User Naming Standards

Hi folks,

I have been tasked with coming up with a recommendation for a user naming standard for a government agency. Before I proffer my suggestions I would like to hear what other organizations are doing. There are several issues that need to be addressed, how to handle duplicates (John Doe, Jane Doe, etc), how to handle long last / first names, and how to support multiple vender environments and products and their restrictions/limitations – you know, to support that much sought after single login grail (MS Networks, Mainframe, Unix, MS SQL, Oracle, etc).

Any help would be useful, thanks?

Brett