In English, there are distinct titles for relatives, such as aunt and uncle for either of your parent's sisters and brothers respectively. Cousin (whether male or female) is used for the children of your aunts and uncles such as they relate to you. Your cousins' children will be your second cousins. A great aunt and great uncle will be from your grandparents' era and adding step-family members to the mix can further complicate things. The names used by step-families, however, are unlikely to change, and if a distinction is necessary the word "step" is added as a prefix to the relevant word (for example, step-cousin).
In the English language, your nephews and nieces are the children of your brothers and sisters and this title extends to your husband or wife's brothers' and sisters' children. However, as the world has become like one large family, language differences have caused confusion and what is clearly understood in one language is confusing in another. The word nephew in English, as previously stated, means the children of a sibling or spouse's sibling. However in Afrikaans, one of the official languages of South Africa, there is a dilemma because the word for nephew is the same word as the word for cousin ("nefie" is the affectionate and most commonly used word for "neef," meaning nephew or cousin).
This creates communication difficulties in English when a person whose first language is Afrikaans inadvertently speaks in English about his or her nephew when he really means cousin. The English-speaking recipient of information relating to this particular cousin (or is it his nephew?) has no idea that the same word is used interchangeably and is often confused as to who the subject of the conversation is.
Here is a video further explaining family relationships:
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