It seems that in movies and on TV when you see a character’s phone ringing the screen typically shows a first name. (often a fairly widespread name BTW, where I wonder how the phone’s owner disambigautes the caller from all the other persons in their phone book with the same given name).
So I wonder: is it really that remarkable that my wife, my brother, and close friends and relatives are listed in my phone’s contacts app as firstname lastname as a matter of course?
That’s odd. I was going to reply that mostly my contacts are stored as first name only except when there are two or more with the same name. On checking my contacts it seems that I have a mix of first name only and both names. And, in fact, the majority are the whole name.
Mind you, I am the kind of person that uses full words, capitalization and punctuation in SMS messages.
Everyone in my contact list is listed by full name, and sorted by last name. The only exceptions are people whose last name I don’t know for some reason, e.g., a worker doing a job for me whose last name I didn’t catch. And those are usually listed under the company name.
I was a writer and editor for the last 24 years of my working life, and always do this, too. I was once mocked by a Gen X colleague of my wife’s for putting a period after “Thanks” in a text. Sorry, that’s how I roll.
I keep my sister’s name in my phone contact list as Firstname Lastname because she has a long, mostly consonant, ethic name I find it difficult to remember how to spell correctly by memory. So for me it’s a handy reference whenever I need to look up her lastname for a form of some sort, or addressing snail mail or boxes, or whatever.
I have a lot of Firstname from Work or Firstname from Social Activity.
Does it make any of you, like me, feel old when for at least a fraction of a second your brain interpreted “phone book” in the title as that old-timey thing made of paper and ink?
Pretty much everybody is Firstname Lastname on my phone, because I fill out the contact card (or the contact card has been autofilled.)
A quick look at my favorites list, the only contacts without last names are “ICE Mom and Dad” and “Dr. George.” Even my wife comes with last name attached.
I use all firstname lastname because it is a mix of personal and work numbers since the pandemic sent everyone to a WFH situation, and I like to be consistent.
I am also weird in that I have a picture of each person in their profile, so I can be reminded what they look like. For friends and family it’s easy to find photos to use, but for colleagues it is more of a challenge, so sometimes I use like-looking celebrity photos available from the internet. I know. Weird.
Back when I first had a phone and the contact list was name and number I had a lot of people in there just with first name and sometimes an initial to distinguish friends with the same name. Now that it’s connected to Google contacts and has firstname, lastname, email, etc. they are all in with last names. The last name might be “dogwalker” or “nextdoor neighbor” though, if I don’t know or am unlikely to remember their surname when I need the phone number.
I did exactly that, and was preparing to tell the story of how I used to get a lot of wrong numbers because people were trying to call a guy with a similar name whose listing was, of course, close to mine in the paper and ink telephone book.
As to the actual question, every single one of the contacts in my phone is entered under first and last name, including my wife and all of my family members. It would feel weird and unnatural to do otherwise.
My personal contacts are mostly just first names or nicknames (I have a contacts “Dealer”). I know three different Norms. The one I text most often is listed as “Norm”. The next most commonly texted is “Normie”. And then there is “Norm the third”.
Mine are listed as First “Nickname” Last, and that is primarily due to Google Contacts. I would much prefer if it only showed the nickname field when it was present, though.
I do get why it seems impersonal to have your wife and especially parents listed that way. I’m not going to think "I need to call or text “John Connor” (not his real name) when I think I need to call dad, and I’m definitely not going to look under the Cs.
If it’s just friends, then it makes more sense. I’m likely to at least think of them by their first name.
I was getting ready to come in here and say, you guys are nuts. My wife is “firstname” and that’s it. But I double checked just now and it’s “firstname lastname.” I think because she was a “work contact” at one time and my phone has downloaded the entire company database of contacts. (sometimes that’s good, usually it’s a pain in the ass.)
Looking over my recent calls, I see that my kids are first name only, and a few other’s like “Firstname (John’s dad)” or “firstname (Plumber)”
I use first name & last name initial for almost everyone. For example: John D. If there’s already a John D, I’ll add a letter or two for disambiguation: John Do.
The vast majority of my contacts are firstname lastname. Somehow, my wife is listed twice, once with just firstname and another with both.
Some weird exceptions are all women - a sister-in-law and a couple friends from college. All the have uncommon names, so that’s probably why.
My mom and dad are entered as such (capitalized).
I also have all my doctors from my cancer treatments listed with “Dr. Lastname” as firstname and the facility where they were at as lastname. It was a useful solution ten (!) years ago.