A Peeve
Okay, look. I understand that I have two first names. If you count my middle name, I have three first names. So I understand that it's possible to get my first and last names mixed up and still come up with something that technically could be somebody's name. But really, if you're working for an insurance company or a doctor's office or some place like that, aren't all the names on your records and printouts and so forth in the same format? There shouldn't ever be a time when you're thinking "Wait, is this guy's name Steven Howard or Howard Steven?" I mean, you're probably looking at data that started with a form I filled out, and it's a safe bet that I know what order my names go in. But even if you did have to guess, why would you go with Howard Steven over the much more reasonable Steven Howard?

I used to work with a guy named Stanley John. And I understand why people got his name wrong all the time. John is much, much more often a first name than a last name, and Stanley has to be at least as common a last name as a first name. So I get why he always had to tell people his name two or three times and they'd still get it backwards. John Stanley is a much more likely name than Stanley John. But Steven and Howard? I don't think I've met more than half a dozen guys whose first name was Howard in my entire life. Whereas I could easily rattle off at least twenty guys I've known named Steven or Stephen in less time than it's taken me to write this entry so far. Obviously, I know more people with the last name Howard than the average person, but I can't even think of anybody I've ever known, met, heard of or read about whose last name was Steven. Stevens, Stevenson, and so on, sure. But Steven? I'm sure there are such people, but there can't be very many of them.