Help:Conventions/Person name

Quick reference

Primary and alternate names

Primary name

Exceptions

• If the person was adopted shortly after birth and any name given by the birth parents is unknown and/or never used, use the name assigned by the adoptive parents as the primary name.

• If the only name known is the name adopted after immigration, use it as the primary name. In this case, if the birth name is subsequently discovered, update the page to put the name at birth on the first line and the name after immigration as an alternate name.

• If the person does not have a conventional surname (e.g., a medieval person or member of the nobility) and has a Wikipedia page, the primary name can be structured so that the default person page title matches the title of the Wikipedia page. (This is known as "the Wikipedia exception").

Additional conventions

• If the person was born during a time when spelling was not standardized, consider standardizing the spelling of the primary name. For more information, refer to conventions for the components of a name.

• If the only record of birth is the baptismal record, and the cleric latinized the name, it is acceptable to use the local spelling of the name as the name at birth (e.g., Martin rather than Martinus). However, if there is evidence that the person used the latinized version later in life, keep the latinized version as the primary name.

Alternate names

Types of alternate names

Guidelines for selecting the type of an alternate name:

• Commonly Used Name - a name the person often used instead of their full first name; this can be a variation of their given name (e.g., Tom, Jack), a nickname (e.g., Doc), or a middle name that they used instead of their first name
• Baptismal Name - a name assigned at baptism if different from the birth name (as occurs in some cultures)
• Immigrant Name - a name assumed after immigrating to a new country, such as "Johann Schmidt" becoming "John Smith"
• Married Name - a surname acquired as a result of marriage (if not implied by the existence of a Family page with the husband's surname)
• Religious Name - a name adopted for religious purposes, such as Sister Mary Magdalena
• Alt Name - any other name the person used besides their birth name, such as:
  • a step-father's, guardian's or adoptive parent's surname
  • a pseudonym, such as a stage name or pen name
  • a name resulting from a legal name change
  • where farm names were used instead of inherited surnames, a change resulting from moving from one farm to another
  • an alternate spelling that is not obvious (that is, a future researcher might not recognize it as the same name)

Additional conventions

Limit the number of alternate names to those that truly add value. In particular:

• Don't add a married name for a woman when the Family page exists showing her husband's surname.
  • WeRelate automatically searches for women using their husband's surname, so this is unnecessary.
  • A married name is redundant, which means more places to fix if the information is discovered to be incorrect. If an incorrect married name is not corrected, it causes confusion for future researchers.
  • If the husband's first name is known and he is deceased, it is preferable to create the Family page for the marriage.
  • However, if a person adopted a blended name (e.g., Smith-Jones) upon marriage, that should be added as an alternate name.
• Don't add obvious alternate spellings.
  • Alternate spellings can be noted in the source citations instead.
  • Searching in WeRelate uses Soundex, which finds people when the name is spelled differently.
• Limit non-obvious alternate spellings to the generation(s) in which they were most common (usually during a transition from one form of the surname to another).
  • For example, the surname "de Veer" transitioned to "de Vehr" and eventually to "Fehr". Instead of putting "de Veer" as an alternate for someone named "Fehr", ensure that the Variant names project shows that these are variations of the same name.
• Don't add an alternate name with an initial if the primary name has the full name.
  • WeRelate indexes the initials of all given names, so they can be found when searching with just an initial.
  • An exception would be if the person normally went by just their initials, in which case this could be entered as a Commonly Used Name.
• Don't add nicknames representing familial relationships, such as Granny or Nana.

• Don't add incorrect names or incorrect transcriptions found in records.
  • This causes confusion. Record the incorrect name in the source citation and make a note that it is incorrect.

Why enter data this way?

Having each name variation on its own line provides clarity of how the name was used.

Identifying people primarily by their name at birth is standard genealogical practice and provides consistency.

• Allowing as few exceptions as possible avoids arguments over personal preference.
• Using a name acquired later in life (e.g., a step-father's surname) as the primary name can cause confusion about whether the person is assigned to the correct parents.

Adding alternate names can:

• improve search results so that future contributors find existing pages instead of creating new ones
• help future researchers be confident that they have found the correct person
• personalize information by indicating the name a relative preferred to use

Components of a name

Regardless of whether a name is the primary name or an alternate name, it is comprised of up to 4 components: prefix, given name(s), surname and suffix.

When creating a Person page, you can only enter the given name(s) and surname. Once the page is created, you can add a prefix and/or suffix.

When you search, whatever you enter in the given name field matches both prefixes and given names, and whatever you enter in the surname field matches both surnames and suffixes.

Given name

Surname

Name prefix

Name suffix

Additional conventions

• If the person was born during a time when spelling was not standardized, consider standardizing the spelling of the name (e.g., Ellen instead of Elin, Howard instead of Howerd).
  • If you are unsure whether and how a name should be standardized, consult journals and published genealogies for guidance.
  • Alternately, for a surname, you can use the spelling used by the majority of the person's children or siblings.

