In the multicultural world that we live in how do you know my name. Is my first name my last name? What is my family name and what should you call me. As web site developers we regularly ask people for their name so we can personalise the web, but are we using the correct name? Presented at Leeds PHP Usergroup May 2017 and Presented at Leeds JS Usergroup August 2017

1. WHAT’S MY NAME?
BRIAN TEEMAN
PHP USERGROUP LEEDS

2. WHAT’S MY NAME?
https://tee.mn/name

3. BRIAN TEEMAN
‣ CO-FOUNDER
JOOMLA!
‣ HERE FOR THE BEER
‣ ALWAYS A GEEK
‣ IN THE 90’S I MADE
CD-ROMS
‣ @BRIANTEEMAN

4. 1997 - FIRST UK ADDRESS CD

5. REMEMBER THESE?

6. ACCOUNT OWNER ONLY

7. ELECTORAL ROLL

8. SHIP IT ALL TO CHINA

9. 1997 - FIRST UK ADDRESS CD

10. THEY CLAIMED IT WAS
ILLEGAL BUT COULDN’T FIND A
LAW THAT IT BROKE
Brian Teeman 2017
PHP LEEDSUSERGROUP

11. I’M A DATA GEEK

12. WE BUILD WEB SITES & FORMS

13. WE NEED YOUR NAME

14. SO WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

18. Capturing a person’s name

20. • Click to edit
Master text
styles

21. • Click to edit
Master text
styles

22. WHY DO YOU NEED MY NAME?

23. FRIENDLY GREETINGS

24. DIRECTORIES AND LISTINGS

25. WHAT'S MY NAME?

26. Björk Guðmundsdóttir
Given name & patronymic
Given name You call her:
• Björk
• Björk Guðmundsdóttir
First name Last name
Father’s name
B

27. WHAT'S MY NAME?

28. Different order of parts
First name Last name
You call him:
• Mr Hung
• Mr Dinh
• Hung
• Dinh
Hung Dinh
Given name Family Name

29. WHAT'S MY NAME?

30. María-Jose Carreño Quiñones
Multiple family names
Given name
Family name
from Mother
You call her:
• Señorita Carreño
Family name
from Father
Antonio Carreño Rodríguez
María Quiñones Marqués
de
First name Last name
Spanish family names would have the order paternal+maternal,
Portuguese names in Brazil would be maternal+paternal
C

31. WHAT'S MY NAME?

32. Non Latin Characters
First name Last name
Nicholas Διονυσόπουλος
The'ohneeso'poolosh
Dionissopoulos
Dionysopoulos
ELOT standardisation

33. WHAT'S MY NAME?

34. Middle Initials
First name Last name
First name Last nameInitial
Brian TeemanBrian G. J. Teeman

35. WHAT'S MY NAME?

36. Only Initials
First name Last name
Initial Last nameInitial
J.R. Ewing

37. WHAT'S MY NAME?

38. First Initial
First name Last name
First name Last nameInitial
J. Edgar Hoover

39. WHAT'S MY NAME?

40. tussenvoegsels
First name Last name
Robin van Persie
First name Last nameInsertion
You call him:
• meneer Van Persie
• Robin van Persie
P All different in Belgium

42. WHAT'S MY NAME?

43. Edison Arantes do Nascimento
Nicknames and such
First name Last name
You call him:
• Pelé

44. WHAT'S MY NAME?

45. Capitalisations and Case
First name Last name
Don’t assume all names are capitalized
French often use all caps for family name
Napoleon BonaparteNapoleon BONAPARTE

46. WHAT'S MY NAME?

47. Capitalisations and Case
First name Last name
Ewan MacgegorEwan MacGregorEwan MCregorEwan McgregorEwan McGregor
Don’t assume all names are capitalized
French often use all caps for family name

48. WHAT'S MY NAME?

49. Single name
First name Last name
Wookey
Last name

50. IT'S COMPLICATED

51. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

52. Recommendations…
• Ask yourself whether you really need to have
separate fields for given name and family
name
• Let the user decide how to write their name
• Make input fields long enough to enter long
names.
TO SPLIT OR NOT

53. Recommendations…
• Make the fields optional not everyone has both
• Avoid using the labels ‘first name’ and ‘last
name’.
HOW TO SPLIT

54. Recommendations…
• Let the user decide.
SORTING

55. Recommendations…
• Make the fields optional not everyone uses a
title
• Only use it if you need it and it is relevant
• Maybe you need to have a pre and post name.
TITLES

57. Recommendations…
• Ask separately how that person would like to be
called
• Separate formal name and common name
(nickname)
• Don’t assume the parts of the name
• Varying expectations of formality around the world.
WHAT’S YOUR NAME

58. Recommendations…
• Don’t capitalise a name leave it as entered
• Don’t restrict to Alpha - allow space and dash
• Don’t restrict to ASCII 128 - allow extended
• Don’t make all fields required
• Don’t have a minimum or maximum character count.
INPUT RULES

59. Recommendations…
• If you hope to get Latin or ASCII-only, you need to say
so.
LANGUAGE

60. Recommendations…
• Are you collecting the person’s name just to
have an identifier in your system?
• Do you plan to call them by name in their
language but track them in your back-office in
a language such as English
• You may want to ask for a Latin transcription.
LANGUAGE 2

61. INVALID NAME?

62. LET ME ENTER MY CORRECT
NAME NOT SOMETHING THAT
PASSES YOUR CHECKS.
Brian Teeman 2017
PHP LEEDSUSERGROUP

63. WHY DO YOU NEED IT?

64. IF YOU DO NEED IT THINK
ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE GOING
TO DO WITH IT.
Brian Teeman 2017
PHP SERGROUPU LEEDS

65. MORE INFO
Falsehoods Programmers
Believe About Names
http://goo.gl/AJuNW1
Personal names
around the world
http://goo.gl/3GTZeA

66. THANK YOU