Artist Sort Name
Status: Official Style Guideline
This page describes how to format an artist’s sort name.
Guidelines
Person artist names have sort name “family name, given name”.
Middle names and nicknames should be treated as a part of the given name.
Names beginning with an abbreviated title, such as Dr., DJ, or MC should have the title treated as if it were a part of the given name.
Family names which begin with an abbreviation should have the abbreviation expanded in the sort name.
Suffixes like “Jr.” and “Sr.” should be listed after the given name.
Group artist names beginning with an article (a, an, the, etc.) have the article moved to the end of their sort name.
Where a real person’s name appears in a group artist’s name, the artist’s sort name should be the sort name for that person, followed by the remainder of the group artist’s name.
The main artist sort name should be in Latin script for compatibility reasons. If the artist’s name is normally written using a non-Latin script, use the Latin script translated or transliterated name by which the artist is most commonly known. Alias sort names should use the appropriate script for the locale.
For artist names containing stylized characters, change those characters to their equivalent Latin script letter, removing any style-only punctuation, spacing, or other characters, unless the artist’s name contains only stylized characters, which have no inherent meaning to translate, and which cannot be transliterated.
Artist sort names should retain all Latin diacritics present in the artist name.
Numerals present in the artist name do not change.
All disparate parts of a sort name should be separated by “, ” (comma and space).
Examples
All examples should be interpreted as clarification upon the guidelines; no new guidelines should be interpreted from any example.
Guideline 1. Name of a person
Eric Clapton has sort name “Clapton, Eric”
Eötvös Péter has sort name “Eötvös, Péter” (name follows Hungarian “Surname Name” order, but the sort name is unaffected)
Hildur Guðnadóttir has sort name “Hildur Guðnadóttir” (Guðnadóttir is a patronymic, not a surname, as custom in Iceland)
But: Ólafur Arnalds has sort name “Arnalds, Ólafur” (Arnalds is a surname, not a patronymic)
Boudewijn de Groot has sort name “Groot, Boudewijn de” (Dutch artists’ tussenvoegsel are sorted after the given name as customary in the Netherlands)
Bart Van den Bossche has sort name “Van den Bossche, Bart” (Belgian artists’ tussenvoegsel are sorted as part of the surname as customary in Belgium)
Harry Connick, Jr. has sort name “Connick, Harry, Jr.”
Guideline 1a. Middle names and nicknames
Jean ‘Toots’ Thielemans has sort name “Thielemans, Jean ‘Toots’”
Guideline 1b. Name begins with an abbreviated title
DJ Shah has sort name “Shah, DJ”
SPC Stephen Pauls has sort name “Pauls, SPC Stephen”
Guideline 1c. Family name begins with abbreviation
Rebecca St. James has sort name “Saint James, Rebecca”
St. Lunatics has sort name “Saint Lunatics”
Guideline 2. Name of a group
- A
A Perfect Circle has sort name “Perfect Circle, A”
- An
An Epic at Best has sort name “Epic at Best, An”
- The
Los Lobos has sort name “Lobos, Los”
The Beatles has sort name “Beatles, The”
The The has sort name “The, The”
- No Article
Cypress Hill has sort name “Cypress Hill”
Hootie & the Blowfish has sort name “Hootie & the Blowfish”
Guideline 2a. Name of a person in a group artist name
Ben Folds Five has sort name “Folds, Ben, Five”
Bill Haley & His Comets has sort name “Haley, Bill & His Comets”
Bob Marley and the Wailers has sort name “Marley, Bob and the Wailers”
Dave Matthews Band has sort name “Matthews, Dave, Band
Don Redman and His Orchestra has sort name “Redman, Don and His Orchestra”
Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine has sort name “Estefan, Gloria and the Miami Sound Machine”
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble has sort name “Vaughan, Stevie Ray and Double Trouble”
The Alan Parsons Project has sort name “Parsons, Alan, Project, The”
The Jimi Hendrix Experience has sort name “Hendrix, Jimi, Experience, The”
“The Sensational Alex Harvey Band” has sort name “Harvey, Alex, Sensational Band, The”
Guideline 3. Latin script only
Пётр Ильич Чайковский has sort name “Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich”
布袋寅泰 has sort name “Hotei, Tomoyasu”
Guideline 4. De-stylize
My$t:c DJz has sort name “Mystic DJz”
*NSync has sort name “NSync”
P!nk has sort name “Pink”
trance[]control has sort name “trancecontrol”
Nothing to trans(liter)ate
（´・д・）ﾉ has sort name “（´・д・）ﾉ”
♪◆m599XGSMF6 has sort name “♪◆m599XGSMF6”
Guideline 5. Accented Latin characters
René Löwe has sort name “Löwe, René”
Guideline 6. Numerals
The Four Freshmen has sort name “Four Freshmen, The”
10,000 Maniacs has sort name “10,000 Maniacs”
Maroon 5 has sort name “Maroon 5”