Add a 'tussenvoegsel' / 'surname prefix' field to User class

[prinsroy@…]

Many Dutch and German names follow the pattern ​http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tussenvoegsel:

Piet van der Sloot

Ludwig von Beethoven

For reasons of correct alphabetic ordering, capitalization and representation it is necessary to store the 'surname prefix' in a separate field. Right now this means extending the user class for even the most common cases. Thus the request to add a 'surname prefix' field to User class. I assume the implications for this feature are minimal, and it would be a great help.

[Russell Keith-Magee]

There would be at least two major problems associated with integrating this change into Django.

Firstly, there is a backwards compatibility problem. Any existing installation will need to modify tables to include the new column.

Secondly, and more significantly, there is a big i18n issue. While western European languages have a generally accepted "firstname/lastname" convention, this doesn't hold for asian names, or names in many other cultures. it's also problematic from a usability point of view - as an english speaker, if I saw "surname prefix" on a form, I would have no idea what to put into that field (I could guess, but it would definitely be a guess).

If you have user requirements that are as specific as this, I would suggest defining your own User model.