Re: Module to intelligently handle names with two last names and other best practices?

[hippo]

Names are illogical so forget trying to parse them arbitrarily. Treat each full name as an indivisible unit.

[nysus]

True, but for 99.9% of the names in my database which are traditional American names, it would be useful to properly handle the names. I'm not too worried about the edge cases. I just want to be able to try to sort by the different types of last names. It would be useful for my purposes.

[afoken]

True, but for 99.9% of the names in my database which are traditional American names

Like Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun, US citizen since April 15, 1955? Even the rules for processing his name in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are everything but homogeneous. How would you process it? (Hint: wrong. No matter how you process it.)

If Wernher was an Austrian citizen, his name would be illegal. No "von", no "Freiherr". Just "Wernher Magnus Maximilian Braun". So if some naive Austrian coder would have written a database, he would perhaps automatically remove "von" and "Freiherr". But then again, he would be wrong. Wernher was US citizen, and he previously was a German citizen, so he could legally use his full name, including "Freiherr von", in Austria.

And how would you handle those people? Or this one, for whom Wikipedia lists 10 different names? Or "Ludwell Ebersole Gaines Sr." (random pick from http://politicalstrangenames.blogspot.com/), Charles Emerson Winchester III, Charles "Trip" Tucker III?

Alexander

[hippo]

99.9% of the names in my database which are traditional American names

You mean like Sitting Bull? Good luck calling him "Mr. Bull" to his face.

[AnomalousMonk]

For that matter, good luck addressing Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake as "Mr. Sitting Bull". He'd probably just give you a blank look and say "You talking to me?" :)