[WikiEN-l] the proliferation of ridiculous titular naming schemes

Sat Jan 10 09:05:31 UTC 2004

Among many other examples, if a reader were looking for the person 
commonly known as [[Robert Harley]], on Wikipedia they'll be pleased to 
find them under the ridiculous title of [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of 
Oxford and Mortimer]], a name not used except in the context of giving 
his title.  Now, while the said Robert Harley may indeed have been 1st 
Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, it's nonetheless a plain fact that his name 
was Robert Harley, and it is by this name that he is and was commonly 
called.

This seems to be a proliferation on Wikipedia, and indeed there is a 
proposal, currently with a wide degree of support, being discussed on 
[[Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Peerage]] to make this official Wikipedia 
policy: where someone holds a title, it must be part of their name, 
without exceptions.  At least for British titles; perhaps other 
countries' titles will be dealt with more vaguely.

I'd argue that simply using peoples' names, except where their titles 
are commonly used or necessary for disambiguation purposes, is best in 
keeping with our standard "use the most common name in English" naming 
policy, and far preferable to the one currently being proposed.

In either case, those of you with an opinion might wnat to head on over 
to [[Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Peerage]] and vote.

-Mark