The technical puzzle proposed in this discussion is interesting, but it has obviously run it's course. I'm interested about why you would need to know the "last" value inserted into a table that contains only a single column called [Name]. For example, are you trying to page through the list of names in an application, or perhaps you're incrementally loading data and need to know where you left off? If you describe more detail about your intended goal, then perhaps someone can offer a better solution to the actual problem.