[AccessD] Normalizing issue

Methinks that you are doubly-inviting "trouble" here, Susan! But I love
trouble!

1. An increasing number of women (in Canada at least) choose to double-up
their surnames in the following fashion (don't know if this is how you
derived yours, and no matter): take your "maiden" surname and append to it
the name of your spouse. In your case, if applicable, it would imply that
your maiden name was Sales and that your spouse's surname was Harkins.

2. An increasing number of hetero married couples in Canada hyphenate their
surnames. Which order they choose, and why, I leave to others.

3. My wife's mother, born in Spain, has the surname Castro-Lema and the
given name(s) Flora Azucena. This denotes that her father's surname was
Castro and her mother's Lema. My wife's name is Samantha Ruskin-Lema, which
denotes that her father was named Ruskin and her mother Lema.

4. When we married, Samantha chose to retain her existing surname rather
than appending or adopting mine. Which suited me just fine. As I see it, our
convention in North America leaves women but two choices -- adopt your
father's surname or your husband's -- both inadequate, in my opinion. By
preserving her surname, rather than adopting or appending mine, Samantha
preserved both sides of her lineage.

5. In this case, the names are hyphenated. In your case, they are not. In
the hyphenated case the rule is simple: you sort on the first letter.
(Actually it's not so simple, given a name such as de la Vega, which should
be sorted under "V" not "D".

6. Let's hear from Shamil or some other lister acquainted with Russian
practices. I have read more than a few Russian novels (in translation of
course) but so far as I can conclude, if a man's surname is X then his
sister's surname is Xa, and conversely. Case in point (c.f. the current
Wimbledon tournament): Marat Safin's sister played this year; her surname is
Safina.

Ok, that ought to constitute a kettle of worms for further cooking! LOL.

7. I notice that you abbreviate your surname(s) to "Harkins" frequently.
Given that propensity, I see no harm in regarding "Sales" as a given name,
in terms of sort etc.

Arthur

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Susan Harkins
Sent: June 23, 2005 10:00 AM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: [AccessD] Normalizing issue

How do you guys deal with people that use three or more names
professionally? I do -- Susan Sales Harkins. 
 
Do you store the second name with the first or use three fields? The middle
name really isn't a "middle" name. It's actually part of the last name, but
the last name is the real last name -- so if you stored it with the last
name, you'd have to depend on users to enter it correctly, as in Harkins,
Sales --  which is a mistake before you even get started... And how do you
write in the flexibility that handles 2 or 3 names? 
 
Susan H. 
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