This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

Detirehniton: Don't use notinherited backwards[edit]

A common argument in AFD is a reference to ″notability is not inherited″

A significant fraction of those who make references to NOTINHERITED get their arguments completely backwards.

The first time I tried to address this confusion was the day after Martin Luther King Day. Martin Luther King is highly respected, and he has bridges, schools, streets and parks and parkettes named after him, all over the USA.

If a small parkette is named after Martin Luther King, having Martin Luther King as its namesake does not make the parkette more notable.

But, if, for the sake of argument, Martin Luther King's notability had not been firmly established, then every instance when a city names a bridge, school, park after Martin Luther King, it would add another notability factor.

Experience shows some contributors would reference NOTINHERITED, to claim those bridges, schools and parks did not make Martin Luther King more notable.

And they would be completely wrong. We should recognize that the recognition of public figures, by naming public works, private buildings, or maritime vessels after them, does help establish their notability.