Text & writing
How to Alphabetize Names and Titles
Putting people’s names or titles of works in order raises questions a simple sort cannot answer: should “Mary Smith” sort under M or S, and does “The Hobbit” belong under T or H? Libraries, indexes, and publishers have long-standing conventions. This guide explains the common ones and how to prepare a list so a sorting tool gets them right.
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Names: surname first
Lists of people are usually alphabetized by surname. Because a sorting tool compares lines from the first character, write names as “Smith, Mary” before sorting if you want them ordered by last name.
Surname prefixes such as “de”, “van”, and “Mc” are handled differently by different conventions and cultures; follow the style your organization or publisher uses and apply it consistently.
Titles: ignoring “The”, “A”, and “An”
Library catalogs skip leading articles when filing titles, so “The Hobbit” files under H. In the MARC 21 cataloging format maintained by the Library of Congress, a field indicator records how many leading characters (such as “The ”) to ignore when sorting.
A plain sorting tool does not know about articles. To file titles under their main word, move the article to the end — “Hobbit, The” — before sorting.
Word-by-word vs. letter-by-letter
Indexes use one of two systems. Word-by-word order treats the space as coming before any letter, so “New York” sorts before “Newark”. Letter-by-letter order ignores spaces, so “Newark” comes before “New York”. Choose one and use it throughout.
Preparing a list for sorting
- Put names in “Surname, Given name” form.
- Move leading articles in titles to the end.
- Decide how to handle prefixes and apply it consistently.
- Sort, then check a few tricky entries by hand.
Alphabetizing Names and Titles FAQ
- How do I alphabetize names by last name?
- Write each name as “Surname, Given name” on its own line, then sort the list.
- Should “The” be ignored when alphabetizing titles?
- In library catalogs and many lists, yes — “The Hobbit” files under H. Move the article to the end if your tool does not ignore it.
- What is word-by-word alphabetizing?
- An indexing method where the space counts before any letter, so “New York” comes before “Newark”.
- What is letter-by-letter alphabetizing?
- A method that ignores spaces between words, so “Newark” comes before “New York”.
- How should names with prefixes like “van” or “de” be sorted?
- Conventions vary by language and publisher. Pick the style your organization uses and apply it to every entry.
Related guides
- How Alphabetical Sorting WorksWhy computers can sort “Zebra” before “apple”, how language-aware collation handles case and accents, and how alphabetical order differs between languages.
- Natural Sort OrderWhy alphabetical sorting puts “10” before “2”, how natural number-aware sorting works, and the zero-padding workaround for tools that sort as text.
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