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Many cultures customarily put the family name (surname) first, and the personal name, often given at birth, is put at the end.

e.g. Here is a typical Chinese conversation:

# -What's your (sur)name?

- My (sur)name is Zhang.

- What are you called?

- I am called Zhang Jingsheng. (Jingsheng is a Chinese 'personal' name. In the USA and the UK, someone's 'personal' name is called their 'first name')

Notice, in the above example of a conversation, that the surname (family name) is given first, followed by the personal name.

Chin is a very common Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) family name. It is also a common Japanese family name.

Tseun is also a fairly common family name. Of course, in pictographic languages such as Chinese, the English alphabet spelling of the name might differ according to the translator's choice of the 'nearest' English spelling equivalent. So spellings will differ. Tseun could be Chun, Chuen, Chin, Chan, Chen, Ching, Jin etc. depending on dialect.

Sometimes two family names are joined together with a hyphen. Even in English surnames this is done sometimes, e.g. the 'Bowes-Lyon' family.

This practice of joining two family names together is common in many countries.

Chin-Chuen/Chin-Chun/ is a fairly common Chinese surname. And sometimes people are just known by their surname e.g. Shakespeare, Obama, Einstein etc.

However, 'Chin Chuen' is also listed as a given (Christian) name. e.g. CHING (family name) CHIN CHUEN (given names), as shown in the crew list of the ship 'CHANGSHA' of London, which sailed from Hong Kong to Sydney, New South Wales, on 23 October 1889.

---- A family name can be the same as the personal name. Consider the name 'James' for example.

It can be a personal name e.g. James Watt. Or it can be a family name. e.g. Henry James.

There is even a James James! (Joint composer of the Welsh National anthem!) ---- So, whether Chin-Chuen is a particular person's family name, or whether it is actually their personal name might best be determined by asking them personally!

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16y ago

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