What’s in a Name? (Besides a Huge Administrative Headache)
How Colonial Clerks, Airline Computers, and the Western "First Name / Last Name" Grid Tried to Tame the World’s Naming Chaos If you have ever filled out an online visa application, booked an international flight, or opened a foreign bank account, you have inevitably encountered those two innocent-looking text boxes: First Name and Last Name . To a modern computer server in Seattle or London, these two boxes seem as fundamental to human existence as breathing oxygen. Everyone has a first name, and everyone has a family last name, right? Well, no. For most of human history, across most of the world, that idea was complete nonsense. The story of how humanity was forced into the "First Name / Last Name" box is a grand, global comedy of errors—a multi-century saga featuring bewildered colonial tax collectors, panicked Japanese peasants, rebellious South Indian social reformers, and stubborn airline software that throws a total tantrum if you happen to exist as a...