---
category: blog
date: 2021-02-21T22:48:00+13:00
description: The macOS and iOS address book leaves a bit to be desired
slug: address-book-sorting
tags:
  - people
  - software
title: Address book sorting
---
When I boot up an Apple device for the first time, it always strikes me as annoying to find that the address book is sorted by last name first.

Thinking about this further, I think the frustration stems from my being more unfamiliar with last names than first. It's not like I don't know their last names either.

It could be a lookup issue in the sense that I have to visualise the full name of a person and then break off the end chunk and put it first. That is, in a sense that's what my brain is doing rather than jumping straight to their first name.

I do wonder if last names are less commonly used? For example, I can't remember the last time I ever referred to someone by their last name ie Ms. Blah.

I would partly chalk that up to a mix of my age, tendency to hate overly formal things and my general professional which is... not traditionally professional shall we say.

For that reason, I tend to think of people by their first names and I always dig out that setting and turn it off.

It could be that it's more the realm of business people, who have more formal connections (and business cards) than I do. For that reason, it might be that they don't tend to use first names as prominently?

I could google search it, and I will, but before then it makes me wonder how many other default settings are considered weird to other people?

Autocorrection is another one where I find that I need to toggle off all the assistance features or I'll be driven mad. I prefer my screen real estate!

Perhaps there's a committee of address book creators too, who uphold the guidelines of what makes a good address book. I'm just speculating at this point.

I'd be interested to know what other default settings bug you! You can let me know through the variety of different mediums in the footer below.
