Last Name Selection on New Accounts

I am sure this must have been asked before but , what happened to the list of last names on account signup?

It appears that is broken. There are only a few choices and they change with the first name .. virtually impossible to make a cool name with this setup

any idea how to pick a last name that works with a first name?

Try one of the other places to sign up, like Anshe Chung's Dreamland infohub website.

I think that's the LL system now: rather than have the whole list of last names available, you pick a first name and it gives you a list of last names that are available. I can see why they did it: sometimes before you'd pick a surname and no first name you could think of would be available.

Like you say, it does make interesting name combos all but impossible. You may still be able to pick the old way through the community portals, I know that worked for a while.

I'd prefer to choose the last name first too. It's hard to think of a clever name if you have no idea what your last name will be.

But still, last I checked, which was a while ago mind you - you could see the whole drop down list of last names UNTIL you first chose a first name.

When http://slnamewatch.com/ comes back up, check that. And check why it's down, it's kind of interesting. If you use it when it comes up, make sure you put in 'Adz Childs' as your referrer, see if that helps.

Edit: I have no relationship to Adz Childs or slnamewatch other than having used it once.

Try the Modular Systems registration API.

http://modularsystems.sl/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=19

Click the "boost" links by the last name drop down, and it lists over 1,200 names, so that should be practically every available last name.

The current LL registration system also makes it virtually impossible to set up an account for a specific nationality. For example, if I want to create an account with a Japanese surname and given name, even if there are 20 or so valid Japanese surnames "live", I have no way to reliably SEE and select those names. I try to enter a valid Japanese given name, and get a random sampling that might not include ANY Japanese surnames.

The current system also makes it nearly impossible for couples or groups to create several accounts with a shared surname, like a family. If a RL husband and wife want accounts with matching surnames? Good luck with that! Odds are the second account request won't have the surname the first one chose as a valid choice.

Forget about "making clever name combinations". You can't even make rational name combinations with the LL Registration Portal. You have to keep resetting the form, over and over again, until you luck out and finally get connected to a list that has the surname you want, and THEN you may well find out that the given name you tried is already taken, and so you have to start all over again. Whoever thought showing only a random subset of available names was a good idea should be fired. Clearly they don't use SL as anything other than a random game engine...

Many of the third-party registration portals, like Avatar Island, will show you a much larger and stable selection of names, and are MUCH easier to use than the LL portal. And some of the third party registration portals offer names that are IMPOSSIBLE to get via the LL portal. Slnamewatch is an invaluable resource for locating what names really are available, how heavily they are used, and which registration portals offer those names.

thanks a lot.. much appreciated