yes, sometimes that's handled as "full name" and a call-me-this "preferred name" rather than first and last. also, postgres, which most rails apps seem to pref

yes, sometimes that's handled as "full name" and a call-me-this "preferred name" rather than first and last. also, postgres, which most rails apps seem to prefer, has no performance gain for 'string' over 'text' so might as well use 'text' so you have no potential problems with long names (less of a problem with genders, presumably).