Talk:James Watt, Jr

Article name - suggest move per MOS

Agreed -- We fixed the capitalization of "Junior." We would appreciate editors' assistance in the entry that establishes the page. Suggest we re-title or move the page so it appears as "James Watt, Jr.", which is how the subject is commonly known.

Following up to Finlay McWalter's comment (below), please note that "James Watt" refers to his famous father (e.g., Watt was the inventor of the improved steam engine; the "watt" unit of measurement is named for JW; etc.) Andrew Macklin (talk) 12:17, 1 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The prevailing part of the manual of style (WP:JR/SR) say that, for British people known as "junior", we should use "jr", so the article title would normally be James Watt jr. But the MOS cautions that we should only use "jr" "only for cases in which the name with the suffix is well-attested in reliable sources". But also, in general, if someone is known by a very specific name (e.g. E. E. Cummings) we'd use that name specifically. So:

if he's very specifically known, verbatim, as "James Watt junior", then the article is at the appropriate name
if sources call him junior, jr, etc. all the time (even when his father isn't discussed) then James Watt jr would be the appropriate name
if sources just call him by his name (unless they're explicitly distinguishing him from his notable father) then James Watt (born 1769) would be the appropriate name

The ONDB just calls him James Watt, as does the Royal Society. This suggests to me that the last option is the correct article name. Is there any evidence either of the former type cases are common? -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 14:21, 6 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]