Why not respect the international non-standard of the presentation sequence of personal names? In some places, the given name comes first, and the familiy name last, but in many others, it is the reverse. So, instead of using the needlessly specific terms “first name” and “last name”, we should use “given name” and “family name” in the account information area.

I agree with Scott Morrison. One needs first and last names only if we want to sort names alphabetically, and as Mathoverflow has no reason to do that, the best thing is to just use a single free-form name.

To further illustrate Harald's point: one of the people in the department where my wife works is from Sri Lanka. His village has on the order of 100 people total, and everybody has only one name. When he was employed, surprisingly, the US state department has absolutely no problem with the fact that he is a one-named dude: I'm guessing that his visa application matched his passport is all they cared about. Whereas the University was unable to process his paperwork because of his single-namedness.

So in the end, the University and he reached a compromise: in the University computer system, his name is doubled. That is, his one name is entered into both the fields for "First Name" and "Last Name". Now, from a purely technical stand point, this is in fact correct: his first name is his last name, as he only has one of them (though I find it hilarious that the University didn't make him enter that as his middle name as well). But in the case of given versus family name, such a solution would be incorrect, as technically the culture he grow up in has no concept of "family name".

So @Mike Jones, even a quasi-standard Given/Family name notation may be, in fact, inappropriate and politically incorrect in the larger international stage. So why quibble with it? MO is already a English-centric website. I hope you are not suggesting we also institute a language exam requirement ... :p

@Grétar: Has anybody else told you that your father has the coolest name ever?

@Harald, one can mention Madonna and Cher as other examples :)

@Willie Wong: It may come as a surprise, but “family name” does not necessarily mean “family name”. In this context, it simply means “primary sort key”. Likewise, “given name” means “secondary sort key”. In this context, “last name” also means “primary sort key” and “first name” means “secondary sort key”, the obvious conflict between name and reference being all the more reason to move to “family name” and “given name” – after the Ice Age is over, of course.

It is not unusual for an expression to have a meaning quite different from what you would naturally expect, or even no meaning at all. For example, “ISO” does not stand for “International Standards Organization”, as you might naturally expect, but comes from the Greek word for “equal”. For expressions having no meaning, such as the letters of “SAT”, see the Wikipedia article on acronyms.

Also, if this is an English-centric website, let’s at least use English correctly. (You said, “a English-...” – just a typo, I know, but I couldn’t resist.)

@Mike Jones Is this more than a rant? I find it hard to see anything in your posts, other than a rant just for the sake of it. You have randomly assigned new meaning to the well-established words "family name" and "given name", but somehow didn't see it fit to arbitrarily re-define the currently used "first name" and "last name" instead. If instead of re-defining words to avoid being incorrect you had conceded, that your suggested renaming also has its flaws and that you simply didn't think of those countries, because you were primarily concerned with Asia, where you happen to be living, you would have left a much better impression. Or maybe you are suggesting that we should use fields such as "primary sort key" and "secondary sort key" instead of names, to avoid alienating people whose culture doesn't support the concept of a family name?

Pointing out a minor typo in absence of a decent argument was also not terribly convincing.

By the way, in Korea, where I am working and where "first" and "last" are also swapped compared to English, people seem much more relaxed over such issues than you are.

@Willie Wong: “in a technical sense”? In MO, what other sense matters?

Anyway:
“There’s glory for you!”
- Humpty Dumpty

Regards,
- Mike Jones

Is that movie-star/comedian and chart-topping singer-songwriter Mike Jones?

Likewise, “given name” means “secondary sort key”.

I've been told that Icelandic phone books are sorted on first (or given) name.

@Willie:

I mean the guy from the Friday sequels, starring Ice Cube. Those are some educational and inspiring movies.

@Harry Gindi: Visit my account in ipernity to find out:)

@Harald Hanche-Olsen: “I've been told that Icelandic phone books are sorted on first (or given) name.” –True (so I see from the subsequent post), and interesting, but irrelevant. As someone reminded me, and as I in turn remind you, this is an English-centric website:) The sort keys we’re talking about are those that might be used by MO admin.

@Alex Bartel: Does the term “loose cannon” mean anything to you?

You seem intent on taking the path of quickest descent into outright ridicule and contempt. Aren’t you afraid of becoming known as the Brachistochrone of Bad Manners?

I think that Mike Jones was just getting desperate to provoke people into replying, since the past 6 posts were all by him.

@Mike Jones, to answer your last question: no.

Can we please get some moderator control here? Just because it's meta doesn't mean trolls should run free.