Talk:Jean (female given name)

Cleaning up

Not a Dab

   I said in a summary that i'd remove the Dab-'g elements, but actually the only thing that approaches that role is the list of fictchars -- and only by arguably offending the principle that maintaining the same (decent-sized) chunks of info in multiple places is inefficient. If the section for fictchars seems to pointlessly duplicate the list of fictchars named "Jean" that belongs on the Dab page, the problem may be that there is no reason on a given-name page to separate them from the historical people. A given-name page on "Jean" can't be justified as or confused with a Dab page, bcz most of the entries are notable historical people whose corresponding bio could not be eligible as the primary topic for "Jean". AFAICsee, given-name pages are encyclopedic because the history and current custom of the intention in choosing given names is verifiable knowledge; i dunno if the pages are used more by people choosing names for their children (encyclopedic purpose) or by those who can't remember the surname of a prominent person bearing the given name (generally a job for a search engine, and not something that can add to the justification for having an article) -- so why not put the fictional ones in with the historical, on the given-name page? That would help those confused about which Jeans who've contributed to the implicit significance of the name are real and which fictional (a purpose that can't be equally well done by a single page serving both navigational and information-providing purposes). For now, i'm not reformatting the given-name page to effect that merger, but not eliminating any inter-page duplication either.
--Jerzy•t 03:18, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Middle name

   I found

Jean is also a less common middle name [compared to its role as a "given" -- by which they can only mean "first" -- name].

That is a surprising assertion,

1. ignoring the facts that

   a. there a lot of names that are almost exclusively surnames, and a lot that are almost exclusively given names;

   b. first names and middle names are two forms of given name

   c. almost the only pattern separating what gets used as a first or as a middle name is that names that are almost exclusively surnames are much more often used as middle names than as first names, and

2. deserving comment on theories for the cause of such supposed rarity of Jean as middle name -- especially so in light of

   a. omission of Norma Jean, and

   b. the evidence that the assertion is based on no more than 24 hour's apparent original research, by someone who didn't take time to notice how few people's middle names are used in the titles of their WP bios.

I'm removing it; YMMV, but if you replace it without verification, i'll tag it {{Dubious}}.
--Jerzy•t 03:18, 11 February 2012 (UTC)