How do I start rows with 0 (not 1) or not count header rows in Numbers? I'm using the Numbers app to make a database or catalogue of stuff.  For example, a list of all wines I'll try this year.  And for each column, I'll have the name of the wine, a rating, the kind of wine, and a few other items.

If the first row of my spreadsheet is a header, and the first row is 1, then every item in the spreadsheet will be off by 1.  To me, this makes absolutely no sense.  Can I start the spreadsheet with the first row being 0 instead of 1?  Or, can I have Numbers not use a row number for the header row?

If I could name the columns, this wouldn't matter.  But since Numbers names the columns A, B, C, etc, I have to use a header row to name (or label) the columns, and this leads to the first actual item being in row 2 instead of row 1...  and this leads to every single sort being off by one, since the top item is a label in the header, which gets listed as being #1.

Using column A for an index won't work unless there's a way to lock the order of column A, because the index would get sorted each time any other column gets sorted.
So, this is easy to solve in Excel...  I don't have access to Numbers at the moment, but I'll give you the solution I'm aware of and you can confirm whether it works in Numbers like it does Excel.

You can create a column with the following formula:

=Row() - 1

This will always give you one less than the "default" row number, which is what you are looking for.   It also won't be affected by sorting.

A complete reference of functions that are available in Numbers can be found HERE, including the ROW function.