Talk:John Danforth Greenwood

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Common name[edit]

I moved the page to Danforth Greenwood as the common name for the subject of the article, as the DNZB entry for his wife, Sarah, repeatedly refers to him as "Danforth Greenwood" or simply "Danforth". The move was reverted by @TheSwamphen: happy to discuss further. Paora (talk) 23:04, 1 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

In all of the other references he is referred to as John Danforth Greenwood. TheSwamphen (talk) 23:32, 1 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@TheSwamphen: So the DNZB is wrong? Paora (talk) 23:56, 1 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I am not suggesting that the DNZB is factually incorrect, but simply that the subject of the article is more commonly referred to as John Danforth Greenwood. It would be interesting to hear what others think. TheSwamphen (talk) 00:17, 2 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I found a couple of references in obituaries of other family members to Dr (and Mrs) Danforth Greenwood after his own death, e.g. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19371215.2.206.8; https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/FS19281123.2.34

In his lifetime, the newspapers (in New Zealand at least) referred to him as (Dr) John Danforth Greenwood and that is also the name on the birth and christening records for his children, his marriage registration and on the ship manifest.

This made me wonder whether the DNZB entry was using it as a double-barrelled last name to differentiate him from John Greenwood, and other Greenwoods within the entry for that matter, as they use John Danforth Greenwood in the first instance and then Danforth Greenwood subsequently.

I do not know where that leaves us in terms of Wikipedia's guidelines for naming conventions as it seems like both were used - is it possible to have whichever one does not end up as the page name included in the infobox? Ewhite31 (talk) 00:54, 2 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The DNZB is using Danforth Greenwood to distinguish him from his wife, Sarah Greenwood, who is the main subject of the biography. If the surname were double-barrelled then Sarah would be Sarah Danforth Greenwood, which clearly she is not. Moreover, in one sentence, the DNZB uses the couple's forenames exclusively:

"Sarah and her younger children stayed in Nelson: the three eldest boys went with Danforth to clear and drain 50 acres and build a log house at Motueka."

The use of full names on official documents such as marriage and birth registrations is standard practice, so these are not useful indicators one way or the other for a common name. It's telling that the 1928 obituary for Mary Greenwood refers to her father as "Dr. Danforth Greenwood", 38 years after his death.

Re Ewhite31's question about the name in the infobox, this is exactly what I did when I moved the page to Danforth Greenwood; see here. Paora (talk) 02:36, 2 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]