Familypedia:Page names

Statement of possible problem
We have a page for the original "Adam". OK so far.

Soon, however, someone with an interest in that first name and/or the matching surname may want to create a separate article about it, along the lines of "Khan" and "Ferguson". Which one gets the plain single four-letter word as its page name?

Can we make a universal "rule" for it (to minimise confusion and rewriting)?

Much of this initial offering can be relegated to its Talk page once we firm up some rules.

Option 1: let the person have the simple page name
Following one of the Wikipedia principles, calling something by its common name, I suggest that the individuals have precedence. So we leave Adam the progenitor as "he" is, and create (linked from his page by a sort of disambiguation note (a standard Wikipedia template, which I can't immediately put my finger on)) a page called something like "Adam (name)". A bit like "Adam Surname", but I think it would be too confusing if we made it just "Adam Name" or even "Adam name".

If there were a single famous person named "Khan" we would thereby need to change our current "Khan" page to "Khan (name)". Maybe we should do it anyway to minimise confusion. Do it as a redirect so that users can still just type Khan for a link. Then if that single famous "Khan" person ever materialises and needs his or her own page we can just rewrite the redirect to cover him or her with the "disambig" note at the top just as for Adam (and gradually rewrite the links that said "Khan").

Option 2: rename "Adam" as "Adam (person)" or "Adam (Bible)" or "Adam (?-?)" or ...
Not very comfortable-looking? Some have obvious distinctions possible, such as the recently-created Lamech (son of Methuselah)", so that the problem won't affect them. But most aren't going to be so easy.

I vote for option 1.

Robin Patterson 00:28, 20 Oct 2005 (UTC)

Comments/votes/queries
(How might this fit in with your GEDCOM program, Brian?)

Robin Patterson 00:28, 20 Oct 2005 (UTC)