Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Anthroponymy

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Discussion at Talk:Ly Xīnzhèn M. Zhǎngsūn Brown § Pronunciation of first name

 You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:Ly Xīnzhèn M. Zhǎngsūn Brown § Pronunciation of first name. – MrPersonHumanGuy (talk) 22:29, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

BLPs with no known dates

When adding a living person to a dab page, surname list or given name list, if we don't have any dates for them, what should we use? We know they "fl. 2026", and this will be useful in a list because it distinguishes them from the 18th-century poet our reader is looking for. Should we use (fl. 2026)? I do, sometimes, and no-one has challenged it, but it does look a bit unusual.

If we know that they wrote their PhD thesis in 1990 and are still alive today, do we write (fl. 1990-2026)? Or go for the earliest known date as (fl. 1990), or the most recent one as (fl. 2026)?

Or is there some other formulation we should use, to convey the useful info that this person was alive around 2026 (though may be dead by the time someone reads that list), and thus was definitely not the 18th-century poet (and is unlikely to be the 1946 politician) of the same name? Of course these people will have disambiguators which may help, but people can be active in fields beyond the one we have chosen as their disambiguator - politicians writing novels, etc - and dates are useful in distinguishing them. PamD 11:43, 10 May 2026 (UTC)

Another possibility is to put "(PhD 1990)", which implies that they were at least about 23, and quite likely to be 23-30 in 1990, so suggests birth years of 1967 and earlier, likely 1960-67. Similarly "(debut novel 1990)" would place someone as probably born before 1972 and is more informative than "fl. 2026". Thoughts? PamD 17:44, 10 May 2026 (UTC)

Stubs about names

Listed in Wikipedia:AfC sorting/Culture/Linguistics yesterday were these three:

• Draft:Alpuche, "a surname of Spanish origin". Some more or less historical information (or misinformation, I haven't checked) is sourced to doi:10.3989/sefarad.2001.v61.i2.590 (within which the string "Alpuche" does not appear). "People with the surname": two, neither of whom is linked to an en:Wikipedia article.
• Draft:Oto-obong, "a Nigerian unisex given name and surname of Ibibio origin which means 'from God'". EatingCarBatteries has commented "This article is based on user-generated sources". "Notable people with name": three, each linked to an en:Wikipedia article.
• Draft:Owoicho, "an Idoma masculine given name and surname of Nigerian origin. The name means 'God' in the Idoma language...". There are references to two sources, one saying virtually nothing, the other verbose. Neither looks authoritative to me. "Notable people with the name": two, each linked to an en:Wikipedia article. (Devonian Wombat has since promoted this to Owoicho.)

(My impression is that similar drafts appear at least as often on Wikipedia:AfC sorting/Culture/Linguistics as do drafts about what I'd call linguistics. But I haven't counted.)

As an AfC reviewer, I'd decline all three. But I'm unfamiliar with Wikipedia as an anthroponymous resource. Am I failing to notice some virtue of any or all of these? -- Hoary (talk) 21:57, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

@Hoary:, the reason why I accepted Owoicho was not because of the quality of the sources, it was because the article served as a disambiguation between two notable individuals with the last name Owoicho. See Johnson (given name) for another example of this, as that is an article with no sources at all. Some reviewers may be concerned that allowing user-generated sources to be cited in an accepted draft outweighs the value of having the disambiguation in the first place, but I reckon that information sourced to unreliable references can simply be removed once it's in mainspace, especially when the article is very short and easy to analyse. On that note, thanks for bringing the user-generated sources in Owoicho to my attention! I've removed them from the article. Devonian Wombat (talk) 22:10, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

