Separate first/last name fields

[Chrysaora]

From Natalia Martinez, AF-Miami: "Could we change the way we export applications from the dashboard to separate First and Last name into two separate columns? Not doing so makes it much more difficult to integrate those contact details with any other system, like Mail Chimp. I know this is a back end function, but it would be very helpful from our end. "

I think this is worth looking into, though I worry about the unnecessary constraint this will introduce--a lot of our applicants are organizations, teams, or other non-individuals. Thoughts?

[jcn]

We could do this as purely a convenience method, where we export first and last name columns, but they're derived programatically (split on space, first name = everything before the first space, last name = everything that's left).

It's imperfect, but no more imperfect than if we forced people into a first name / last name thing on the form itself.

[frabcus]

Fantastic W3C writeup on names internationally: http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-personal-names

Which concludes you ask for "full name" and "what should we call you? for example when we send you mail".

[jcn]

I would consider a "How would you like to be addressed" field, but I still think it would not be so beneficial from an application perspective.

https://twitter.com/jfairbairn/status/578490280527183872