[Tex/LaTex] BibTeX using inconsistent name format in the case of two authors

Question

I recently started using biblatex (my installation is TeX Live 2010). My preamble syntax is:

\usepackage[backend=bibtex,style=authoryear]{biblatex}

When I cite a source with two authors, the bibliography entry prints the author names using an inconsistent format. For instance, suppose my .bib file entry is:

@book{Abramowitz,
author = "Abramowitz, M. and Stegun, I.",
title  = "Handbook of Mathematical Functions",
publisher = {Dover Publications},
year = "1965" }

If I issue the command \parencite{Abramowitz} in my document, the bibliography entry prints as:

Abramowitz, M. and I. Stegun (1965). Handbook of Mathematical Functions. Dover Publications.

Notice that the name format used for the first author is inconsistent with that used for the second author. The first author is printed using Last Name First format, but the second author is printed using Last Name Last format. What I'd like is for the entry to print like this:

Abramowitz, M. and Stegun, I. (1965). Handbook of Mathematical Functions. Dover Publications.

How do I get biblatex to do what I want? Is this inconsistency a known biblatex bug?

Answer 1

Just add \DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{last-first} to your preamble.

Consider the output of the following minimal working example (MWE):

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@book{Abramowitz,
author = "Abramowitz, M. and Stegun, I.",
title  = "Handbook of Mathematical Functions",
publisher = {Dover Publications},
year = "1965" }
\end{filecontents}

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[style=authoryear]{biblatex}
\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{last-first}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\begin{document}
\nocite{*}
\printbibliography
\end{document}