Apply common sense when approaching biographical subjects with nicknames per se (like Pugface or the Botswana Kid) and short names that are often mislabeled nicknames, such as diminutives and abbreviations (hypocorisms), like, respectively, Betty or Liz for Elizabeth, and Billy or Will for William).
This Wikipedia page has been superseded by Wiki: Manual of Style/Biographies § Pseudonyms, stage names, nicknames, hypocorisms, and common names (since November 2017) and is retained primarily for historical reference. |
Our guideline at Wiki: Naming conventions (people) § Nicknames, pen names, stage names, cognomens is an article-titling guideline, but much of its reasoning also pertains to prose within an article. So does the policy that Wikipedia is not indiscriminate. See also Wiki: Manual of Style/Biographies.
There is no need to "explain" short names (hypocorisms and diminutives) that are common and conventional (to English speakers), like Bill and Liz.
(This does not apply to short names that are common outside English but not in this language, e.g. Dima for Dmitri in Russian.)
An important exception to the above rule of thumb is when we want to make the point that the subject is almost always known by the shorter name (and our article title uses that form), in which case any of the above can be used, though the longer form is the clearest. There are multiple obvious approaches to lead sections when editors do feel some such annotation is warranted, and which one to use is a matter of context and of editorial discretion at a particular article. Examples:
(Avoid the quotation marks form, Albert Beeson "Al" Ceesdale; such scare-quoting implies doubt or judgmentalism when applied to conventional short names as opposed to nicknames.)
None of these approaches are needed in running prose (i.e., outside the lead of the subject's own article).
Do not use a short form for a subject who may use one in private life but who is virtually never referred to that way in the press. Examples: Jimmy Stewart is permissible, but "Ed Olmos" or "Eddy Olmos" for Edward James Olmos is not, even if you've heard other actors, who know him personally, refer to him by a short name in interviews.
Reserve quotation marks for actual nicknames in the strict sense, not diminutives or abbreviations:
(The quotation marks are optional in such a construction; do not edit war, either to include or to remove them.)
Do not insert a nickname into the name, as in:
unless the most common name for the subject in reliable sources is that exact form, with the nickname added mid-name, as in Benjamin "Pap" Singleton. This is quite rare. When it does arise, use the quotation marks so readers understand it is not part of the person's legal name.
Do not replace part of the subject's real name with a nickname, as in:
unless the person is overwhelmingly known to the public by the nickname, e.g.:
(Quotation marks are not needed in such a case, because the public is already familiar with such a figure and we know that it is a nickname; the lead will provide the real name, anyway.)
Otherwise, use something like:
(or whatever the context dictates).
The parenthetical insertion approach can be done in running prose (passing mention at another article, not in the subject's own lead) when a diminution or abbreviation is unusual:
One can also sometimes use the quoted insertion style for a nickname in running prose (again, not in the subject's own lead):
(This style is frequently used in articles on organized crime when referring to mobsters commonly known by such epithets.)
Never put quotation marks around a professional pseudonym or a legally changed name.
Do not put both quotation marks and parentheses around a nickname or press appellation:
It is unnecessary and unhelpful to put quotation marks around the names of fictionalized, alter-ego personas created by entertainers, except when contextually helpful to distinguish between the performer and the performance, the reality and the fiction:
(In the former case, we are addressing them as characters, like Superman or Bilbo Baggins; the latter we are approaching analogously to titles of works of performance art, and distinguishing their in-universe behavior from the actor's own personal qualities and from each other.)
For persons with numerous nicknames and aliases that can be attested in sources but which are unlikely to be familiar to many if any readers, it is not necessary to list them all. Examples:
Finally, do not add pseudo-nicknames that are just some writer's (often a sports journalist's) evocative turns of phrase.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia English article Wiki:Using nicknames, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
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