A fact from Nasreddine Dinet appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 28 August 2009 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
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When I wrote this page I followed the name used for him in reliable sources. Étienne Dinet is the name typically used for him in French and English scholarly sources, despite the fact that he changed his own name. Oxford Art Online (I would link but it is subscription only) uses the name Étienne for him in its article on Algeria. The Getty Union List of Artist Names also gives Étienne Dinet as the preferred name. Thanks, Lithoderm 17:31, 6 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Firstly, "Etienne Dinet" returns some 150,000 hits on Google. "Nasr Edinne Dinet" returns over 1 million. That alone is enough to merit the name change. Secondly, considering that WP:COMMONNAME also states that "If the name of a person, group, object, or other article topic changes then more weight should be given to name used in reliable sources published after the name change than in those before the change.", I really don't see how you can justify using his former name. I don't doubt that some very credible resources refer to him by his former name, I'm not disputing that, but given the circumstances, we really should be using his adopted name. TonyStarks (talk) 22:52, 6 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I understand where you're coming from, with him choosing the name for himself, and with the Google hits, but the thing is (relating to the policy you cite) that these reliable sources were published after the name change... long after he died in fact. I don't think that Google should be given precedence in choosing page names. But let's assume I believe Google is the be all to end all when it comes to article names. In that case "Nasreddine Dinet" only returns 35k results (for me, that is), Étienne Dinet returns 300k, and Nasr Edinne Dinet returns 600k. So why is the page named Nasreddine Dinet (with one N, two Ds, and no space)? Thanks, Lithoderm 07:44, 7 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
You are right, I actually moved it to the wrong spelling of his name. It should be with the space, the one that returns the most hits. As for your first point, frankly it's insignificant whether some sources refereed to him by his former name after the name change, as long as there's evidence that other sources used his new one. I'm sure whoever referred to him by his former name had their reasons (a famous French artist converting to Islam after years in French Algeria), or they were simply misinformed. In any case, that should not be carried over to Wikipedia, not with all the information and resources available to us in this day and age. TonyStarks (talk) 11:06, 7 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry for the late reply- I honestly had not thought about the geopolitical implications, and now that you bring those up, I see of course that you are in the right. There are often problems with ethnocentrists or nationalists using WP to lay claim to particular artists -see for example the fight over Giorgio da Sebenico (or was that Juraj Dalmatinac?). This came right on the heels of that, and I overreacted. However, here it's just a case of a man who changed his name. I tend to be overvigilant at times... sorry about that. Lithoderm 17:29, 1 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
