As a Google Workspace administrator in a European region (The Netherlands/Belgium), I am requesting the addition of a native system field for “Surname Prefix” (e.g., ‘van’, ‘de’, ‘von’) in the Google Directory.
Currently, Google Workspace only supports ‘First Name’ and ‘Last Name’. This is insufficient for international markets. Forcing users to combine the prefix with the last name in a single field causes several critical issues:
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Data Integrity: It breaks synchronization with HR systems (HRIS) and CRMs that treat these as separate entities.
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Sorting Issues: Users are incorrectly sorted in the Directory (e.g., ‘van den Berg’ appearing under ‘V’ instead of ‘B’).
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Professionalism: Automated email templates and document merges often produce grammatically incorrect or unprofessional salutations because the system cannot distinguish between the prefix and the surname.
As a global product, Google Workspace should support international naming conventions natively, rather than forcing administrators to use Custom Attributes that do not integrate with the system’s ‘Display Name’ logic.
Requested Action:
Provide a dedicated ‘Surname Prefix’ field that can be toggled per region and is automatically included in the ‘Display Name’ and ‘Search’ functionality of the Directory.