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I'm developing a naming system for a video game, where a player or NPC's name can and in some cases will be mononyms, and in other cases a full name with a first and last name. This leads to a problem when figuring out how to display a list of names in alphabetical order.

For full names the 'sorting' format is 'family name, given name', and for mononyms just 'given name'. Should I change the way that I format the full name, and compare it to 'given name' and 'givenName familyName'? Or is there a more appropriate way to handle mononyms?

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    I’m voting to close this question because it's about software development, not writing.
    – Boba Fit
    Commented Apr 14, 2023 at 22:11
  • You should sort it by what they are primarily called, which would likely be first name. Characters with last names are seldom used in the story line would be hard to find, the audience knows them as "Harry", not "Fugeliman". Sort by the primary address name, even it is a nickname, and if they have "other" names tack them on. Bill Rigley. "Bossman" Richard Griffenick. "Butcher" Stanley Gritter. Dave Pasternick. Diana. etc.
    – Amadeus
    Commented Apr 15, 2023 at 11:20
  • @BobaFit The question itself has nothing to do with software development, the portions of the question related to that are only for context, The question itself is how do I handle writing a list of names in alphabetical order, when some names have a first and last name and others only have a singular name.
    – RWolfe
    Commented Apr 15, 2023 at 18:13
  • @Amadeus That is true, but I was more referring to something like a register, where a persons full name would be present should there name consist of more than a single name
    – RWolfe
    Commented Apr 15, 2023 at 18:14
  • @RWolfe I gave examples. Alphabetically by the usage name, regardless of whether they have a last name or not. As the audience knows them, the common name used. List all the names, in alphabetical order by the way the character is referred to that the audience will recognize. Perhaps a nickname, probably the first name, then any last name if there is one. Like "BullDog" Anthony Zapata. In that order, if the character is always is mostly referred to as "BullDog". Or, "Adam Schiff", the character is usually referred to as "Adam" but his last name is used. Or "Aaron", if no last name.
    – Amadeus
    Commented Apr 16, 2023 at 9:14

2 Answers 2

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A character index isn't a phone directory, so give names in the way that people use them, with first names first:

  • John Williams

A good index will list all variants of a name. That is, "Big" John Williams will appear under the following entries:

  • Big John, see John Williams
  • Fartbag, what Rusty Cober calls John Williams
  • John Williams, called "Big John" by his wife Marge and "Fartbag" by Rusty Cober
  • Plato, Rusty Cober's dog
  • Williams, John, see John Williams

List mononyms (see Plato above) alphabetically between other types of names.

If every person must appear only once in the list, use the natural speaking order of names and put the first name first:

  • Big John Williams
  • Marge Williams
  • Plato
  • Rusty Cober

Include the version of the name that the player will be most familiar with, that is,

  1. the version of the name that the character was introduced with or
  2. the most frequent version of the name.
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Suggestion: Use a spreadsheet or a database, enter all relevant variations, sort as needed (i.e. let the program do it for you).

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    That doesn't help in my situation, I'm writing a game in which names will be added to a list dynamically a name could either be a full name or a mononym, and I'm trying to figure out how best to compare full names and mononyms so that the program (my game) can sort the names appropriately at runtime
    – RWolfe
    Commented Apr 14, 2023 at 19:04

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