[WikiEN-l] Surname disambiguation urgently needs its own Manual page

[charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com]

"MacGyverMagic/Mgm" wrote

> (human name pages) sounds odd. What about calling them what they are:
> "surname disambiguations".

Currently the issue at policy level, as I see it, is that the approval by a vote earlier in 2006 of the {{hndis}} template (human name disambiguation) has not been matched by guidelines for hndis pages, separate from the {{disambig}} guidelines.

Discussion on the Talk page at WP:MOSDAB shows much support in principle for keeping disambiguation of names separate from what you could call general disambiguation. That I agree with in broad terms, though I wouldn't want to be dogmatic about it: the appearance of some names on a general dab page strikes me as possibly useful for a reader. (People in the past have told be _not_ to move surnames elsewhere, and now other people tell me it's a must - I want to break out of such a lose-lose situation.)

I do think surnames are a special case. It seems quite clear to me that chasing up a reference in some academic text, which gives just surname, or initials with surname, is an everyday use of WP as reference. Special pleading, with surname pages just an isolated case, doesn't strike me as the best way to go. It would be much better than having to fight off AfD nominations for listings by surname, though.

Charles

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