Initials etc in author names, is there a standard for using period?

[LadyKate]

I'm just wondering if there is a standard for author initials etc and names like St Amant etc.

Should the initials have a period after them. Should it be St. Amant or St Amant.

I'm trying to standardize but when I download the metadata sometimes the same source will give two different treatments for initials and abbreviations for different books by same author.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by LadyKate

I'm just wondering if there is a standard for author initials etc and names like St Amant etc.

Should the initials have a period after them. Should it be St. Amant or St Amant.

I'm trying to standardize but when I download the metadata sometimes the same source will give two different treatments for initials and abbreviations for different books by same author.

Kate
The Quality check Plugin has a tool to adjust Author initials to your preffered pattern (I am a A. B. kind a guy)
There is a Preferences: Tweak for which of those are considered titles ID: author_sort_copy_method <-Don't be confused by the name. There are 4 paramaters, most are relevant to this discussion

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by LadyKate

I'm just wondering if there is a standard for author initials etc and names like St Amant etc.

Should the initials have a period after them. Should it be St. Amant or St Amant.

I'm trying to standardize but when I download the metadata sometimes the same source will give two different treatments for initials and abbreviations for different books by same author.

It's up to you what 'standard' you use - like theducks I prefer 'A. B.' over 'A.B.'

But I'm not sure Quality Check helps for the specific case you raise - i.e. St. Amant or St Amant, it's about initials not abbreviations. But, if you mean the French poet Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant then I'd spell it out in full and avoid abbreviation.

On the other hand I'd have Madeleine St John because the St is not an abbreviation. To write Madeleine Saint John or Madeleine Saint-John would be palpably wrong, ergo St. John would be similarly wrong because the '.' implies it's an abbreviation of Saint.

BR

[LadyKate]

Yeah, the anomalies in the language of names makes some weird. Like the De La Whatever names. The montreal phone book is full of last names "de la whatever" "st whatever" "le whatever"

Another think that I find to be a pain is so and so, Jr.

Whan I do a search for names with a comma in them (usually an indicator of last, first name ) and fix them in bulk I find it screws up the ", Jr".

Been thinking of searching for ", Jr and replacing them with " Jr" or "_Jr" lol.

[unboggling]

Originally Posted by LadyKate

Yeah, the anomalies in the language of names makes some weird. Like the De La Whatever names. The montreal phone book is full of last names "de la whatever" "st whatever" "le whatever"

Another think that I find to be a pain is so and so, Jr.

Whan I do a search for names with a comma in them (usually an indicator of last, first name ) and fix them in bulk I find it screws up the ", Jr".

Been thinking of searching for ", Jr and replacing them with " Jr" or "_Jr" lol.

My easy solution to author last name suffixes is to delete them completely. When I copy/paste the name without the , Jr. , Sr., I, II, III, the bibliographic site whose search box I paste it into usually treats that name without suffix as a pseudonym of the name with suffix. The pre-suffix comma would also be an issue for some settings of the author_sort tweak.

Author sort with the de, de la, etc is an issue. Discussed elsewhere. Needs to be set correctly manually in Manage Authors, on case by case basis.

Dots after initials is another story. I use those because ISFDB likes them pasted into their search box.

[LadyKate]

I find it is the worst (for any of those cases) in the anthologies. I like to have all the authors listed because then the anthology shows with the list of works by any author. It makes it easier to "grab" all of one authors works if I get on a kick where I want to read everything by one author or if I'm looking for a short story by an author that was in an anthology.

I guess it could be handled by another column lol, for cleanup and management I mean.

A column that indicated the name had a suffix could be used to exclude those names from a search for names with commas which usually indicates the author is in LN, FN order.

I'll think about that the next time I get irritated by a fix that screws something else up