[Tex/LaTex] \DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{last-first} does not sort the name of editor

biblatex

Why doesn't the command \DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{last-first} order the name of editors to last name-first name?

Look at the following MWE.

\documentclass[10pt]{article}

\usepackage[style=authoryear,backend=biber]{biblatex}
\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{last-first}

\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@book{cicero,
  hyphenation = {german},
  author = {Cicero, Marcus Tullius},
  editor = {Blank-Sangmeister, Ursula},
  translator = {Blank-Sangmeister, Ursula},
  afterword = {Thraede, Klaus},
  indextitle = {De natura deorum},
  title = {De natura deorum. {\"U}ber das Wesen der G{\"o}tter},
  shorttitle = {De natura deorum},
  language = {langlatin and langgerman},
  publisher = {Reclam},
  location = {Stuttgart},
  date = {1995},
  annotation = {A bilingual edition of Cicero's \emph{De natura deorum}, with
    a German translation. Note the format of the \texttt{language} field in
    the database file, the concatenation of the \texttt{editor} and
    \texttt{translator} fields, and the \texttt{afterword} field}
}

@book{aristotle:anima,
  keywords = {primary},
  hyphenation = {british},
  author = {Aristotle},
  editor = {Hicks, Robert Drew},
  title = {De Anima},
  publisher = cup,
  location = {Cambridge},
  date = {1907},
  annotation = {A \texttt{book} entry with an \texttt{author} and an
    \texttt{editor}}
}
\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}

\nocite{*}

\printbibliography

\end{document}

Is there another command that I can use for this?

Best Answer

The sorting order and some other useful setups of biblatex are done in the file biblatex.def. There you can find the lines:

\DeclareNameAlias{editor}{default}
\DeclareNameAlias{editora}{editor}
\DeclareNameAlias{editorb}{editor}
\DeclareNameAlias{editorc}{editor}
\DeclareNameAlias{translator}{default}

Based on the lines you see that the editor uses the name format default which is set up as:

\DeclareNameAlias{default}{first-last}

So the easiest way is to use:

\DeclareNameAlias{default}{last-first}
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