For my B2B SaaS I'm wondering if I should do full name or first/middle/last. I currently do first/middle/last.<p>I've seen some B2B software that will do full name, but it leads to horrible user experience.<p>For example, at $previousJob, I remember someone put in their full name (not their real name btw) as "S. Ryan Jackson" and when they send out emails it reads as "S. wants to collaborate with you" or "S. has a document for your review" which is honestly useless. They basically do fullName split and grab the first part. And I guess this particular company thought that putting in "S. Ryan Jackson wants to collaborate" is too much?<p>OTOH, I recognize that people around the world have different name conventions.<p>Here's my take - since I'm primarily going after English/Spanish speaking and Westernized audiences (US/CA mainly, and MX/S.America, UK, India, Aus) there's probably no problem with having first/middle/last. If there are employees there who have edge case names in this paradigm, they can try their best to conform to this standard.<p>I've worked at California based tech companies with global reach, and I've personally never met someone who had a different name standard that wasn't met by the first/middle/last convention.<p>It’s important for my software to get names right because it sends out emails and messages on the users behalf.<p>If I do expand into primarily non-standard naming convention countries, I might update my data models and app UX accordingly then.<p>Thoughts?
I use my middle name, and I get "Dear S." mail.
My father has no middle name.
My mother has three middle names, and her last name is two words.<p>See "Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names":
<a href="https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names" rel="nofollow">https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-...</a>
"It’s important for my software to get names right because it sends out emails and messages on the users behalf."<p>This is the critical part your requirement, since it's important to get it right for emails then Full Name would be the correct option. If you needed the name for business or legal reasons then you'd want to go the other way.
>For example, at $previousJob, I remember someone put in their full name (not their real name btw) as "S. Ryan Jackson" and when they send out emails it reads as "S. wants to collaborate with you" or "S. has a document for your review" which is honestly useless.<p>Whatever system they use should have a provision for a 'preferred name', so their 'legal' name could be Samual Ryan Jackson, but their preferred name would show up as Ryan or Ryan Jackson. This isn't rocket science, it's handled correctly by a lot of companies.<p>Also, you should read <a href="https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/" rel="nofollow">https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-...</a>
If you really want to get names right, you'll provide the ability to configure the name used in each context, while perhaps providing an option to do one or more standard conventions (e.g., first/middle/last) and derive uses automatically from that.<p>But it's not clear to me what your real priorities are: these lines imply quite different priorities:<p>> If there are employees there who have edge case names in this paradigm, they can try their best to conform to this standard. [...] I've personally never met someone who had a different name standard that wasn't met by the first/middle/last convention<p>> It’s important for my software to get names right because it sends out emails and messages on the users behalf.
My thought is separate out into separate fields because you'll need to later split things apart anyway (like you provided in your example).<p>To me the bigger question is first/middle/last or given/middle/family.<p>I now lean back toward first/middle/last as it gives the user the ability to control how their name is represented as they can chose which name goes in first and which in last etc. This seems to best handle Asian name formats, which need to be taken into account because there are plenty of Asians in Western countries now.
> someone put in their full name (not their real name btw) as "S. Ryan Jackson" and when they send out emails it reads as "S. wants to collaborate with you"<p>That’s on you, if you’re asking for the full name, use the full name, don’t try to parse it<p>There’s nothing wrong with "S. Ryan Jackson wants to collaborate with you"
Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names<p><a href="https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/" rel="nofollow">https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-...</a><p>> I've worked at California based tech companies with global reach, and I've personally never met someone who had a different name standard that wasn't met by the first/middle/last convention.<p>More likely you’ve only met people who Anglicized their name to conform to American expectations, forms, and web sites. Do you really think Chinese parents name their kids Sam and Emily?
The ideal scenario is if your name can be condensed to a coveted three-letter username[1], e.g., rms, esr, dhh, bwk, etc.<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4lDvkAFyps" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4lDvkAFyps</a>