Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (common names)

"Examples of common names that should be used instead of formal names are: George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Mozart, Bach, Goethe."

And yet Mozart and Bach are both disambiguation pages, and Goethe redirects to his full name. Is the above really correct, or have I just wasted my time relinking all the Mozarts to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? --Camembert

You're right that the assertion made in the article is refuted by actual practice. --The Cunctator

So why are we not allowing Margrethe II to be at her proper name, but rather at some English variant of the name? It's pretty stupid to think you Americans have the right to change every name in the world to some American version. Lir 21:22 Nov 10, 2002 (UTC)

You are confusing English version with American versions. Stop ranting. --mav

---

Subpages Much discussion has taken place about this very subject. Here are some threads:

• m:Get_rid_of_subpages_entirely
• m:Why I am suspicious of subpages
• m:The case against subpages
• [1] (/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2002-January/001202) Follow the whole thread
• [2] (/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-November/subject#830) Thread: No subpages. Is that your final answer?
• [3] (/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2002-February/subject#start) Thread: Subpages

After some discussion with mav I've added a paragraph on the metapage to state what has become and is enforced as the norm: no subpages. The current practice needed to be state more plainly on the metapage because the links to the threads on this issue are too arduous (for experienced contributors) to guide newcomers. Editors moving subpages should point newcomers to this metapage and its talk page. BoNoMoJo 15:56 Dec 5, 2002 (UTC)

Atlas Shrugged is loaded with subpages (e.g., Atlas Shrugged/Characters). Perhaps someone that knows what to do should fix it. -- RTC 17:59 Dec 5, 2002 (UTC)

Atlas Shrugged is a mess. Many of the subpages are redundant and some of them are near useless. The near useless ones should be compiled into a list-like article and the more meaty subpages should be given context and become actual articles. If and when a term is used that conflicts with other terms in the encyclopedia then (Atlas Shrugged) should be added to the new page title.

At one time, in fact, Wikipedia was criticized by many people because of the relative size of our Atlas Shrugged section vs the other parts of the encyclopedia. Of course now we are being criticized for the relative hugeness of our US place section. --mav

---

What is the best option given the polemic. But, in the middle of the article, ´(Luis Inacio Lula da Silva should we use the international (american?) common form (Mr. da Silva) or the way he is called in Brazil (not only by his supporters), "Lula"?

In this case, it´s curious that Lula himself has made clear that he WANTS to be called with the word "Lula" in the middle, like "Lula", "Lula da silva", "President Lula", etc. In his opinion and also from all brazilians, he shouldn´t be called "Mr. da Silva", but "Mr. Lula" or any variant of that.

As a brazilian, I would suggest to refer to him as Lula. What is the wikipedia rule for that? "Use the English form" (anglicize) is not like "Use the form he is called in countries of english language".

Yves 15:09 Jan 29, 2003 (UTC)

There has already been a great deal of talk on this subject. See Talk:Luís Inácio Lula da Silva --mav

---

Related to the recent mailing list discussion is the issue of unnecessary disambiguation. This has become very tedious for me to move bands and albums to the most simple location because people see Kansas (band), U.F.O. (band) and Styx (band) and want to put every band at similarly disambiguated titles, in spite of there being nothing encyclopedic to disambiguate against. Maybe a note should be included here or elsewhere about disambiguation-mania, just so I have something to point to? (though most of the offenders are the KROQ guy and other anonymous users who probably would never see me point). Tokerboy

That is already covered in Wikipedia:Naming conventions (precision) and esp Wikipedia:Disambiguation. The prcision page could use a stronger statement in this regard... Go ahead and edit away so that you have something to point the clueless to. --mav

Don't Overdue it

I am confused by this header. I would have expected it to read Don't Overdo it, which makes more sense if only to me personally. Is the current one perhaps (a) a US usage which I don't know about, (b) a clever pun, or something, which I don't get, or (c) a mistake? If it's A then fine, if B then dubious because others may also miss the joke, if C then it needs changing. All enlightenment gratefully received. Nevilley

That was me not being careful. If the term is too Americentric then please replace it with something better - these pages can be edited at will so long as the meaning isn't changed. --mav

It's fine now even from my fuddy-duddy UK perspective! :) Nevilley 12:14 Feb 16, 2003 (UTC)

---

What about kings, queens, princes, princesses, etc? IE, Laurent, Prince of Belgium ? Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom or Elizabeth Windows[?] ? Martin

That is all covered in the naming conventions pages on royal titles. STÓD/ÉÍRE 20:57 Apr 9, 2003 (UTC)