Rationale
editThis is one of navigation templates intended to replace the "See also" lists in wikipedia pages for surnames related by the fact that they have a common derivation: an occupation, a given name, a place name, etc. Such lists are useful in searches for a particular surname that exists in numerous variants, in various languages and transliterations: do you want Kushner or Kushnir, Schoemaker or Schoenmaker?...
The template was introduced because such lists have become long, ugly and, what is most important, inconsistent over many articles.
Typically, a template is per single occupation. However some occupations have overlapping meanings, both historically and across different languages. In such cases, such as for tinker/tinsmith/plumber, they may be handled with a common template.
Some of surname variants may be listed in the same page, while others, more popular ones, may deserve separate pages. Therefore in order to support search of similar surnames this template may include not only links to surname articles, but also redirects and links to disambiguation pages.
Usage
editThis template is to navigate among surnames derived from the given name Thomas.