varchar or nvarchar

Question

I am storing first name and last name with up to 30 characters each. Which is better varchar or nvarchar.

I have read that nvarchar

Answer 1

Basically, nvarchar means you can handle lots of alphabets, not just regular English. Technically, it means unicode support, not just ANSI. This means double-width characters or approximately twice the space. These days disk space is so cheap you might as well use nvarchar from the beginning rather than go through the pain of having to change during the life of a product.

If you're certain you'll only ever need to support one language you could stick with varchar, otherwise I'd go with nvarchar.

This has been discussed on SO before here.

EDITED: changed ascii to ANSI as noted in comment.