[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #6148: Internationalization of personal names

[WordPress Trac]

#6148: Internationalization of personal names
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 Reporter:  aradams      |       Owner:  anonymous                                          
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new                                                
 Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:  2.6                                                
Component:  i18n         |     Version:                                                     
 Severity:  normal       |    Keywords:  personal names, internationalization, cultural bias
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 (Please excuse if this ticket lacks technical details. I am not a
 developer, merely an interested user.)

 WordPress currently allows users to register using the fields "first name"
 and "last name." These terms, and the limitation of only two fields, do
 not allow for the differences in naming conventions worldwide. The
 assumptions made by WP's design not only affect its use in its base
 English-language version, but also hampers localization efforts.

 Richard Ishida [http://rishida.net/blog/?p=100] says:

 "People who create web forms, databases, or ontologies in English-speaking
 countries are often unaware how different people’s names can be in other
 countries. They build their forms or databases in a way that assumes too
 much on the part of foreign users."

 And:

 "If you do still feel you need to ask for constituent parts of a name
 separately, try to avoid using the labels ‘first name’ and ‘last name’,
 since these can be confusing for people who normally write their family
 name followed by given names."

 Matthew Sachs also writes on this subject here:
 [http://zevils.com/2007/12/28/internationalization-of-names/]

 One possible approach to internationalization of personal names might be
 something like this:

 -- Allow for multiple name fields in user registration[[BR]]

 -- Remove culturally-specific labels like "first name" and "last
 name"[[BR]]

 -- Use the existing "display name publicly as" dropdown list to allow the
 user to specify the proper phrasing of his/her name[[BR]]

 -- Allow user name sorting flexibility. Currently author lists are sorted
 by first name, alphabetically, which is incorrect for English and many
 European names. Adding a "sort name by" dropdown list would allow for more
 flexible sorting of names within such applications as wp_list_authors.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://trac.wordpress.org/ticket/6148>
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