Optimal way to store person name in SQL Server

Question

I am designing a table that will store login information, which includes a persons name.

There will be lots of inserts and deletes to this table, but no updates.

I am wondering what is the best datatype to use? varchar(50)? nchar(50)?

Optimise for speed, need names in various languages.

Answer 1

The safest is doubtless nvarchar as stated by @Kevin in his answer.

For speed, however, varchar is half the size of an nvarchar, making it more compact for storage, and faster for access

Have a look at the following aticle: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa196741(SQL.80).aspx

Answer 2

The safest way is to use nvarchar. That way you can accept names in multiple languages.

http://weblogs.asp.net/guys/archive/2005/01/15/353550.aspx