Hithanya — Personal-name conventions across countries | hithanya.com
An inherited surname stays fixed for centuries; a patronymic is rebuilt for every generation — and forms reward the person who knows which one they carry.
An inherited surname names a family line. The same element passes from parent to child unchanged, which is exactly what a 'last name' field expects: a stable label shared with your relatives and your previous documents.
A patronymic names a parent instead. Icelandic surnames are rebuilt every generation from the parent's given name plus -son or -dottir, so a father and his son across two generations carry two different surnames and no fixed family name exists. Where the parent's name used is the mother's, the same mechanism is called a matronymic; the rebuild logic is identical.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
Russian names run both systems in parallel: a fixed inherited family name plus a patronymic in -ovich or -ovna that is rebuilt for each generation. On a two-box Western form the fixed family name fills the last-name field, while the patronymic travels with the given names — dropping it entirely is what creates 'missing middle name' mismatches against the passport.
Side by side, the systems differ on three questions: what the second element names, whether it survives into the next generation, and which form field should hold it. Inherited surnames name the family, survive, and fill the last-name field. Patronymics and matronymics name one parent, are rebuilt, and behave as middle elements — except in Iceland, where the patronymic is the only surname available and therefore occupies the last-name field as printed in the passport.
The practical test for any name you meet: ask whether the element would still be correct for that person's grandchild. If yes, it behaves like a surname; if no, it behaves like a patronymic. Then map it to the fields using the name-order table, and fix its spelling with the transliteration procedure.
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