IPhone & Address Book: which fields will sync?

I'm in the process of acquiring an iPhone (waiting for Orange UK PAC code before I move to O2 UK). In the meanwhile I thought of starting a clean Address Book on the Mac that will sync with the iPhone.
The problem is, based on some comments here, the iPhone doesn't seem to support all the fields that are available in the Address Book (like prefix, suffix, etc.)
So my question to someone out there with an iPhone is... which fields does it support and which does it show by default on the contact list?
I'll give you an ideia of what I want so that you can help me finding the better way of doing it:
I have lots of old university friends. On my SonyEricsson W880 I have them all saved with the prefix ULP (university name) followed by the nickname.
I want to build a clean Address Book so I was using the prefix to enter ULP, i was entering the first and last name and then added a new field for the nickname. But if the iPhone doesn't support prefixes nor nicknames, i would end up with a name like John Doe that, to me, is not immediatly identifiable. Its actually easier for me to check that John Doe is an old coleague from University (the ULP prefix) and his nickname was JarJar for example.
So, again, which fields are synced and what is the best way to achieve what I want without having to cheat (like inserting nicknames or suffixes in first and last name fields)?
Thank you.

On the iphone, when you go to your contacts (Phone>Contacts), by default you'll see all your contacts, and at the top it will have a title saying "All Contacts" and to the left of that a button saying "Groups". If you tap that button, you get to a screen that lists all your groups, with the title "Groups" at the top. If you then tap on a group, say your ULP group, you get to a list of contacts that are in that group. It looks just like the All Contacts list, except that the only contacts listed are those in that particular group, and the title at the top says the name of your group. And the "groups" button is still there.
Contacts in the Address Book can be in more than one group too. I have a group named "business" that has a lot of different contacts, some of whom are also in my "personal" group, and many of which are in my "clients" group. I generally leave it at "All Contacts" but if I can't remember the name of someone, like say my kids' dentist, I'll go to my "medical" group where I know he is.
I hope that clears things up. Groups are very useful!

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