Devonian Wombat, I think there's a considerable difference between the usefulness of Owoicho and that of Johnson (given name) (the articles, I mean; not the names). If neither existed, and somebody wanted to look up (i) a Nigerian footballer whose full name they'd forgotten but included "Owoicho", and (ii) an Angolan footballer whose full name they'd forgotten but included "Johnson", then a search for "owoicho" would bring conveniently few leads whereas one for "johnson" would bring bewilderingly many. I'm very much in favour of disambiguation lists such as Johnson (given name), and am sure that over the years I've created several myself. -- Hoary (talk) 22:50, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

Name lists with multiple blue links to en.WP biographies of people with the name are generally allowed. —Bagumba (talk) 02:35, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

Bagumba, how about a list of two blue links to en:WP biographies? -- Hoary (talk) 05:02, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

Yes, anything more than one, which would be a redirect (e.g. {{R from surname}}, assuming no disambiguation needed). —Bagumba (talk) 05:10, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

Agreed: we redirect from surname where we only have one name-holder, and create a name list page where there are two or more. No sources needed to justify the existence of the page. But if extra info about the name is added, it needs to be sourced. PamD 05:29, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

None of the three people mentioned in Draft:Oto-obong appears to bear that name. I have created a name list page at Otobong. PamD 07:17, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

Note that Draft:Alpuche appears to be a COI article by an editor with no other edits. PamD 07:19, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

PamD, it would be an exaggeration to say that drafts by single-purpose (±temporary) accounts are the norm, but they are a norm. -- Hoary (talk) 07:57, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

PamD, I have now "declined" Draft:Alpuche. -- Hoary (talk) 06:51, 16 May 2026 (UTC)

I've created Alpuche, a name list, as we have articles on 5 name-holders (the two mentioned but unlinked, plus a doctor, a footballer and an actress, and a list entry for a governor). If there is well-sourced additional content about the name itself, it can of course be added to expand that article. PamD 12:36, 16 May 2026 (UTC)

Thank you, PamD. -- Hoary (talk) 23:12, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Yes, see Draft:Oto-obong (now declined). -- Hoary (talk) 07:57, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

Qureshi at Articles for deletion

I suppose that members of this project are aware, but just in case: please see WP:Articles for deletion/Qureshi. By the way, is there a deletion sorting for surname pages? Cnilep (talk) 05:06, 26 May 2026 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Anthroponymy/Article alerts, which I didn't realise existed but have now watchlisted. PamD 13:27, 26 May 2026 (UTC)

Requested move at Talk:Ukrainian surnames § Requested move 20 May 2026

An editor has requested that Ukrainian surnames be moved to Ukrainian surname, which may be of interest to this WikiProject. You are invited to participate in the move discussion. —Myceteae‍🍄‍🟫 (talk) 16:05, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

Is it okay to make pages with long lists of people that have a certain middle name?

I don't see many of them around. Are they allowed? I've created many of such pages so I'm wondering. Electron230 (talk) 01:14, 28 May 2026 (UTC)

There isn't a simple answer. What a "middle name" is can differ based on culture and specific naming customs. Often, middle names are a form of given names, in which case it may be appropriate to include those instances on lists of people with a particular given name. That being said, discretionary judgement is necessary, and reasonable people will disagree. Generally, unless the shared name is specifically notable as a middle name, pages that are solely arbitrary grouping of people based on middle name would likely fail WP:NOTDIRECTORY, which a lot of articles in this WikiProject already teeter dangerously close to. Ike Lek (talk) 01:46, 28 May 2026 (UTC)

The given name page says that a middle name can be part of a compound given name. That said, the de facto practice is to generally not list people with a given name used as a middle name. There no such examples at WP:APOS. —Bagumba (talk) 08:01, 28 May 2026 (UTC)

Spreckelsen and Spreckels pages

I've just done a significant cleanup, reorganization, and new article addition to pages related to the surnames Spreckelsen and Spreckels. The topic area was a bit disorganized and hopefully this improves things. Discussion of it here: Talk:Spreckelsen#Significant reorganization of Spreckelsen and Spreckels pages. Peter G Werner (talk) 00:16, 2 June 2026 (UTC)