Get row number from mysql

Hello, How can I get the number of the current row, something like this: <? $sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY id DESC"); while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql)) { $id = $row["id"]; $name = $row["name"]; print "$current_row_number. $name<Br>"; } ?> I can't just use the id field, because the ID's might not always be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc...they could go 1, 2, 4, 5, 8. I need it to look like this: 1. first person 2. second person 3. third person and so on and so forth. Can anyone advise me on how I should do this? thanks, Tyler