AFAIK, personal name = given (first) name it is the name that uniquely identifies a person within their own family (since they would have the same surname)

i did some research (googling) for you. From what i found, personal name = given name personal name isn't commonly used, maybe the reason for some confusion

Personal name is your first name in Chinese it's 名字 and your family name means your last name, it's 姓氏

In everyday conversation, a personal name is considered be the given, or first name. In western countries, you might also hear it referred to as the Christian name, but that's going out of style. (My apologies for a wrong answer the first time - there is confusion because in some legal and business situations, the personal name is considered the full name in a signiture. That's where I found it first.) Give godzilla or john best answer.