Talk:Thomas (surname)

message: The introduction reads "The th- spelling is organic", but what does that mean? Can someone clarify this, perhaps even in the article itself? Thanks. — N-true (talk) 18:55, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Organic spelling 

message: This page should not be merged with Thomas (name).  The reason is that it is a surname index article listing people with surname Thomas.  That set index list is different than the list of people with Thomas as a name.  Also, the content of this page discusses the history of the name specifically as a surname.  The real issues is that Thomas (name) should really be Thomas (given name) since it discusses the name used specifically as a given name.Coastside (talk) 07:17, 14 January 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  proposal to merge 

message: All of the names listed under the links to disambiguation pages need to be removed. The DAB pages are in order to keep complete lists, and there is no way that this page will be kept in sync with all of the DAB pages. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 01:31, 15 February 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: I beg to differ. Surname pages and DAB pages have different purposes, and yes if names are identical then they can and should be on both pages. The first requirement of an encyclopedia after providing the information is to make its contents as easily accessible as possible. Doug butler (talk) 04:55, 15 February 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: Fair enough, I take your point, and don't feel that strongly about it so feel free to reinsert the names if you wish. My main concern is about having disparities among Wikipedia articles, and for maintenance reasons lists are better kept in one place, as a single source of authority or reference point. I cannot find an actual MOS rule about this (perhaps something to be raised in the Disambiguation project?), but some time ago saw or was part of a discussion where the majority voice said to remove those names covered by the disambiguation entry. Having since skimmed quite a few surname pages (which are also a mix - some about the surname plus list, others separate pages to cover the surname and then a separate list entry), most do seem to not repeat the names under the DAB link. Looking at Wade (surname), that one seems to have a mix of DAB links only, and names which exist as a DAB page this is not referenced, and separate names listed on the surname article... Oh well. There are more important fish to fry than this one! Laterthanyouthink (talk) 07:57, 15 February 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi again  - just fyi, I raised this on the DAB project discussion page, where Certes has pointed me to a recent discussion which teases out some of the finer points. I will probably leave as is in the future, (apart from perhaps adding the DAB links to that Wade page for consistency, if I get around to it). Laterthanyouthink (talk) 01:53, 16 February 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: A good discussion. I have come across transclusion DAB listing and it seemed to work but the syntax is way too clever for this tired old brain. I thought — if this is the way Wikipedia is heading, better leave it to the programmer class. Doug butler (talk) 03:29, 16 February 2022 (UTC)
thread_title: Remove names under DAB links