Names in Gramps
This article's content is incomplete or a placeholder stub.
The name of a person is a central concept in genealogy. In Gramps, you can enter name information in the Person Edit Dialog and from the Names tab or the Edit icon at the top of this dialog, you can open the Name Edit Dialog.
A name is likely to be derived of a certain Type or grouping. Some types of names are predefined:
- Birth Name (default): Name given at birth to a child, possibly recorded on a Birth certificate.
- Married Name : Name one adopts after marriage. In many cultures, it is customary that the officially used name of a spouse is changed to reflect some variation of the other spouse. Predominantly, this has been a public demonstration of obsequience by a wife that she tacitly agreed to coverture in patriarchal societies. (This pervasive masking of the wife's birth name also makes genealogical research of wives far more difficult.)
- Also Known As : An alias. Another name by which the person is recognized or acknowledged.
- Unknown : names needing more research to determine their derivation.
- Other Name : a catchall or miscellaneous grouping. Use sparingly.
As with most Type pop-up menus in Gramps, one can add custom name types. As an example from some cultures, a new name is adopted after (adult) baptizing. If that situation presents commonly, one could just type in a new custom label to add 'Baptized name' (aka Baptismal, Christened or Confirmation name) in the name Type menu. From then onward, that label will be selectable in the name type for that family tree.
A name entered as an Also Known As type is frequently annotated with the aka acronym (the typographical convention preferred to a.k.a. or AKA by the Associated Press or the Merriam-Webster and Oxford English Dictionaries) in genealogical Sources. Some people have a preference for using that or 'Alias' instead of the longer 'Also Known As' form. Other people would rather see the 'a.k.a.', 'a/k/a', or 'AKA' typographically in reports which also print a label with the name Type.
There are several types that have been proposed for the built-in list of name types over the years: derogatory, pejorative, clerical error, sic (for the Latin annotation sic erat scriptum meaning thus was it written), typo, reversed/inverted/jumbled, patron name (for cultures prepending a Patron Saint's name), pen name, stage name, or professional name.
But it has seemed reasonable to keep the standard built-in list terse and compact. This makes a more less confusing menu... without unfamiliar and seldom used groupings to be learned. It also makes exploring a sequence of name Type filters less involved. You can add custom entries for the just the types that will be meaningful when filtering names in your Tree.
- People category filter rule: General filters... People with the <Name type>
Names in a Name Type
Within a name type, you have several fields to identify uniquely the name.
The family name is the part of the name which, according to law or cultural custom, is passed from parents to child. Gramps defaults to the patronymic option, labeled Father's surname, in the Display tab of the Preferences for Surname guessing.
In the People category view, people are sorted based on this family name. In the case of cultures which do not use family names, one can use the grouping feature in the Name editor to design a name under which to group people from the same family.
A Prefix is an optional modifier of the surname and describes the relationship to the surname. Prefixes are separate, spaced away from the surname and stores as a separate field. This field is ignored by sorting. Over time, some Prefixes become assumed to be integral to the Surname. In such a case, the Prefix is moved from the Prefix field and into the Surname field. Sometimes, the former Prefix is joined to the stem (the old surname) with a connector (such as a hyphen, space, or apostrophe) or simply abutted to the Surname without any space.
Some Prefixes can indicate that the surname is actually the Place from which a person (or family) originated or even directional proximity to such a place. It can denote royalty or nobility of the surname. It can mean 'child of' and indicate their gender. Other prefixes can denote the leader of an extended family or holding a superior position.
The given name is the part of the name of a person which is chosen freely by the parents. Although the parents may feel constrained by regional or ethnic traditions to follow namesake conventions.
The accuracy of this section is contested --DuncanNZ 09:49, 26 August 2008 (EDT)
We need to look in the email archive for a proper definition by the people who requested this feature.
The Call name feature is inspired by the German word Rufname -- a compound of the words "anruf name" which literally translates to "Call name." And there is a similar Swedish structured concept known as tilltalsnamn -- a compound form of "tilltals namn" translating to "heard name." However, Gramps originated as an English product where there is no directly comparable analogue to this "Call Name." That makes the "Call Name" both a source of confusion to that community and harder to describe in English.
It does not fall into the more universal concept of a nickname, nor is it necessarily the familiar name by which a person is most commonly referred by their closest associates. However, it is the part (or parts) of the Given Name by which the person is the officially identified. And, if the nickname is keyed off a formal name, the Call Name is the key to the name.
Among the formal forenames given at birth, some cultures pick out a particular one to use for official and normal public use: the Call Name. (Think of it as analogous to the ancient idea that a person's public name is not his 'real' secret name, knowledge of which would give power over him to others). One of the formal given birth forenames is taken (typically *not* the first) as the Call Name. In Germany, this official name is frequently underlined in official documents. The concept is common in Northern Europe; the first name is often a saint's name or that of an honoured relative; or the first name may be the 'spiritual' name, while the call name is a secular one. There are contrasting views on whether a shortened form of a person's name can also be a call name; some consider that to be a nickname; as an additional complication, for example in Sweden, the (official) call name may be a name that is different from any of the forenames given at birth.
An optional attribute (characteristic) identifying how a name was culturally derived for a Person. The most commonly used Origin should be considered when making a Surname Guessing choice in the Display tab of Preferences.
Custom Origins may be typed in at any time. Pre-defined items of the origin selection menu include:
- UNKNOWN: indeterminate origin
- CUSTOM: Custom user defined origin
- NONE: no given origin
- INHERITED: name was based on the parent name(s)
- PATRILINEAL: name was inherited from father's family name
- MATRILINEAL: name was inherited from mother's family name
- GIVEN: name was bestowed on the individual (includes 'John Doe' names)
- TAKEN: name was chosen by the individual, including when adopting a spouse's surname
- PATRONYMIC: name is derived from father's given name
- MATRONYMIC: name is derived from mother's given name
- FEUDAL: name refers to the holding of land in a fief
- PSEUDONYM: name is fictitious
- OCCUPATION: name refers to the trade employing the person
A title given to this person. Titles often accompany names on all official documents, eg Sir, Dr., ...
The Edit Person Dialog has fields to enter the standard name of a person. In this, the call name can be entered directly here. To refine the info about this name, one can click on the Edit icon to bring up the name editor.
Furthermore, one can add extra names in the names tab of this editor. To switch a new name to be the standard name, one needs to use the context menu (right click on the name), and select 'Save as default name.'
Nicknames can be handled in two ways; either as a name type: Add Name, overwrite 'Birth Name' with 'Nickname' in the name Type, or use the AKA default name type.
Alternatively, one can save the nickname as a new Attribute as part of the person information.
In the name editor, one can override the default grouping of a person in the person view based on his Family Name. This is done by entering grouping information.
Since families tend to migrate, it is useful when transcribing to be able recognize the various naming labels that might used on localized forms.
|Code||Language||Title||Nick name||Given name||Call name||Prefix||Surname||Suffix||Family nick name|
|en_US||English||Title||Nick name||Given name||Call name||Prefix||Surname||Suffix||Family nick name|
|English (American)||salutation||nickname, street name, handle||first & middle name, forename, Christian name||commonly called||last name, family name|
|en_GB||English||Title||Nick name||Given name||Call name||Prefix||Surname||Suffix||Family nick name|
- GEPS 021:Additional Name Fields
- Names Discussion
- Starting discussion: compound surnames (Portuguese)
- Discussion: Proposals for additional name fields
- "Personal names around the world" by Richard Ishida, W3C. 2011-08-17
- Creating a display name custom format for exception use. (Example: Royalty, creating and using a "Reign Name" format)