Talk:William Robert Moore

Requested move 10 February 2022

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: no consensus. We seem to have consensus that "William R. Moore" is more common in sources than "William Robert Moore", but there is no agreement about whether it is so common as to justify non-natural disambiguation when a natural alternative is available. (closed by non-admin page mover) Extraordinary Writ (talk) 21:47, 25 March 2022 (UTC)

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William Robert Moore → William R. Moore – He was mostly known during his time as "William R. Moore" or "Wm. R. Moore" rather than referred to by his full name. –tnr ^{(debate me) (my accomplishments)} 04:14, 10 February 2022 (UTC) — Relisting. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 06:22, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

• Oppose. We already have William R. Moore (American football) and William R. Moore (journalist), and this one is not really a WP:primary topic [1], so keep current title per WP:NATURAL as he's called William Robert Moore in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. - Station1 (talk) 20:14, 10 February 2022 (UTC)
  • Would a title move to "William R. Moore (Tennessee politician)" be more amenable? –tnr ^{(debate me) (my accomplishments)} 20:24, 10 February 2022 (UTC)
    • That would be somewhat better, but since he's often known as William Robert Moore [2] [3] [4] [5] his real name is preferred per policy at WP:NATURAL. William R. Moore (Tennessee politician) would make a good redirect, though. Station1 (talk) 05:27, 11 February 2022 (UTC)
      • Redirect created. Also, a number of sources refer to him as "William R. Moore" or "Wm. R. Moore" as opposed to specifying his full name. [6][7][8] Moore Tech, named in his honor, is short for Wm. R. Moore College of Technology. –tnr ^{(debate me) (my accomplishments)} 02:20, 12 February 2022 (UTC)
• Oppose. I agree with Station1 that NATURAL applies here. Total random nerd appears to be correct about "William R. Moore" being more common in sources, but we're going to have to disambiguate somehow, and expanding the middle name is a better move in terms of precision, concision, and naturalness. Firefangledfeathers 15:58, 17 February 2022 (UTC)
• Support William R. Moore (Tennessee politician). As far as people's names are concerned, WP:NATURAL has almost never in my experience been held to trump WP:COMMONNAME, which it certainly appears to be. Nothing wrong with adding a disambiguator. -- Necrothesp (talk) 16:32, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

  I don't believe we have a demonstrated common name. The majority of the sources used in the article do not use "William R. Moore". There are more out there that use the 'R.', but are there enough for a clear common name? He also used "Wm. R. Moore" and some sources use "William Moore". Many hits for "William R. Moore" are referencing the school, not the person. Firefangledfeathers 17:03, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

  "Wm" was merely a common contraction in his day for William, so I think we can equate that to William R. Moore rather than making some sort of claim that it's a separate form of the name. The fact the school uses that name suggests that was the common name. -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:03, 18 February 2022 (UTC)

  "R." is also very common as an initialism for Robert; I've never seen another initial chosen! Since we're in full agreement that "William Robert Moore" was his full name and in disagreement about what is the most common styling, I do think differences in style matter here. I don't think the name of the school is good evidence for a COMMONNAME. The existence of William H. Harrison School or John Q. Adams Middle School does not obligate us to move the presidents' articles. Firefangledfeathers 13:47, 18 February 2022 (UTC)

  You're missing the point and the difference between a contraction and an initial. Had he been referred to as "Wm. Robt. Moore" then I'd agree with you: merely a common contraction of William Robert Moore. But "Wm. R. Moore" is specifically a contraction of William R. Moore, not William Robert Moore. -- Necrothesp (talk) 14:40, 18 February 2022 (UTC)

  Exactly. Due to the more prominent sources about him referring to him as "William R. Moore" or "Wm. R. Moore" (some of the sources provided above by Station1 that call him by his full name were ones I did not find when researching information, or refer to everyone by their full name, such as Voteview and Find a Grave), I believe it is more sensible and practical to have the title moved to "William R. Moore (Tennessee politician)" than to retain the current title that includes his full name. –tnr ^{(debate me) (my accomplishments)} 16:48, 18 February 2022 (UTC)

  Find A Grave actually has quite a few listings for various people named William R. Moore. That cite is valuable not so much as a reliable source as for the photo of Moore's gravestone, which shows his full name. Station1 (talk) 09:34, 19 February 2022 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.