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Talk:Wm. Theodore de Bary

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Requested move 17 July 2017

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The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Not moved as consensus to keep the article at it's current name has been established based on the WP:COMMONNAME guideline. (closed by non-admin page mover) Music1201 talk 16:09, 24 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]



Wm. Theodore de BaryWilliam Theodore de Bary – "Wm." is a publishing abbreviation, not his given name. Kintetsubuffalo (talk) 01:26, 17 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Why are you citing howlingpixel.com, a Wikipedia mirror? "William Theodore de Bary" is far more common than the abbreviated version. See Ngram graph. -Zanhe (talk) 17:43, 17 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Per WP:COMMONNAME, common name trumps formal name. As the ngram above shows, "William" is far more common than "Wm." -Zanhe (talk) 19:10, 19 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose Zanhe raises a serious point, but WP:COMMONNAME specifies "Wikipedia does not necessarily use the subject's "official" name as an article title; it generally prefers to use the name that is most frequently used to refer to the subject in English-language reliable sources." The ngram hits are not necessarily to "reliable sources" -- it's not clear what they are, but if you click on the hits, the published works cited use "Wm." In which case, "Wm." is the "common" name and the "official" one (I don't see reference to "formal" name). WP:COMMONNAME recommends Bill Clinton rather than William Jefferson Clinton. Cheers... ch (talk) 05:59, 20 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
This is a really unusual case. Library indices normally use "William", whereas book covers usually use "Wm." (see the cover vs. the LOC cataloging data for his Sources of Chinese Tradition, for example). When Google indexes his works, it naturally uses the LOC cataloging data rather than the cover, making "William" far more common than "Wm." on Ngram. -Zanhe (talk) 07:53, 20 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Unusual indeed! My feeling is that we should follow his own designation and apparently legal name. It seems that the LOC usage is based on a misunderstanding, making it an unreliable source. I met him a couple of times, but never thought to ask him his name....ch (talk) 20:46, 20 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Article title violates MOS

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The MOS says not to use the old abbreviations for names (Wm, Geo, Jno etc).John Pack Lambert (talk) 20:37, 29 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]