The same way it takes two sentences to mention Mr. Smith?

That's a good point. Perhaps we could use Smith`John since the grave character is rarely used.

That’s what I was thinking in response to your first idea. Every US keyboard has a grave character and it’s not used for anything. Maybe `Smith John is better since it works forwards too as John `Smith. Without stepping on punctuation. Either is preferable to SMITH John which is better than nothing.

Either way let’s just agree to start using the ` from here out and the internet will catch on.

Inventing things like this is needless. We don't put commas or grave characters in Chinese and Korean names.

And it would never be used in Chinese or Korean writing. It would only ever be used for Latin alphabets when the order of names is reversed from the norm.

Again, such things are not used in Chinese or Korean names — in the Latin alphabet. I was sure I didn't have to spell that out.

No need to make an exception for Japanese, no need to start inventing needless uses for punctuation. The world is spinning just fine with names like Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-Un, free of superfluous characters marking their first and last names.

I've seen tabloid rags refer to Kim Jong Un as [sic] "Mister Un" more times than I can count. I think it would be useful to be able to know the ordering of a name without having to look it up.

Or just not read tabloids which, despite being rags, should know better anyway. Actually, it's because a journalistic publication should know better that I'm inclined to call such an example wilful ignorance.

People not knowing the Japanese name order, that's something that can be overcome with just the most minor amount of education. People who steadfastly get it wrong despite the standards of their profession, they don't count.

>Or just not read tabloids

You make a good point. If only the likes of The Guardian and Bloomberg didn't make it to the front page on HN regularly.

I guess there's just a dwindling number of reputable sources without paywalls. The proper papers whose articles can actually be shared and the rags such as you named are getting hard to distinguish.