• Enter multi-part surnames in full. Examples:
  • Surnames with prepositions, e.g., van der Mark, de Veer
  • Two-part Spanish surnames, e.g., Santiago Rosado (enter with a single space between the names, no hyphen, no comma)
  • French “dit” surnames, e.g., Levron dit Nantais

• WeRelate doesn’t have a separate field for the patronymic, and has adopted the following conventions:
  • If the person was born before the adoption of hereditary surnames, enter the patronymic followed by any other surname (e.g., farm name in Norway) in the surname field, e.g., Olsen Moen or Olsdatter Moen (Norwegian), ap Hywel or ferch Hywel (Welsh), Janszoon or Jansdochter (Dutch).
  • If the person had a hereditary surname but continued to use a patronymic, enter the patronymic at the end of the given name field. When used this way, the patronymic may be shortened if it was shortened in the source record, e.g., Jansz, Jansdr, Jansse, or Jans (Dutch).
  • Note that it may be difficult to determine from the records in which generation a Norwegian farm name became a hereditary surname. Hereditary surnames didn’t become common in rural parts of Norway until the late 1800s, and didn’t become mandatory until 1923. If in doubt, enter the patronymic in the surname field, as that is likely to support searches better.

• For Norwegian names prior to the adoption of hereditary surnames, consider the farm name (if known) to be part of the surname. Enter it following the patronymic (if known). Do the same for parts of Denmark that followed the same custom.

• Note that the use of Sr and Jr as part of the name (as opposed to a description applicable at a specific time and place) appears to be a relatively recent phenomenon. Before entering these or Roman numerals for successive generations, please read Senior and Junior and/or "Generational titles" in Suffix (name), or ask for advice on the Watercooler.

• Don't put anything into a name field other than the person's name, title, or designation as described above. The following notes apply to all languages.
  • Don't enter "Unknown" or any other variation (such as Unk, FNU, LNU).
  • Don't enter "daughter", "son", "child", "husband", "wife" or similar word.
  • Don't enter "stillborn".
  • Don't enter "twin", "triplet", or similar word.
  • Don't indicate the gender.
  • Don't include the generation number.
  • Don't include the birth year.
  • Don't indicate the place they were born or resided, unless it is considered to be part of the surname or as it pertains to a noble title.

Exceptions

• A question mark may be used after a name to indicate that the name is uncertain.
  • Place a single space between the name and the question mark (e.g., Alice ?, Johnson ?).
  • Add a source or note to describe the reason for the uncertainty.

• When two children in a family have the same given name(s) and you do not know and cannot estimate a birth or christening date to distinguish them, you may enter (1) and (2) in the name suffix field to communicate that they were two separate people and to clarify the birth sequence.
  • If you find an existing Family page with two children with the same given name(s) and no other information, do not add numbers without doing the research to determine whether or not both pages are for the same person.

• If a person chose to use their name in all lowercase, you may enter it that way in an alternate name (assuming it was not assigned that way at birth).

• If you only know a person's initials and they happen to be N N, enter them with periods after both initials and a space between (N. N.). Any other variation will be treated as an indication of an unknown name (no name) and WeRelate will require you to remove it to conform with the standard of a blank field for an unknown name.

Why enter data this way?

• Name fields, like all fields in WeRelate, have a specific purpose and should be populated only with the intended data - in this case, the person's name and titles. Other fields are provided for notes, gender, and other uses.
  • WeRelate displays blank given and surname fields as a series of underscores so that you can see which name is unknown. This is preferable to having multiple different ways of saying "unknown" in multiple languages, which can affect searching and identification of duplicates.
  • If you believe it would improve WeRelate to include more information in search results or other contexts, please suggest an enhancement rather than putting that information into a name field.

• Entering given name abbreviations (such as Wm) instead of full names negatively impacts searching and identification of duplicates. However, abbreviations in surnames such as St. Leger are well-established and should be entered that way.

• Entering names in mixed case retains information that is lost when names are entered in all capital letters, such as whether or not the name included a capital in the middle (e.g., LaFayette).
• Different people have used all capital letters in genealogy for different reasons, such as:
  • To denote their own direct lineage, which is inappropriate in a shared tree such as WeRelate. (See My Trees for information on how to identify individuals of personal interest.)
  • So that names stand out in a narrative, which is not relevant for how WeRelate displays names.

• WeRelate's conventions for entering patronymics reflect what seems to be common genealogical practice and thus should result in the best support for searching.

• Not adding a period after initials helps in two ways:
  • It avoids needing to know whether or not the person was assigned a full name or only an initial.
  • If the full name is discovered by a future researcher, they have one less keystroke to remove the period. (This might seem trivial, but makes a difference to volunteers who do a lot of enhancement of existing pages.)

Related information and tasks

• Adding new person pages
• Editing person pages