Please Have Just One Name Section
Due to repeated posts here in Communities regarding which name to use for a person, strong conflicting opinions on a person's only correct name, and ongoing edit wars of names on the detail page of many people, could Name and Alternate Names please be combined into just one Name section? And could each user be able to mark a personally preferred name as we used to be able to do with portraits and currently can do with parents and spouses? This preferred name should be the one that displays for that user in the top banner, Family Member section, and all pedigree views. Since Find, Search, Possible Duplicates and other routines already use all the names listed for a person, this would not change the function of those routines at all.
I would picture this:
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I don't support it, it would undo a lot of the work people have already put into properly dividing names. But compare to https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/126717/first-names-middle-names-surnames , suggesting the addition of another field in the Name and each Alternate Name.
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People would do nothing differently than they do now. They would just put all names in one spot instead of two. All this would do is stop all the arguments about which name was a person’s “real” name and which names were alternate names.
The other discussion you mentioned is about changing how names are enter. I am only talking about where they are entered.
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@davidleelambert, I think you've misunderstood this suggestion.
What Gordon is proposing is that instead of the current division between the name in the Vitals section and any alternate names in the Other Information section, all of a person's names should go in the same section, so that they all have equal "weight" or "validity". Each name in the "Names" section would of course have all of the standard parts and options for names that are currently offered, with the additional option of a "preferred" checkbox, like what we have for spouses, allowing a user-specific choice of which name should be displayed at the tops of pages and in trees or charts.
Gordon's idea wouldn't lose any information from the current setup. All of the work that people have put in would still be there, exactly as entered. The change would just remove the impetus behind those edit wars where two different descendants argue over their ancestor's One True Name, switching entries back and forth between Vitals and Other. If all names are in the same section, they're all equally the person's "Real Name", and with the Preferred checkbox, every descendant can choose the personally most recognizable option, without being bothered by another descendant's choice.
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