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Dumb question: in Cryptonomicon, there's a character named "Goto Dengo". Is Goto used as both a first and last name, or is the notion of first and last name something that doesn't map cleanly between English and Japanese?

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In Japanese, you write family name first. Sometimes when using a Japanese name in English, you flip them to the English order, and sometimes not.

Japanese family names go first. e.g., GRAHAM Paul.

Respectfully, that's not such a good example, as both of those names can be first or last names. DOE John would be a better example.

The example is referring to a certain famous Graham Paul, for which people here are assumed to know what's his actual first and last name.

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