting. For example, to support sorting on first letter of prefix and then by first letter of the family name.
2. formatting. For example, depending on the cultural context in which the name is presented, the type of
delimiter (e.g., a space or a hyphen) between the prefix and the family name (or whether a delimiter appears at) all
may depend on the "alphabet" and/or cultural context in which the name is presented. |