Is it possible to configure name patterns to use a person's initials. For example, I would like John Smith to appear as "John S."

Thanks.

Comments

nancydru’s picture

nancydru
she/her/hers
Primary language English
Location Boston
commented
Status: Active » Closed (won't fix)

Because of the variety of languages and naming rules, it is much better for you to add another field that the user will fill in.

zdean’s picture

zdean commented

Sorry if it's against protocol to follow up on a closed issue, but I'm wondering if the above is possible. If it can't be included as a feature, just some guidance on whether it's even possible would be appreciated.

thanks.

nancydru’s picture

nancydru
she/her/hers
Primary language English
Location Boston
commented

As I said, you can always add another field with the initials.

zdean’s picture

zdean commented

I saw and understood that reply. However, asking someone for their last name and then their last name initial would not be the best approach from a user experience. Using [first name] + [last name initial] is a common enough format (such as on Yelp) that it might be considered as a feature. You've made it clear that it won't be, so I'm simply asking if it's possible within the technical boundaries of this module to do it at all. I'm willing to find a developer to create the solution...I'd simply appreciate guidance from the module's maintainer as to whether it's possible.

nancydru’s picture

nancydru
she/her/hers
Primary language English
Location Boston
commented

I suspect it could be done without a lot of difficulty. My problem, as maintainer, is that I must support all languages, including those where the family (sur-) name comes first (e.g. Hu Jintao), or is hyphenated (and the second part is the true family name, e.g. Reginald Smythe-Jones); the rules could be very complicated. My last customer chose to have a single field where the "display name" was entered, in addition to first and last name. Most of the time, people just repeated their first and last name, but it was technically possible to enter "John S." No one ever complained about repeating information.

zdean’s picture

zdean commented

thanks, NancyDru...I appreciate the input and your great work on this and many other modules!