In the stock app there isn't a way to do this. It's a google thing. Google doesn't have separate fields for first and last names in their contacts lists so there's no way to sort by last name unless you type them in last name first. Hitting the magnifying glass brings up the search window and it works so well I haven't scrolled in my contacts in quite a while. If you get used to using the search then the sort order doesn't matter as much. Also there may be an alternative contact manager in the market that lets you change the sort order but I wouldn't be able to recommend one.

 

Well you can set up groups in you gmail contacts and only sync the one you want. I have to do that. With a very old gmail account as my associated account and over 7k contacts I have a very small group pulled out to sync with the phone. I would highly recommend this setup because you won't ever lose your contact list that way. You could even set up an empty group and only add contacts from your phone.

I am not sure how the phone contacts works vs gmail contacts but now I am curious and will see what I can find out.

 

I had the opposite reaction when I saw how names were listed. I hated Win Mobile and how it put all my contacts last name first, as I had a lot of contacts without a last name, so I had to constantly try to remember which ones I had to look up last name or first name to find them.

+1 on search.

 

Set up the groups on your gmail account and then change the settings on the phone. I am mobile at the moment and don't have the directions handy but they are in this forum somewhere.

 

If you press and hold on the scroll tab on the right side of the screen. You can quickly scroll through the list via alphabit. I find this much quicker than searching or scrolling.

+1 for first name sorting! I have my neighbors name in my contacts as Tony. I don't know his last name.

 

If you're a Mac user, or you can get to a Mac, you can use Address Book in Mac OS X to export your contacts and then import into Google contacts. When I have imported from my Mac into Google, it arranged the contacts by last name first.

 

Finally, a great question for me too. I had Sprint transfer my Palm Centro contacts, all stored by last name, to my new Sprint htc hero. All the contacts came sorted first name and I was crazy trying to undo each one. Sprint now says that it is impossible to sort the hero contacts by last name. Just learn all their first names and type them in the search buttons on the phone pad. Yeah sure...like all the persons named John. That will really narrow it down!.
Please someone create a widget for reversing the sort by first name only convention on my hero.

 

haha, sounds like a sprint "late nite" answer...they always give interesting answers the later at night i call!!

anyway, just wanted to tell you that i searched (by hitting phone and then using the letters on the number pad) trying to narrow down all the rich's in the phone by just starting to type the last name and it worked - this doesn't work on yours or am i misunderstanding?

 

Perhaps I did not articulate the problem. I have no problem trying to find the last names of contacts. I just want them displayed by last name first....just like I had on my Palm Centro and Palm Pilot for the past 8 years. I've never seen contacts sorted by first name anywhere...not in any phone book in the USA. It's counter intuitive.

 

Dude, great tip. Thanks. I also tried this in the media player, and it works great. Makes scrolling through albums, artists, songs, etc. very fast.

 

Like one of the posters said, since there are no separate fields for first and last name, it will not be possible.

 

meh I remember people by their first name. When I got my first smart phone and it sorted everyone by last name I had a mental break down.

 

i found that if you are in edit mode, focus on the name field, then select from the "display name" the format you wish to use.

 

Nice find, I wonder if an update made this feature available. Too bad that you have to make the change for each contact.