Timwi timwi@gmx.net writes:
You are suggesting we sort by first name?
Yes.
How are people supposed to find a celebrity if they only know their surname (which is more common than knowing only their first name)?
A full text retrivial system would surely help.
The (western) concept of first and surname is just one system and often it is pretty obscure. In some countries the "van", "de", "von", etc. predicates are part of the surname (prefix, suffix?), in other countries they are an appendix to the first name.
The surname often changes - tell me the surname of Ludwig Tieck's sister ;) Okay, men an women devoted to a religious life tend to change their name as well - but they give up on their old name completely.
Esp. since we are an online-medium we are free to ignore the "official" writing system. Readers can find the info easily (even if they are forced to use an external search engine).