Talk:Bates (surname)

Vanity or non-notable?

I'm removing the following redlink items from the article. They seems vanity or non-notable insertions. Feel free to reinsert them, but please provide a HTML comment or link providing a justification of Wikipedia notability as per WP:BIO.

- David Bates, photographer, particularly known for his wedding photography
- David Bates, pop-rock guitarist
- David Bates, classical pianist
Elijah Lowell Bates (born 1982), popular author, writer, and editor in Long Beach, California
Keith Bates, one of several people including
- Keith Bates (born 1951), English artist
- Dr. Keith Bates, History Professor at Union University
- Michael Bates (blogger)

-- 62.147.112.6 14:46, 10 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A few more from the Bates:

Billy Ray Bates, a basketball player from the United States
Django Bates, a jazz musician from the United Kingdom
A number of people named Daisy Bates

There are more. Besides, the list needs an uniformity of description. Aditya^{(talk • contribs)} 08:15, 8 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Disambiguation vs. Surname

I think the list of Bateses has gotten lengthy enough to warrant a separate surname page, and this article should include other uses of the name including the colleges, rather than relegating them to a disambiguation page. When someone refers to Bates, they're probably referring to an institution, and not a person. This article could provide a link to the surname page and could act as a more direct disambiguation page essentially. Other lists of individuals (for example "Smith," "Jones," "Reynolds," etc.) have separate pages for the surname lists. --Swampyank (talk) 18:30, 28 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A name of English origin, not Scottish

First, there's this: [1]. And then, there's this: [2]. And, to conclude, there's this [3] and this: [4] (select the year 1881 and type "Bates"). As you can see, at the time of the 1881 British census, this surname's frequency was highest in Buckinghamshire, followed by Leicestershire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire. All of these counties form a compact area in the central part of England and this is very obviously where the name Bates has originated. To spell it out: there's no way this surname can possibly be of Scottish origin. QED. I rest my case. Monegasque (talk) 23:41, 29 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]