Name order in Italia

[qualdom]

I'm still confused about the rules for the order of names in Italia. It seems like sometimes the order in official documents is Cognome first, Nome second; however, many times I also see Nome first, Cognome second. Is it completely random or are there certain situations that will always require the Cognome-Nome order?

[darkerhorse]

In my experience, listing the first name first in indexes was more common in older registers.

[Italysearcher]

Each town will have its own version of the rules of law and the indexing.