Usage of surname, first name, given name?

[Ganesh]

According to our way my full name is Thillai Ganesh: our parents call me Ganesh

We use father's name first (i.e Initial first :Father's name after that the name given by our parents i.e Ganesh So which one is my
surname........?
first name .....?
Given name....?

[Arun_Kumar_45]

Hi Ganesh,
I too have doubt in this topic. In my area, they have different meanings in different places for "surname" in application forms... I don't know what it actually means. Please someone point me out with an example.

Please correct my mistakes in this message.
Thanks in advance.

[Cerberus™]

That is a difficult matter. If you fill in "Ganesh" for your last name, they will call you "mr. Ganesh", or "Thillai" informaly; if you fill them in the other way around, they may call you "Ganesh Thillai". I guess there is no real solution. Perhaps there exists a convention in your country, if most people choose one way in foreign contacts. You could ask your friends or some of your countrymen on the internet.
I'd think that the most important thing is that foreigners know the correct difference between your personal name and your family's name, so I'd fill in Ganesh for forename/given name, Thillai for last name. Unless your country has a different convention in dealing with this, as I mentioned.

[Theresa]

Look at these names in Vietnamese and English order
Truong Nam Quang
Truong Anh Huy
Duncan S. Brown

In (1&2), Truong is family name/ surname/ last name.
In (3) Brown is definitely "the" last name.
"Anh", "Nam" and S. are middle names.
Duncan is "the" first name. First name can also be called given name, forename or even Christian name/ Bible name if your name has something to do with religion.
In English order, (1) will be Quang Nam Truong or Quang N. Truong.