Can we rename the Nickname field to Also Known As? This would better describe its current use and promote its usage as such.
8 comments
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Maria Edmonds-Zediker, Volunteer Curator If there's room, put it on the main profile page. Might help to prevent bad merges from the users who actually look at profiles before merging.
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David Prins I agree both with the original suggestion and the additional comment from Maria.
For historic profiles, I would take "Also Known As" to include both what they were "Also Known As" when they were alive and what they are known as now - and to allow for inclusion of what they are known as now in diverse languages and alphabets that may have been alien to them.
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David Prins Cross reference Maria's comment to http://help.geni.com/entries/468218-move-nickname-field-to-basics-tab
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Drs jefthaiii gmail com Bergman I don't agree, because of the many mistakes in overwriting names, these false names should also be mentioned, because people are looking for this persons with that false name. Par example, many Americans doesn't have any idea how to write dutch names and we see a lot of wrong written names. Where I see that I make corrections, but mention the wrong name to the nicknames. These are no nicknames and the persons were neve known under the wrong name. Still it must be mentioned as an alternative name, because of the 'genealogists' who were not carefully enough and will continue looking for these wrong names !
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Victar The reason we use this field is because it's one of the few fields that is used in search. Whatever we call it, it be Also Know As or Alternative Names, it's out only tool to make a profile found more easily.
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Drs jefthaiii gmail com Bergman I agree fully with you Victar !
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Lee Cahill Hi, I'm late to this discussion as I've been re-directed here from another more recent discussion on the same subject, but would also like to request that the word 'Nickname', which still appears on the main profile page for all individuals, be changed to 'Also Known As'. This is the terminology that appears when entering alternative name data in the 'Basics' section of a profile but, once that data is saved, it appears under the rather dismissive heading of 'Nicknames' on that person's main profile page.
Bringing the wording on the profile page into alignment with the name of the 'Also Known As' field in the profile basics section wouldn't change the functionality of that field in any way, it would just enable managers to indicate that the names in that field are *alternative names* (e.g. original names in another language) and not just 'nicknames'. As things stand, many people are reluctant to enter name changes that may have occurred throughout an individual's lifetime into this field, because they don't want them to appear as 'Nicknames' on that person's profile page. This leads to all sorts of drama about how to record original/birth names vis-a-vis name changes that may have occurred in the case of emigration, for instance.
This change wouldn't be difficult to implement so please, Geni, consider doing it. Lots of people have asked for it, and it certainly give this field more credibility.
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Lee Cahill P.S. The other discussion on this subject that I mentioned is at: http://www.geni.com/discussions/122165.