Forum:Revisting policy on the naming of articles

The "Naming of articles" sub-section of HPW:POLICY currently stipulates that the titles of articles on characters use the "last name used throughout the Harry Potter series, regardless of marriage." In other words, our article on Ginny is called "Ginevra Weasley," not "Ginevra Potter," since she's only a Potter in the epilogue.

This policy was the result of extensive discussion a few years back. Some argued for a blanket policy of using female characters' married names in article titles to be consistent with the most up-to-date canonical information. Others argued that defaulting to female characters' married names would be sexist and would also be presuming that certain characters had taken their husbands' surnames when it is not conclusively known whether they did. The policy we ultimately hammered out sought to balance these and the other concerns that were raised. The article on Harry's mother, it was decided, would be called "Lily Evans" to disambiguate her from Harry's daughter.

However, the title of the article on Harry's mother continues to be a point of disagreement. Thus, I believe it may be time to revisit the article naming policy, and am proposing the following changes:

1. Articles on female characters known to have married before the early 1980s will use their married names in the title. Articles on female characters known to have married after the early 1980s will default to the characters' maiden names, unless it is conclusively known they took their husband's name, as it is with Ginny. This is because we know from Pottermore that that Minerva McGonagall's decision to keep her maiden name upon her marriage to Elphinstone Urquart in the early 1980s was considered controversial within British wizarding society. But there is no reason to presume that this social attitude persisted beyond that point.

2. An individual's middle initial(s) may be included in the title of their article if the name by which they are known publicly includes their middle initial(s) (e.g., J. M. Barrie, George R. R. Martin, etc.), or if necessary to disambiguate individuals with the same name (Lily Potter vs. Lily L. Potter).

This would mean that the article on Harry's mother would be moved from "Lily Evans" to "Lily Potter," the article on Harry's daughter would be moved to "Lily L. Potter," the article on Ginny would be moved to "Ginevra Potter," but the articles on Hermione, Luna, and Tonks would stay where they are.

&#x2605; S t a r s t u f f  (Owl me!) 01:47, May 18, 2016 (UTC)