Lee, such and such

When a Chinese (person) mentions a person and thinks there is no need to mention the person's full name, he might just mention the person's family name, omitting the surname, and simply using "such and such." For example, the person's full name is Jackie Lee, so he calls him Lee "such and such."

The surname is the "given name" of a person, added to the family name (in European usage it precedes the family name). This is from the French, surnom meaning a name (nom) upon (sur) a name. American speakers would usually employ "so and so," rather than such and such, but one must be careful, because "so and so" is also used in an insulting context (He's a real so and so.) by those who refuse to curse or use foul language. A more common usage among rural speakers of the American language would be to say: "He's one of the Lees, you know, the Franklin County Lees."

Edit: To clarify, my name is John Kelly. John is the surname, Kelly is the family name. You added the question about "straight end" after i had begun to reply, so i hadn't mentioned it. Frankly, i have no clue to the answer for that.

We don't do that. And in our individualistic culture, a person's first name is more important than their family name, so if we were speaking of a mutual aquaintance, we would refer to him/her by his/her first name only, rather than his/her last name only.
Examples: My company's phone list is alphabetical by first name.
If I turned to the person next to me and said, "Have you seen John today?" and she responded, "Which John?" I would not answer "John Lee" I would answer "John in accounting" (or whichever department he was in).

Thanks, Setanta and Eos.

Hi. If anybody's still listening, I'm sorry but setanta's not correct here. (First time for everything, I guess....) Your SURNAME is your FAMILY NAME. Your "first" name is your personal name.

If my name were John Kelly, John would be my "first name" or just "name" and Kelly would be my "last name" or SURNAME. People in English-speaking countries with more than two names (John Henry Kelly) would refer to their "middle" name also. The last name, or surname, is the one that is carried by their parents and inherited by their children.

And I think a "straight end" contrasts with a "buckle end" when you're thinking about a two-piece watch strap.

I inclined to Wy's explanation - "Your SURNAME is your FAMILY NAME". To tell the truth,
When Setanta said "The surname is the "given name" of a person, added to the family name" and gave his example - " To clarify, my name is John Kelly. John is the surname, Kelly is the family name. " I got confused. Because in the example John Kelly has not included his own name. As far as I've known, a westerner's name is different to a Chinese's name. The latter puts its "family name" in the first place, and then followed by his own name, for example: Hu Jintao - Hu is his family name, while Jintao is his own name; and the former reverses the sequence -- first his own name, secondly his family name. For example: Wenho Lee, who is a Chinese-born American scientist, Lee is his family name.

Exactly. Hu Jintao's children would be named Hu AnotherName, because they are children of the family Hu, right? But a Chinese person living or working in the West might reverse the order and call himself Jintao Hu, so that others don't misunderstand and take Jintao as his "last" or family name...

There are some Western cultures where this is true also. I believe Icelandic names can be used either family name or personal name first -- which can cause confusion everywhere else, nobody knows what is the family name...

Easy, I'll crack the mysterious case by determining "the person is an Icelander!", and then ceasing meaningless investigation into the case.