A personal name is either a Polynym (a name with multiple sortable components), a Mononym (a name with only one component), or a Pictonym (a name represented by a picture - this exists due to people like [Prince][1]).

A person can have multiple names, playing roles, such as LEGAL, MARITAL, MAIDEN, PREFERRED, SOBRIQUET, PSEUDONYM, etc. You might have business rules, such as "a person can only have one legal name at a time, but multiple pseudonyms at a time".

Some examples:

    names: [
      {
        type:"POLYNYM",
        role:"LEGAL",
        given:"George",
        middle:"Herman",
        moniker:"Babe",
        surname:"Ruth",
        generation:"JUNIOR"
      },
      {
        type:"MONONYM",
        role:"SOBRIQUET",
        mononym:"The Bambino" /* mononyms can be more than one word, but only one component */
      },
      {
        type:"MONONYM",
        role:"SOBRIQUET",
        mononym:"The Sultan of Swat"
      }
    ]

or

    names: [
      {
        type:"POLYNYM",
        role:"PREFERRED",
        given:"Malcolm",
        surname:"X"
      },
      {
        type:"POLYNYM",
        role:"BIRTH",
        given:"Malcolm",
        surname:"Little"
      },
      {
        type:"POLYNYM",
        role:"LEGAL",
        given:"Malik",
        surname:"El-Shabazz"
      }
    ]

or

    names:[
      {
        type:"POLYNYM",
        role:"LEGAL",
        given:"Prince",
        middle:"Rogers",
        surname:"Nelson"
      },
      {
        type:"MONONYM",
        role:"SOBRIQUET",
        mononym:"Prince"
      },
      {
        type:"PICTONYM",
        role:"LEGAL",
        url:"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/af/Prince_logo.svg/130px-Prince_logo.svg.png"
      }
    ]

or

    names:[
      {
        type:"POLYNYM",
        role:"LEGAL",
        given:"Juan Pablo",
        surname:"Fernández de Calderón",
        secondarySurname:"García-Iglesias" /* hispanic people often have two surnames. it can be impolite to use the wrong one. Portuguese and Spaniards differ as to which surname is important */
      }
    ]

Given names, middle names, surnames can be multiple words such as `"Billy Bob" Thornton`, or `Ralph "Vaughn Williams"`.

  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_(musician)