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Elizabeth I was referred to as Elizabeth I ever since the 16th century! This is absolutely not a modern convention. Please refrain from talking about subjects you seem not very familiar with. As for the Chinese case, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were commoners, and their family names were used with their given names. I believe by 210BC family names were starting to be commonly used in China, and if you check the Historical Records (史记) by Sima Qian, he refers to them as ""Liu Bang"" and ""Xiang Yu"". On the other hand, the royal family of Qin were not commoners, and their family name (ancestral name, 姓) was never used. You can check the Historical Records of Sima Qian, he never writes ""Ying Ziying"", he always writes ""Ziying"" only. It is a modern anachronism to write ""Ying Ziying"". It would be like writing ""Louis Bourbon"" instead of writing ""Louis XIV"".   "