<xsl:for-each select="ancestor-or-self::*/@name"> selects items in an
apparently random order if more than 3 are selected.  At any rate, they
don't seem to be selected in document order.
<xsl:for-each select="ancestor-or-self::*"> behaves as expected and selects
the elements in document order.

Example xml:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<a name="a"><b name="b"><c name="c"><d name="d"><e name="e"><f name="f"><g
name="g"><h name="h">
</h></g></f></e></d></c></b></a>

Example xsl:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
version="1.0" >

   <xsl:output method="text"/>
   <xsl:template match="*">
     <xsl:text>&#x0A;selecting by element:    </xsl:text>
     <xsl:for-each select="ancestor-or-self::*">
       <xsl:text>/</xsl:text>
       <xsl:value-of select="@name"/>
     </xsl:for-each>
     <xsl:text>&#x0A;          by attribute:  </xsl:text>
     <xsl:for-each select="ancestor-or-self::*/@name">
       <xsl:text>/</xsl:text>
       <xsl:value-of select="."/>
     </xsl:for-each>
     <xsl:text>&#x0A;</xsl:text>
     <xsl:apply-templates/>
   </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

Output:

selecting by element:    /a
          by attribute:  /a

selecting by element:    /a/b
          by attribute:  /a/b

selecting by element:    /a/b/c
          by attribute:  /a/b/c

selecting by element:    /a/b/c/d
          by attribute:  /c/d/a/b

selecting by element:    /a/b/c/d/e
          by attribute:  /e/d/c/b/a

selecting by element:    /a/b/c/d/e/f
          by attribute:  /d/e/f/a/b/c

selecting by element:    /a/b/c/d/e/f/g
          by attribute:  /g/e/f/d/b/c/a

selecting by element:    /a/b/c/d/e/f/g/h
          by attribute:  /c/d/a/b/g/h/e/f