User:Rpclod/Surname Templates

A Wikipedia article for a particular individual should have a link to an article for that individual's surname. Or, at least, the author should have an easy, standard means of providing such a link. Preferably, this link would be in a standardized location and consume as little screen space as possible. For example, a link to the Hunziker surname entry should exist at the entry for Otto Frederick Hunziker and, at the same general screen location, at the entry for Karl Otto Hunziker. Such a link could help those reading the individual's article find more information on the individual's family. Such a link would also help those maintaining or reading the surname article find relevant individuals (via the "what links here" function).

I am not aware of a standard location or means of linking an individual's article to the associated surname article. One solution would be a standard surname parameter in the individual's infobox that creates such a link. The benefit of such solution would be that the location is efficiently located within an existing infobox (not cluttering additional screen space) and would be at a standard location (thus assisting user navigation). Also, infoboxes are widely used and such integration would provide consistency. The disadvantage is that, while there is a standard "Person" infobox, there are many other categories of infoboxes used for individuals. None appear to have a surname field, let alone create a link to the surname article. An existing WikiProject purports to cover this collection of infoboxes and might be able to assist in assessing this proposal.

A Surnamelinks template provides a means of linking to a surname entry. However, the template is rarely used. (Based on "what links here", I might be the only user.) While I greatly appreciate the template author's work, the displayed result consumes a significant amount of screen space and does not provide a standard location. As mentioned above, integration into standard biography infoboxes would probably encourage greater adoption and would provide a more standardized navigation interface. I have raised this issue at the WikiProject Anthroponymy talk page, but have not received any response.

One issue that should be addressed is the fact that many modern surnames, especially in the United States, are derivative of original root surnames. The link to a surname entry may need to be a link to an entry for the root surname (which may not be the individual's surname). For example, the entry for Chuck Hunsinger should contain a link to the Hunziker surname entry. Perhaps the best approach would be to provide for both a Surname parameter and a RootSurname parameter and provide a template to determine if one or the other exists and act accordingly.

A second issue is that sometimes a family entry exists. For example, see the Bach family entry. I am unsure if some means of addressing a family entry as well as a surname entry is feasible or appropriate.